Conservation of natural resources and strengthening of community resilience in the Marine Protected Areas of the Saloum Delta

With the support of its technical and financial partners, Senegal has set up a large network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The fishing communities living inside these Marine Protected Areas do not always respect the rules of management and exploitation of natural resources. Thus, mangroves, which constitute a major ecosystem of these MPAs and which play extremely important ecological and socio-economic functions, are threatened.

At the level of the Saloum Delta, in the administrative region of Fatick, the mangrove is not spared with a degradation which has greatly increased over the past 15 years with losses of around 30% linked, in part, to cutting mangroves as firewood and overexploitation of fishery resources.

The exploitation of mollusks such as the “yokhoss” oyster (Cras¬sostrea gasar), the “yet” cymbium (Cymbium sp.), the “tuffa” (Murex sp.), the cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) and the arch “loincloth” (Arca senilis) is of great importance in the area. The populations unfortunately note an exhaustion of these resources and given the importance in the local economy, this has pushed them to establish a period of biological rest between the months of June and August. The objective of this project is to involve the local populations even more in a sustainable and equitable management of fishery resources at the level of the Marine Protected Areas of the Saloum Delta.