Senegal
Reforestation and resilience to protect Senegal’s territories and ecosystems
Partners
Partners: Senegalese Agency for Reforestation of the Great Green Wall (ASRGM) with technical support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, municipalities, private sector and non-governmental organizations
Challenges
Most of Senegal’s rural population lives off the land, but deforestation and land degradation have been skyrocketing due to climate change and overexploitation of natural resources. The country has lost 13% of its forest area since 1990, and a third of its land area is now degraded, including two-thirds of arable land. Environmental governance is highly inadequate at the national level, while local communities are not sufficiently involved in natural resource management.
Goal
This project aims to improve the resilience of communities to the impacts of climate change through participatory and sustainable management of land and ecosystems.
Landscapes
This project will be implemented across two eco-geographic zones of Senegal: a silvo-pastoral zone in the north, where the Great Green Wall is being built, and a groundnut basin in central and western Senegal. The silvo-pastoral zone of the Louga and Matam regions features a desert climate, with high temperatures and low rainfall. The regional economy is largely based on animal husbandry due to its abundant grazing areas. In the groundnut basin, the Kaffrine region in the interior has a hot semi-arid climate, while the Fatick region on the coast is tropical and benefits from high levels of biodiversity contained in a range of terrestrial and marine protected areas. In all four regions, but especially the groundnut basin, the land has been heavily degraded due to human and natural causes, including deforestation, fires and erosion. This degradation limits agricultural and pastoral productivity, ultimately threatening food security across Senegal.
Approach
This project will build resilience to climate change, promote sustainable livelihoods and improve food security through the participatory and integrated governance of land, ecosystems and natural resources. By implementing a landscape approach, it will restore ecosystems and ecosystem services, boost carbon sequestration and foster sustainable land-use systems. Lastly, it will build capacity of local communities by enhancing and developing sustainable value chains for non-timber forest products and promoting public-private partnerships.
Specific actions
- The empowerment of women and employability of young people.
- The project will aim to strengthen Senegal’s institutional frameworks for natural resource management, including developing a reforestation strategy along with a participatory monitoring system.
- To assess the country’s progress towards its Paris Agreement commitments, the project will set up a measuring, reporting and verification system and train the staff of relevant ministries to operate it.
- To ensure the active participation of local communities in landscape restoration, the project will train local people in agroforestry and soil restoration, as well as project management.
- The project will work with producers and other actors to develop sustainable value chains for non-timber forest products and train them in essential business skills such as management, finance, marketing and developing business plans.
- Lastly, the project will run a pilot in rural ecotourism by assessing potential tourist attractions and then marketing them to the private sector.
Contacts
- Savadogo, Patrice (Patrice.Savadogo@fao.org)
- FAO-SN@fao.org
