It is no secret that traditional villages consume far fewer resources than urbanized settlements in the West. Indeed, if we are talking about villages and communities, most of them are self-sufficient and have a very low ecological footprint. But today the quality of life in rural areas is declining, the population is moving to cities, and nature is suffering … In this regard, Senegal is unique.
Why Senegal? Here, back in 2008, the National Ecology Agency was created, which takes care of the villages and makes sure that the settlements are self-sufficient in terms of food, water, electricity and wood, the agency plans to ensure the self-sufficiency of 14,000 villages by 2020. The government hopes that such ecovillages can serve as models of economic, environmental, social and cultural sustainability in the country and models for the future of rural Senegal.
Eco-villages – analytics, interviews, practices, videos and photos: Senegalese villages are fighting desertification and poverty
But what kind of Senegalese ecovillages are they? Take the Guede Chantier eco-community in northern Senegal as an example. Here residents are engaged in water management, organic farming and forestry, while Guede Chantier is also home to the non-profit organization REDES, which deals with the environmental and socio-economic problems facing the region.
Eco-villages – analytics, interviews, practices, videos and photos: Senegalese villages are fighting desertification and poverty
And the biggest of these problems is desertification – the expansion of the Sahara southward, right into Senegal. Desertification is a serious threat to life in the country. Desertification has made Senegal one of the countries most vulnerable to the threat of climate change.
Many people think that desertification is related to drought, but in reality it is about soil problems. Desertification refers to the biological degradation of land in drylands as a result of human activities and climate change. The biggest factor causing desertification is deforestation – forests are being cut down in the country for agricultural purposes. When there are no trees, winds blow off the organic soil leaving only barren sand. Cutting down trees also reduces the soil’s ability to hold water, resulting in lower yields each year.