Identification and validation of Western African freshwater Key Biodiversity Areas

IUCN is pleased to acknowledge the support of its Framework Partners who provide core funding: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark; Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland; Government of France and the French Development Agency (AFD); the Ministry of Environment, Republic of Korea; the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad); the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency [...] The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund is a joint initiative of l'Agence Française de Développement, Conservation Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) workshop International, the European Union, the Global Environment organisers and participants Facility, the Government of Japan and the World Bank. [...] We are grateful for the support of the BirdLife International Accra Office in Ghana in coordinating and facilitating the viii Executive summary Western Africa is rich in freshwater biodiversity and regional This report identifies key threats to specific species and endemicity, supporting the entire global populations of many locations, making recommendations for the conservation of threatened fres [...] The conservation status of freshwater species practitioners and researchers to help protect and conserve is found to be declining, but strikingly there is a lack of the unique freshwater biodiversity of western Africa through sufficient monitoring data to reveal conservation trends sustainable regional development. [...] We report on the global conservation status of some 1,502 freshwater species, including 555 species of freshwater fishes, 100 species of freshwater molluscs, 307 species of odonates (dragonflies and damselflies), 54 species of freshwater decapods (crabs and shrimps) and 486 species of aquatic plants, drawing on data from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species ™. ■ Freshwater species are threatene