BIRD POPULATIONS - Birdpop.org

FRANCIS GBOGBO AND DANIEL K. ATTUQUAYEFIOthe total number of non-Ramsar wetlands on thecoast. Thus W NR lies between 20 and 47.Category 5. Species for which the total number ofnon-Ramsar small-scale wetlands needed tosupport the bird equivalence E R lies between 1%and 20% of the total number of non-Ramsarwetlands existing on the coast. Thus W NR liesbetween 1 and 19.Category 6. Species found solely on the non-Ramsar sites whose EBR were 0% and theirWNR is undetermined.RESULTSA total of 48 species of waterbirds wererecorded over the 16-mo period of study (seeTable 1). Excepting Wood Sandpiper, BlackHeron, White-fronted Plover, Common Moorhen,Senegal Thick-knee and Greater PaintedSnipe, which had an RA RN >50%, all otherspecies had R AR >50% indicating general speciespreference for the Ramsar sites. However, asmany as 36 species of waterbirds, representing75% of the total number of species, had an E NRgreater than their E R (Table 2). Subsequentlythese 36 species had an E BR 50%, once again, highlighted the importanceof Sakumo and Densu Delta Ramsar sitesin the support of waterbirds. This, therefore,confirmed that Ramsar sites play invaluableroles in the support of waterbirds on the coast ofGhana. Most non-Ramsar sites on the Ghanacoast are small relative to the Ramsar sites. Theobservation that only 12.5% of species have theirRA NR greater than their R AR, therefore, supportsthe report of Peterjohn and Sauer (1997) thatwetlands that are small play a minimal role inthe support of waterbird species in this area.On the other hand, given that coastal Ghanahas a large number of small-sized butunmanaged wetlands that are non-Ramsar sites,comparison of the values of E R and E NR indicatesthat the dependency of waterbird species on thenon-Ramsar sites is ecologically important. TheE NR values for 39 species were greater that theirE R, rendering ~81% of the species to score E BR[59]