It is a Total Faunal Reserve IUCN type IV, covering some 76,000 hectares within the northern tip of the Maradi Region, just north of the town of Dakoro, and south of the border with the Agadez Region.

It covers a small area of Sahelian wooded steppe and grassland, south of the Aïr Mountains.

Gadabedji Total Reserve was planned to protect Sahelo-Saharan antelopes, mainly the Scimitar-horned oryx and Dama gazelle populations which have largely disappeared due to local population pressures.

[2] In the 1940s, the area was along an important migration route for the animals from the Tenere desert to the Adar in the south of the country.

It remains a transhumance route for domesticated cattle and camels, as well as some wild Dorcas and Ménas Gazelles.