Songor Ramsar Site

Restored mangrove site
Eco tourism on site
Birds
Leatherback turtle

Songor Ramsar Site

  • Country: 
    Ghana
  • Site number: 
    566
  • Area: 
    51,133.3 ha
  • Designation date: 
    14-08-1992
  • Coordinates: 
    05°45'N 00°30'E
Materials presented on this website, particularly maps and territorial information, are as-is and as-available based on available data and do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Overview

Songor Ramsar Site is a closed lagoon with inundated mudflats, islands, broad sandy beaches and flood plains associated with the Volta River estuary. It is one of Ghana’s wetlands that fall on the boundary of two flyways of water birds, the east Atlantic flyway and the Mediterranean flyway.The main wetland habitats include saline marshes with degraded mangroves, waterlogged grassland, riverine woodland, scattered thickets of shrubs and degraded coastal savannah characterized by farmland, and eroded lands invaded by neem tree, fan palms, silk cotton trees and baobab trees. They serve as ideal feeding and roosting grounds for heron, egret, common greenshank, avocet, stilt, and other small waders and terns estimated at about 50,000 individuals, and as a reproduction site for fish species. The sandy beach plays host to the green sea turtle, leatherback sea turtle and the olive ridley sea turtle commonly found along the shores. Communities within the Site are engaged in fishing, farming and intensive salt extraction for their livelihoods. Tourism is another growing economic activity. Potential threats included coastal erosion and siltation.

Administrative region: 
Greater Accra Region

  • Global international designation: 
    • UNESCO Biosphere Reserve
  • Last publication date: 
    13-08-2015

Downloads

Ramsar Information Sheet (RIS)

Additional reports and documents