Tamou Reserve Niger

The Tamou Total Fauna Reserve was created in 1962 to serve as a buffer zone for the W National Park of Niger and for the large transboundary W Regional Park that it is a part of. The reserve is located in the Rural Community of Tamou in Niger’s south-western corner. Initially covering 1,400 sq km (Bouamrane, 2006), the legal area of the reserve was reduced to only 760 sq km in 1976 when its eastern zone was decommissioned (Benoit, 1998). The Government of Niger decommissioned half of the reserve in response to food insecurity. This triggered a dramatic migration of people to this area along the Niger River floodplain where fertile soils and availability of water promised economic opportunity. Uncontrolled establishment of new villages and farms leads to the loss of large areas of relatively natural Savannah habitat.

The W National Park and Tamou Reserve fall in the transition zone between savannah and woodlands in the Sudano- Sahelian biome. Tamou Reserve’s natural habitat is made up primarily of shrub savannah and wooded savannah with gallery forests running along the seasonal watercourses. The hundreds of native plant species in the two parks historically supported a range of fauna including elephants, lions, hippopotamuses, hyenas, cheetahs, warthogs, baboons, caracals, red and green monkeys, and a variety of avifauna (UICN/PACO, 2010). The natural flora and fauna are being lost as population pressure converts valuable habitat to farmland and villages. The Landsat images show the expanding area of farm fields and villages between 1986 and 2015; most of this change followed the decommissioning of the reserve (Price and others, 2002). The changes are especially apparent surrounding the named villages in the top center of the images. A study of pressure on the W Regional Park identified settlements surrounding the international park’s perimeter (Price and others, 2002). The yellow triangles show the settlements they identified in the area around Tamou Reserve, most of them described as recent or new (as of 2002).

Proposed things to do in Tamou nature reserve

Wildlife development can be activated when the country’s security is put under control and this will see the migration of wildlife between W national park and Tamou nature reserve.

How to get to Tamou reserve Niger

Tamou reserve is located about 140 kilometers from the main capital Niamey and using a well-conditioned 4×4 you can drive down to the reserve which is bordering the famous W national park Niger.