Tanbi Wetland Complex is a wetland reserve in

the Gambia The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within mainland AfricaHoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publicatio ...

outside of

Banjul Banjul (,"Banjul"
(US) and ), officially the City of Ba ...

which was established in 2001.

Location

The wilderness site of the Tanbi Wetland Complex, in Gambia, is on the southern channel at the mouth of the

River Gambia The Gambia River (formerly known as the River Gambra) is a major river in West Africa, running from the Fouta Djallon plateau in north Guinea westward through Senegal and The Gambia to the Atlantic Ocean at the city of Banjul. It is navigable f ...

. It encompasses a total area of about 6,000 hectares, of which mangroves make up 4,800 hectares, located to the west and south west of Banjul. The northernmost portion of the complex skirts the Kankujeri Road of Banjul and includes Cape Creek. It encompasses the western shores of St. Mary Island and extends to the south east towards Lamin and Mandinari Village. It was declared a

Ramsar convention The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance Especially as Waterfowl Habitat is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of Ramsar sites (wetlands). It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands. It i ...

protected site in February 2007.

Flora and habitat

Eighty per cent of the Tanbi Wetland Complex is composed of

mangrove forest Mangrove forests, also called mangrove swamps, mangrove thickets or mangals, are productive wetlands that occur in coastal intertidal zones. Mangrove forests grow mainly at tropical and subtropical latitudes because mangroves cannot withstand fr ...

which are made up of several species of

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...

s which includes '' Avicennia africana'', ''

Conocarpus erectus ''Conocarpus erectus'', commonly called buttonwood or button mangrove, is a mangrove shrub in the family Combretaceae. This species grows on shorelines in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. Range Locations it is known from inc ...

'', ''

Laguncularia racemosa ''Laguncularia racemosa'', the white mangrove, is a species of flowering plant in the leadwood tree family, Combretaceae. It is native to the coasts of western Africa from Senegal to Cameroon, the Atlantic Coast of the Americas from Bermuda and ...

'', ''

Annona glabra ''Annona glabra'' is a Tropics, tropical fruit tree in the family Annonaceae, in the same genus as the soursop and cherimoya. Common names include pond apple, alligator apple (so called because American alligators often eat the fruit), swamp appl ...

'' and the ''

Rhizophora ''Rhizophora'' is a genus of tropical mangrove trees, sometimes collectively called true mangroves. The most notable species is the red mangrove (''Rhizophora mangle'') but some other species and a few natural hybrids are known. ''Rhizophora'' sp ...

spp'' with the occasional Baobab or '' Borassius aethiopicus'' standing on the drier ground. The vegetation gradually changes to the west and south into bare flats,

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...

and dry woodland, with agricultural land encroaching around the fringes of the complex. There is a lattice work of tidal creeks, known to locals as ''bolongs'', as well as tidal lagoons and estuarial saline mudflats. The complex has a role in retaining incoming water and rainfall, stabilizing the shoreline, the retention of sediments and nutrients and also controlling their erosion, ground water replenishment and flood control, so Tanbi Wetlands acts as a hydrological buffer zone for the Banjul region.

Fauna

The complex is home to some troops of small monkeys, including troops of the

Western red colobus The western red colobus (''Piliocolobus badius''), also known as the bay red colobus, rust red colobus or Upper Guinea red colobus, is a species of Old World monkey in West African forests from Senegal to Ghana. All other species of red colobuses ...

while other interesting mammals recorded include the

West African manatee The African manatee (''Trichechus senegalensis''), also known as the West African manatee, is a species of manatee that inhabits much of the western region of Africa – from Senegal to Angola. It is the only manatee species to be found in the O ...

marsh mongoose The marsh mongoose (''Atilax paludinosus''), also known as the water mongoose or the vansire, is a medium-sized mongoose native to sub-Saharan Africa that inhabits foremost freshwater wetlands. It has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red L ...

and the

Cape clawless otter The African clawless otter (''Aonyx capensis''), also known as the Cape clawless otter or groot otter, is the second-largest freshwater otter species. It inhabits permanent water bodies in savannah and lowland forest areas through most of sub-Sa ...

. There are

West African crocodile The West African crocodile, desert crocodile, or sacred crocodile (''Crocodylus suchus'') is a species of crocodile related to – and often confused with – the larger and more aggressive Nile crocodile (''C. niloticus''). Taxonomy Compared ...

s as well as various snakes and lizards. Over 360 species of bird have been recorded in the complex including such interesting or charismatic species as

Pel’s fishing owl Pel's fishing owl (''Scotopelia peli'') is a large species of owl in the family Strigidae. The species is found in Africa and lives near rivers and lakes. It feeds nocturnally on fish and frogs snatched from the surface of lakes and rivers. Th ...

brown-necked parrot The brown-necked parrot (''Poicephalus fuscicollis''), sometimes known in aviculture as the uncape parrot, is a large ''Poicephalus'' parrot species endemic to Africa. It consists of two subspecies: the savanna-dwelling brown-necked parrot ('' ...

blue-bellied roller The blue-bellied roller (''Coracias cyanogaster'') is a member of the roller family of birds which breeds across Africa in a narrow belt from Senegal to northeast Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is resident, apart from some local seasonal m ...

and

pygmy sunbird The pygmy sunbird (''Hedydipna platura'') is a species of bird in the family Nectariniidae. It is found in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Gui ...

; while in the northern winter

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

migrants such as

osprey The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

black-tailed godwit The black-tailed godwit (''Limosa limosa'') is a large, long-legged, long-billed shorebird first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. It is a member of the godwit genus, ''Limosa''. There are four subspecies, all with orange head, neck and chest ...

and Caspian tern are found. Climate change and global warming pose a particular threat to wildlife in the wetlands as sea levels rise. It is an important breeding area for the shrimp ''

Farfantepenaeus notialis ''Farfantepenaeus notialis'' is a species of marine crustacean in the family Penaeidae. Distribution It is found off the east coast of South America from Yucatan,Roberto Pérez-Castañeda and Omar Defeo 2000. Population structure of the Penaeid ...

''.

Human activities

The main human activities in and around the complex are shrimp fishing, market gardening and the cultivation of rice. During the dry season, a small number of women from the Jola forage for, roast and sell oysters which they harvest from the mangroves, the oysters are cooked with firewood collected at the same time.

References

{{authority control National parks of the Gambia Protected areas established in 2001 Ramsar sites in the Gambia