Kokorou or Kokoro is a town and rural

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in the

Téra Department Téra is a department of the Tillabéri Region in Niger. Its capital lies at the city of Téra. As of 2011, the department had a total population of 579,658 people. History Téra Department covers most of the historic territory of Liptako. Today ...

of western

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesRamsar Ramsar may refer to: * Places so named: ** Ramsar, Mazandaran, city in Iran ** Ramsar, Rajasthan, village in India * Eponyms of the Iranian city: ** Ramsar Convention concerning wetlands, signed in Ramsar, Iran ** Ramsar site, wetland listed in a ...

site in 2001. Covering 668 km², the wetland hosts migratory birdlife and is important to the local ecology.

People

The nobles of Kokoro village are Songhay people, who trace their ancestry in the male line to Askia Mohammed Toure. They came to Kokoro in the early part of the 18th century. When French colonists reached Kokoro in 1899, the local people cooperated with them, paying taxes and providing laborers. This cooperation brought prosperity, and the Kokoro people helped the French to establish the market at Mehanna on the

Niger river The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through ...

. However, on the death of the old Kokoru chief in 1964, the French appointed a non-noble merchant in his place, instead of appointing his natural successor. The local people still resent this decision.

Wetland

The large, shallow and brackish Kokoro wetland lies in an ancient valley surrounded by sand-dunes, granite outcrops and flat-topped hills. At one time, the valley may have drained into the

Niger River The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through ...

to the northeast, but it now has no outlet. The wetland contains water from 7–12 months of each year, and at times is 13 km long and 2,100 ha in area. Rainfall varies greatly from year to year. At the western end there is a tree-covered flood-plain. The wetland is an important ecological zone on the African-Eurasian flyway, and has been designated a Ramsar site. Although government-owned, it may be used by the local population under supervision. The wetland is used heavily for cattle grazing in the dry season, which may be damaging the plant life. It was stocked with fish in 1986, but the only surviving species is the lungfish

Protopterus annectens The West African lungfish (''Protopterus annectens''), also known as the Tana lungfish or simply African lungfish, is a species of African lungfish. It is found in a wide range of freshwater habitats in West and Middle Africa, as well as the nort ...

, which caught with nets and lines by the local people. Sand dunes threaten the northern border of the wetland, and have been the target of a dune-fixation program.

References

Communes of Niger Tillabéri Region Ramsar sites in Niger {{Niger-geo-stub