For the third time a census was carried out in the floodplain of the river Logone in Cameroon and Chad. In the period from 13 January until 6 February 2001 the water birds were counted in various rivers, riceries, and lakes scattered in the area between Yagoua, Cameroon, and Bongor, Chad, in the south, and Blangoua, Cameroon - Dougia, Chad in the south.

Sites north of N'Djamena (Chad) and Kousseri (Cameroon) were counted for the first time.

Three teams have carried out the counting.
Because of some logistical problems the whole crew started to count Park Waza in two days, divided in two teams.
After this three teams were formed.

The first team started in Yagoua and counted until Tekele, including the Mayo Vrig. They counted 6 days, after this they started with the bagging of waders and warblers in de ricefields of Maga.
The two other teams started in the north of Chad were they counted the area between N'Djaména and Dougia. This was a new area. After the teams reached N'Djaména, one team left Chad to start counting new sites in the north of Cameroon between Blangoua and Kouseri. They continued to count to the south the old sites until the line Quiverdig-Tekele.
The other team stayed in Tchad and counted up to N'Djaména;
The counting and bagging was finished on the sixth of February.

The following persons were involved with the counting:

Team Cameroon South

Jeroen Bredenbeek WIWO, Wetland International, The Neterlands
Wil Beeren WIWO, Wetland International, The Netherlands
Rigober Azombo Ecole du Faune, Garoua, Cameroon
Oumarou Nouhou CACID, Maroua, Cameroon

Team Cameroon North

Ronald Messemaker WIWO, Wetland International, The Netherlands
Phillipe Kirda Ecole du Faune, Garoua, Cameroon
Alain Tankeu CACID, Maroua, Cameroon

Team Chad

Bert Dijkstra WIWO, Wetland International
Service Dapsia DPFPN/MEE, N'Djaména, Chad
Aldi Noldet Telly DPFPN/MEE, N'Djamena
Paul Kouamou CADID, Maroua, Cameroon
Buba Zigla CADID, Maroua, Cameroon

Lake Chad is fed by a number of rivers which have their catchment areas in Cameroon (Logone), Chad (Chari) and Nigeria (Komadougou Yobe). The floodplains of these rivers are inundated following the wet season (May to October), thus forming, together with Lake Chad itself, a conglomeration of inland wetlands of 2.5 million ha. There is a delay between the rainy season in the catchment areas (April-September) and actual flooding (September-January). Flood-water remains in the floodplain when the wet season has finished. Therefore the area is flooded during a large part of the dry season (September-January). When the waters recede, a number of depressions, small lakes and waterholding courses hold water towards the end of the dry season. These small waterbodies attract extremely high numbers of waterbirds and waders and are essential for the survival of these birds during the dry season (de Kort & van Weerd 1995). The arrival of palearctic migratory birds co-incides with the highest waterlevels in the floodplain in October, but they are very much dependent on the above described scarce water-resources in early spring before their return to the breeding grounds in Europe and Asia.

In the Far North Province in Cameroon the Logone river constitutes the border between Cameroon and Chad. On both sides of the river are large surfaces of floodplains, which in Chad are also fed (indirectly) by the waters of the Chari river.

In 1979 the natural hydrological regime of the Logone floodplain on the Cameroonian side (from now on called the Waza-Logone floodplain) was seriously effected by the construction of a storage lake (Lake Maga) and an embankmenmt along the Logone as part of a large rice irrigation project (Semry II), which was introduced to reduce the dependency of the local population on the unpredictable floods and rain patterns, which occurred in the 1970's. This had devastating effects on the lives of the local inhabitants, which depended on fishing or herding cattle in the floodplain. The vegetation in the floodplain altered (especially perennial grasses were replaced by annual and less productive ones). Waza National Park, partly situated in the floodplain, also badly suffered from the lack of inundations.

In 1992 the Waza-Logone Project was formed (funded by IUCN, WWF, the Cameroon and Dutch government), with as goals to plan and implement interventions in the Waza-Logone floodplain to restore and safeguard the area's biological diversity and to improve sustainable living conditions for its inhabitants, both nomadic and sedentary (IUCN/CML 1994). The first phase of the project was implemented in 1994 with the opening of a part of the embankment along the Logone, which restored the flooding of some 250 km² of the original floodplain.

This created the possibility of monitoring the significance of the floodplain for waterbirds by comparing bird densities before and after the reopening and between degraded and restored floodplain habitats (de Kort & van Weerd 1995, Scholte et al 1996). Unfortunately the execution of the last phase of the project, the controlled release of water from the storage lake (Lake Maga), and the restoration of the large part of the floodplain, is now uncertain, since the Dutch government has withdrawn its financial support). If Waza-Logone Project can find funding, the last phase will be carried out as scheduled in 2002. When the last phase of theproject iscarried out about 90% of the former floodplain will be flooded again

The Logone floodplain in Chad has not suffered any major alterations. Inundations of this floodplain are influenced by both the Logone and indirectly the Chari river (through the Loumia river, which connects the Chari wih the Logone), with water receding form south-east to north-west. Inundations are not inhibited by man-made dams or dykes. By censusing waterbirds and waders in this 'natural' floodplain a further comparison can be made between degraded, restored and unaltered floodplain habitats.

Field conditions in 2001

In opposite of 2000, 2001 was a dry year. When the census started the waterlevel in many ponds and lakes in the floodplains were lower then February 2001.

Cameroon: Because of the little rainfall during the rainseason the expedition started 14 days earlier then in 2000. All the sites were good to count, there was no problem.

Most sites lay in the neighbourhood of unpaved roads. Some waters were a few miles from these roads. But because of the drought they were good accessible

The total counts can be divided into:

A. Point-counts. The counts were carried out from a point, which overlooked the site. All the visible birds were counted;

B. Counts along river banks and depressions, by car and/or foot. Double counts were ruled out by only taking account of birds that were passed by (or birds which fled opposite the walking or driving direction)
A pirogue was used at Lake Maga, a big one with motor for the open water, a small one pushed by two local fishermen for the small creeks and ponds in de southern edge of the lake

Table 1.

Because there wasn't much rainfall in the raining season, a lot of waterholes, ponds and riverbeds contained no or less water in compare with the counting of 2000.

From 24 January until 5 February ringing took place around Maga. The first two days used for ringing of warblers in a little marsh between the dyke of Lake Maga and the ricefields of Maga . It was the same place were the last two years was ringed.

Because of the low waterlevel and a large sleeping place of Cattle Egret, Little Egret and Red-billed Quelia's, the ringing wasn't successful. After two days the ringing of the warblers was stopped because of the low numbers of European warblers and the high numbers of Red-billed Quelia's.

Despite of these difficulties 6 birds who were ringed in the two years before, were recaptured.

The rest of the days was spent on the ringing of waders in the rice fields in Maga and the little marsh along the dyke.

About 45 waders were ringed. Only 5 Ruffs were caught and painted yellow.

Due the low water level in the rice fields there was no sleeping place of Ruffs in the vicinity of the ringing-site. The majority of the Ruffs slept on the borders of Lake Maga. These spots were not suitable for ringing-activities.

For results see table 2

Wil Beeren

Jeroen Bredenbeek

Bert Dijkstra

Ronald Messemaker