Wildlife of
Guinea-Bissau

Primary Threats

• Industrial and semi-industrial fleets operating in Guinean waters, alongside intense artisanal effort in estuaries and around the Bijagos, drive declines in key stocks and disrupt nursery habitats. IUU fishing is a persistent risk, enabled by limited at-sea surveillance and port control capacity. Bycatch also affects sea turtles and small cetaceans.
• Coastal habitat conversion and degradation occur through mangrove cutting for fuelwood and smoking fish, expansion of rice fields in mangrove zones (mangrove rice polders), and localized clearing around settlements and landing sites. In the Bijagos, pressures concentrate near villages and navigation channels, fragmenting sensitive nesting/roosting areas for birds and turtles.
• Cashew-dominated agricultural expansion inland and around villages incentivizes clearing of natural vegetation and can increase sediment and nutrient runoff into rivers and estuaries. In low-lying areas, mangrove rice cultivation alters hydrology and can lead to acidification/salinization problems that reduce long-term productivity and push further expansion.
• Fuelwood and charcoal demand-plus wood use for fish processing-drives localized deforestation and mangrove extraction. While large-scale timber operations are less prominent than in some neighbors, weak enforcement can enable unsustainable harvest in accessible areas.
• Estuaries and ports receive waste, plastics, and oil/chemical residues from vessels and urban runoff. Artisanal fish landing sites can concentrate organic waste and plastics; limited waste management in Bissau and smaller towns increases leakage into waterways, affecting mangroves, seagrass areas, and marine fauna.
• Sea-level rise and increased coastal erosion threaten low-lying islands and mangroves, altering nesting beaches for sea turtles and shifting salinity regimes in estuaries. Changing rainfall patterns and extreme events can affect rice systems, fisheries productivity, and the resilience of mangrove buffers that protect communities.
• Subsistence hunting of terrestrial wildlife occurs in mainland forest-savanna mosaics and around protected areas, and opportunistic take of protected species can occur where enforcement is weak. On the islands, traditional practices and seasonal pressures can affect certain species if not managed with community agreements.
• Regional trafficking networks can draw on Guinea-Bissau for live birds, reptiles, and other wildlife, and can overlap with weak border controls and maritime routes. Even when volumes are uncertain, the country's porous borders and archipelago geography increase vulnerability.
• Seasonal fishing camps, boat traffic, and expanding settlement footprints can disturb seabird colonies and sea turtle nesting beaches, particularly in the Bijagos where key breeding sites are close to navigational routes and landing areas. Disturbance can reduce nesting success and increase egg predation.
• Improved roads, coastal facilities, and port/landing-site development can open access to previously remote habitats, intensifying resource extraction and disturbance. Dredging or shoreline modification in estuaries can affect sediment dynamics critical to mangroves and mudflats.
• High dependence on fisheries and wood fuel, combined with limited alternative livelihoods, can lead to chronic pressure on mangroves, oysters, and nearshore fish resources. In some areas, harvest of mangrove-associated products (e.g., shellfish) can become unsustainable without local management.
• Hydrological changes from dikes, channels, and rice polders in mangrove zones alter tidal exchange and sedimentation. These modifications can reduce mangrove regeneration, change nursery functions for fish/shrimp, and increase vulnerability to salinity and acid sulfate soil issues.