Senegal

Management of water resources, adaptation to climate change and erosion in coastal areas are central problems faced by Senegal in terms of its resilience and development ambitions by 2035.

NATIONWIDE MOBILIZATION

LAUNCH WORKSHOP

16 and 17 december 2020

M’Bour

The project’s official launch workshop was an opportunity to share the aims of BIODEV2030 with the nation’s stakeholders, discuss the results of the assessment of the state of and threats to biodiversity in Senegal, led by Prof Sambou, identify the priority sectors for the  continuation of the project and examine and approve the constitutive texts of the Multi-Stakeholder Working Group on Biodiversity in Senegal.

Launch and dissemination workshop held on 16 and 17 December 2020 in M’Bour.

Diagnosis

The challenge: to address the causes of biodiversity erosion in Senegal.

Senegal is an ecological frontier where semi-arid grasslands, waterfront and humid tropical forest meet, with a wide range of bioclimatic regions. Senegal’s climate is Sahelian, with a rainy season from June to October, and the country is bathed by the four major rivers – whose basin covers 37% of the country. Senegal has 46% of its land devoted to agriculture and 16% considered arable (cultivable in rainy conditions). Forests cover 42% of the total land area and the country also has 1,049 square kilometres of sand dunes along its coast and around 4,000 square kilometres of estuaries and mud flats.

This geographical situation has given Senegal great biodiversity. Although large mammals have disappeared from the western part of the country, after being displaced by human settlements, animals such as elephants, antelopes, lions, panthers, cheetahs and jackals can still be encountered in the Niokolo Koba National Park – a World Heritage Site – in the eastern part of the country. The Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1981, contains more than a million birds, including the African spoonbill, purple heron, white pelican and cormorant. The Basse Casamance National Park, located in the southwestern part of the country, is home to hippos, leopards, crocodiles and water buffaloes.

Senegal’s National biodiversity action plan identifies several activities as the main causes of the loss of biodiversity. Among them, habitat destruction and fragmentation due to urbanisation, infrastructure development (dams), bush fires, overexploitation of natural resources (including illegal, unregulated and undeclared fishing), deforestation, overgrazing and poaching, invasive alien species, pollution (water, soil and air), climate change and bad weather, coastal erosion, and salinisation and acidification are all threats to Senegal’s biodiversity. 

3.232 species

assessed among which 25 endemic

172 species

threatened among which 13 endemics according to the IUCN Red List (2021-1)

Threats

Use of biological resources – Fishing and collection of aquatic resources
Climate change – drought
Residential and commercial development – housing and urban areas
Use of biological resources – hunting and trapping of wild animals
Agriculture – annual and perennial non-timber cultivation

Key points :

Reducing anthropogenic threats has greater potential than restoration in reducing the risk of species extinction in Senegal.

Actions aimed at stopping the fragmentation of ecosystems caused by construction, agriculture, industries, minimizing pollution by effluents and adopting good practices in the use of biological resources in terms of fishing, hunting, grazing and wood harvesting would benefit terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

These results are the scientific basis for the stakeholder meetings to select the 3 engagement areas.

  • Agriculture
  • Fishing
  • Mining sector

In the Thiès administrative region (landscape approach)

Senegal

Policy brief – Recommendations to mainstream biodiversity into economic sectors in Senegal (FR)

Access to all documentary resources OF sénégal