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The West African seaboard from Mauritania to Sierra Leone in-
cluding Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea Bissau and Guinea, is rich
in mangrove formation. The riparian populations of this area
draw substantial revenues from the exploitation of wood, fish-
ing, rice farming, the extraction of salt and other activities, no-
tably the collection of honey and medicinal plants. Even though
these activities are important for livelihoods, they also have a
negative impact on the mangroves; an impact which is increas-
ing today in parallel with the demographic growth on the coast
and climate change through changes in rainfall and duration
of rainy season. As for the impact of economic activities, these
are more and more acute and affect all the countries. The most
significant anthropogenic threats to mangrove areas are:
Clearing for Agriculture (rice) and aquaculture (shrimp), fish
smoking, Saliculture (Guinea, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau), Shell-
fish calcination (Gambia, Senegal), Urban domestic needs (Free-
town, Conakry, Kamsar, Bissau, Banjul.), Rural domestic needs.
The situation is critical and requires reversing the trend in or-
der to maintain the ecological function of the area. An initiative
was developed to rehabilitate the mangroves, help harmonize
national policies for its sustainable management and improve
the well being of the communities who depend upon the man-
groves. A joint initiative through IUCN Senegal and Wetlands
International Africa form the West African Mangrove Initiative
(WAMI), working hand in hand with the Swiss MAVA Founda-
tion and National forestry institutions in Mauritania, Senegal,
Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
WAMI activities include the rehabilitation of areas of deteriorated
mangrove, develop demonstration projects, build national man-
grove conservation policies, help draft the Charter and Action
Plan, and seek funding for the latter. Replanting operations drew
on the lessons learnt in the 2008 campaign. Improvements were
made through the capacity building of the players, site selection
and meeting the planting schedule. Since the project started,
the total re-planted mangrove area in Senegal, Gambia, Guinea,
Guinea Bissau and Sierra Leone covers 20 ha. The vulgarisation
of beekeeping in Gambia continued and the first harvests of hon-
The West African Mangrove Initiative (WAMI)
ey meant that community training on the post-harvest handling
of honey was able to begin. As for the construction of improved
ovens for the smoking of fish in Guinea Bissau, work is in the
final phase in three of the four scheduled sites.
In terms of the mangrove management policy, stress was placed
on consolidating the Preliminary draft of the regional charter
and action plan. The document was submitted for review to sev-
eral specialists and their remarks and suggestions were incor-
porated into the final version. It has now been submitted to the
different countries for their opinion.
In addition, the project developed partnerships with various
conservation players, in particular: the NGO Océanium in its
reforestation programme in Senegal funded by Danone; the Ad-
aptation to Climate and Coastal Change (ACCC) project for the
replanting of the mangrove in the Palmarin area, funded by the
UNDP and UNESCO, and ENSA (Ecole Nationale Supérieure
d’Agriculture) in Thiès for evaluating growth conditions and the
carbon sequestration capacity of the replanted sites around the
village of Dassalamé Sérer in the Saloum Delta.
Source: Wetlands International, Personal communication, 2010
CASE STUDY #24