Songor Ramsar Site
Ghana
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.