Report No. 13292-SE Senegal
Public Disclosure Authorized Country Environmental StrategyPaper
June 30, 1994
Sahel Department Africa Region The World Bank Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized
Documentof the World Bank CURRENCY EQUIVALENTS
Currency Unit = CFA franc (CFAF) US$1.00 = CFAF 592 (January 31, 1994) CFAF 1 million = US$ 1,687 (January 31, 1994)
SYSTEM OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURE: METRIC
Metric U.S. Equivalent
1 meter (m) = 3.28 feet (ft) 1 kilometer (km) = 0.62 miles (mi) 1 square kilometer (km2) = 0.39 square mile (sq mi) 1 hectare (ha) = 2.47 acres (a) I metric ton (t) = 2,205 pounds (lb) I kilogram (kg) = 2.2046 pounds (lb)
FISCAL YEAR
January 1- December 31 LIST OF ACRONYMS
AGETIP Agence d'cxecution de travaux d'interet public AVHRR Advanced Verv High Resolution Radiometer BRGM Bureau de recherches geologiques et mini&res(France) CIDA Canadian International Development Agency CILSS Comite permanent inter-etats de lutte contre la secheresse dans le Sahel CER Cercle d'expansion rurale CONGAD Conseil des organisations non-gouvernementales d'appui au ddveloppement CRODT Centre de recherche oceanographique de Dakar Thiaroye CSE Centre de suivi ecologique DAST Direction des affaires scientifiques et techniques DAT Direction de l'amenagement du territoire ENDA Environnement et developpcment en Afrique FAO United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization FONGS Federation des organisations non-gouvernementales du Sendgal GEF Global Environment Facility IDA International Development Agency ISE Institut des sciences de l'environnement ISRA Institut senegalais de recherche agricole IUCN International Union for the Conservation of Nature and its Resources MAB Man and the Biosphere (UNESCO program) MNDR Ministere du developpement rural MDRH Ministere du developpement rural et de I'hydraulique MPC Ministere du plan et de la cooperation MPN Ministere de la protection de la Nature MTE Ministere du tourisme et de l'environnemcnt NEAP National Environmental Action Plan NCS National Conservation Strategy NGO Non-governmental Organization NOAA National Oceanographic and Aeronautical Agency NPA Nouvelle politique agricole ODA Overseas Development Administration, United Kingdom ORSTOM Office de la recherche scientifique et technique outre-mer (France) PDESO Projet pour le developpement de l'devage au Sendgal oriental PICOGERNA Projet integre de conservation et de gestion des ressources naturelles PNAT Plan national d'amenagement du territoire PNNK Parc national du Niokolo Koba PNVA Programme national de vulgarisation agricole PPF Project Preparation Facility SAED Societe d'amenagement et d'exploitation des terres du Delta SFAP Senegal Forestrv Action Plan SGN Service geographique national SICAP Societe immobiliere du Cap Vert SODESP Societe de developpement de l'elevage dans la zone sylvopastorale SODEVA Societe de developpement et de vulgarisation agricole SONEES Societe nationale d'exploitation des eaux du Senegal UNCED United Nations Conference on Environment and Development UNDP United Nations Development Program UNEP United Nations Environment Program UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNSO United Nations Soudano-Sahelian Office USAID United States Agency for International Development USGS United States Geological Survey UTIS Unite de traitement de l'information spatiale WRI World Resources Institute
TABLEOF CONTENTS
Page
I. INTRODUCTION...... 1
II. KEY ISSUES ... 4 A. ResourceEndowment .4 B. Population .7 C. Use of Land and Natural Resources. 9 D. Urbanization.21 E. EnvironmentalManagement Processes .24 F. GovernmentPolicy and Programs...... 30
III. BASICPRINCIPLES ...... 33
IV. TOWARDSAN ENVIRONMENTALSTRATEGY FOR SENEGAL: UNDERLYINGFACTORS AND POSSIBLESOLUTIONS . . 35 A. Managementof Land and Natural Resources.35 B. Urban Environment.39 C. Biodiversity.41 D. Fisheries and Coastal Habitats.42 E. Coordinationand Planning.43 F. Strategy for Bank Assistance.47
BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 50
LIST OF TABLESAND FIGURES
TABLE 1. Protected areas of Senegal...... 18 TABLE 2. Sample of land classifications...... 28
FIGURE 1. Average rainfall from 1960-1984...... 4 FIGURE2. Changing populationpatterns from 1950-2015...... 8 FIGURE3. Changes in the extent of the area planted in crops, from 1960-1990...... 10 FIGURE4. Changesin agriculturalyields from 1960-1990...... 11...... I FIGURE5. Humancarrying capacity in the year 2015, accordingto different cereal productionscenarios ...... 21
Preface
This Country Environmcntal Strategy Paper (CESP) is one in a series of CESPs that aim to improve the Bank's understanding of environmental issues and strengthen policy dialogue on the environment. The document was prepared by Mr. Yves Prevost (AFTES consultant) for the Sahelian Department. Ms. Katherine Marshall is the Department Director and Mr. Emmerich Schebeck is the Projects Advisor.
The report has benefited from the comments and suggestions of Katherine Marshall, Emmerich Schebeck and Sarah Forster (AF5DR), Bruno Boccara, Moniquc Garrity, Albert Osei and Hasan Tuluy (AF5CO), Abdclkrim Oka, Franz Schorosch and John Hall (AF5AG), Peter Watson, Jan Janssens and Robert Maurer (AF51N), Bruna Vitagliano (AF5PH). David Jones (AF5SE), Jostein Aarestad, Jan Bojo, Albert Greve, Jean Roger Mercier and Simon Rietbergen (AFTES), Willem Floor (IENPD) and Christian Pieri (AFGNR). Highly useful written comments wverealso received from Joy Hecht (independent consultant) and from various individuals in Senegal, including Mr. E.S. Diop (University of Dakar), Mr. Mamadou Dagobert Dieng (SER/MINT) and Mr. Pierre Pol Vinckc (Cellule Apres Barrage).
The CESP wvasdiscussed wviththe Government of Senegal and donors in January, 1994 and has since been revised to takc into account their comments and concems. A particular thanks goes to Mr. Oussoubv Tourc. the Permanent Secretary of CONSERE (Conseil supericur des ressources naturelles et de l'cnvironnement)for his close collaboration and valuable input into this report.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Synopsisof Key Issues
1. This CountrvEnvironmental Strategy Paper (CESP) arguesthat Senegalwill soon be facing an overwhelming environmentalcrisis. which w,ill restrict and shape its economic development. The facts are unequivocal: Given the high rates of population growth, the limited resource base, and the low level of technological development, there is no realistic scenario by which Senegal could achieve self- sufficiency in food and fuel by the year 2015. Even if improved agricultural practices lead to significant increases in yields, high demand will force direct trade-offs between food, cash-crops and wood fuel production. Focus will necessarily shift to satisfying basic needs at the expense of concerns about environmental quality. biodiversitv, or the acknowledged cultural, aesthetic and spiritual values of natural resources. Moreover, by the vear 2015, nine million people, of a total population of 16 million, will live in urban areas, of which 5 million are expected to live in Dakar alone. This rural exodus will certainly lessen the population pressure in rural areas. However, it will exacerbate current problems in urban areas, which are already serious.
2. The question is not whether Senegal will become even more dependent on imported food and fuel, but rather howvmuch more dependent it will become and how the country will handle the situation. The main issue for Senegal is to earn enough foreign currency to import the food and fuel it needs. This is the only wav to reduce the pressure on its own limited natural resources. Sound environmental management practices must not only be adopted by all sectors of society, they must become second nature. Government policies across the board will have to take into consideration the scarcity of basic environmental resources and the need for their conservation and management, in order to maintain what is already a barelv satisfactory quality of life for a large part of the Senegalese population:
- population growth will have to be slowed through family planning, and major improvements in education, particular of girls, and in health conditions; - economic activities will have to be diversified into light industry and exportable goods and services. at the same time, Senegal must capitalize on the competitive edge it earned following the FCFA devaluation to become more competitive on the international market in order to finance the import of external inputs necessary in the long-term for agricultural intensification" - agricultural yields will have to be improved through better natural resource management practices, such as water harvesting, anti-erosion measures (small earth or rock dams, composting) and the integration of livestock and agriculture, all of which will succeed only with clear ownership and rights of land and resources for farmnersand herders, - forests will have to be managed for more efficient and more sustainable output; clear ownership is again key to successful forest management as are pricing reforms to price fuelwood at its scarcitv value; - extension services will have to deliver a coherent rural development package that unites agriculture, forestrv, and livestock around the land use theme; - water will have to be conserved, in order to avoid depleting groundwater reservoirs; - cities w~'illneed to be planned and equipped with better urban services; - waste from urban areas and industrial activities will have to be disposed of without threatening public health or environmental sustainability. ii
3 Sound cnvironmental management is not a luxury for Senegal. Until the whole country is fully integratcd into the global economy and reduces the relative importance of its primary scctor, environmental management wvillbc its lifcline, and its only means of bridging the devclopment gap. And should the country succecd in meeting this challenge over the next 25 years, environmcntal management, in urban as well as rural areas, will have become a pcrmanent fixturc in the nation.
Purpose of the Report
4. This document serves two purposes. The first is to improve the Bank's understanding of environmental issues in Senegal and place them within the ovcrall development contcxt. The second is to strengthcn policy dialogue between the Bank and Senegal on environmcntal issues and provide an input into Scnegal's ongoing NEAP process. The document provides a review of available evidence of present and future environmental problems and challenges facing Senegal. It identifies and highlights the kcy issues and tradc-offs that will require development of a national consensus as regards priorities. It also suggcsts broad clements of a strategy to remedy current problcms and minimize futurc ones.
Structure of the Report
The documcnt is divided into three sections. Section I puts environmental issues into the Senegalese context and discuss the meaning of environment for a country such as Sencgal. Section II (paras. 2.1 - 2.130) discusses the key environmental issues in Senegal. It first looks at the country's resource cndouvment(paras 2.1-2.19) highlighting the harsh climate with high tcmperatures and low to moderate rainfall, which sevcrely constrains Senegal's development options, and the rapidity of population growth which is putting increasing pressures on the resource base and urban infrastructurc (paras. 2.20-2.24) It thcn cxamines the two major environmental challenges facing Senegal: use of land and natural rcsources (para. 2.28-2.77) and urbanization and urban environmcntal problems (para. 2.78-90). This is followed by a discussion of the Government of Senegal's institutional and policy framework for environmental management (para. 2.93-2.130). Section III provides a rationale for the strategy that follows. The strategy itself, proposed in Section IV, represents a fundamental shift away from the command and control approach to environmental management that has driven Govcrnment's handling of environmcntal issucs to a more decentralized approach within which pcople are given the legal rights and cconomic incentives to manage resources more efficicntly. A policy matrix of the strategic recommendations is provided in Annex 1.
Implications for the Bank
The Government of Senegal is in the process of developing a NEAP within which it is hoped many of the strategic recommendations wvillbe addressed. Country ow-nership is essential for NEAP succcss. The Government should therefore focus on the process of developing the NEAP, ensuring that thcre is broad participation so as to build up ownership and consensus among diffcrent stakeholders. The most obvious and immediate role for the Bank is to continue to play an active role in the NEAP process in coordination with other donors. Ultimately, the lack of an environmental policy with strong political backing is one of the main constraints to environmental management. The NEAP process provides an opportunitv to define such a policy and develop a national consensus as to where the priorities lie. as regards both the issues and the appropriatc actions to take. Within the NEAP process, thcrc arc several issues in addition to those raised in the strategy that need to be addressed. These includc: 11!
* The impact of the devaluation on the environment, particularly the impact on producer incentives (livestock/rangelands, crops/soil fertility, fuelwood /reforestation). The NEAP provides an opportunity to introduce any necessary preventative or compensatory measures. * Valuation of the costs of environmental damage and its prevention or alleviation. Damage to the environment has three potential costs: (a) human health may be harmed; (b) economic productivity may be reduced; (c) the pleasure of satisfaction obtained from an unspoiled environment, often referred to as the "amenity value", may be lost. All are difficult to measure, particularly the third. However, it is vital that environmental costs are quantified as much as possible so as to help decision-makers prioritize environmental issues and make explicit the potential trade-offs between economic development and environmental protection and minimize their consequences. Analytical frameworks exist to carry out such valuation and prioritization which could usefully be applied as part of the NEAP process. Such exercises must be viewed as part of a long-term process of building-up national capacity in environmental analysis and planning. The immediate constraints to be overcome are (i) lack of reliable data and (ii) the shortage of trained personnel who can carry out this type of work. * Broadening of the environmental debate beyond the Ministry of Environment to other Government agencies, local authorities, community and associative movements, and clarification of the institutional structure and functions of environmental management. In this regard, the Bank's experience with institutional capacity building for environmental management in the Gambia may be usefully shared with the Senegalese.
6. This document has highlighted the need to take an intersectoral approach to the environment and to promote a more decentralized and participatory approach to environmental management. This has important implications for the Bank. It will require more active collaboration between the different sectors, in particular, a strengthening of the linkages between projects that touch on the different facets of the same environmental issue. Another important implication is the need to increase stakeholder participation in the development and implementation of projects, and to encourage Government to redefine its role and to provide incentives to individuals to encourage better resource management. At. iAl- CiLJINrTRYENV(IZONMlFN1 tV RAT!tiY PAI'T | LR()NNILN "AL POLIC Y MATRiX
_~~~~- __ __.______~ a t c o tj rneii ______I__ NIrrchlnl Oblje-tive Lcgal |Intstitutio)nal ctralilc"v.l:i lvi aica~t e ne iii______i ______Re t-ll-.b rllll!}Cr)li frt acwobrk framcwmit bu.:srlity ntion !Maillagrlcllllo, aiald lil)llrt)vctile , sec.gi.,x ihc leralhty of t)r ...... Isl ,icI'm er the supcr ibioi, o landI l -iillliiatc staic wontroelsoii wcxdfucl 1IliortUural r-urccInlugc 1luicli lst |aid nlatural sustainabdiity of land rights of thc p Iplalion to tie fuill and natural resource nianiagcncnt pnces, sf) diat they be govenecd by (NklR) in all desclopincnt prtjccta reaour-ce naluralnaii rcsource extenutof the land anid natural from thc State to rural supply anid demand. _.______tartageltlent restijrces Iba( IheV urse ciminmiites.
l icilitatc Utie cvo IiOll O,r laiid usC Strcngthenithe land anddtriatural extensitoneiCcive pmglrllti [tic rights into) cithcr comimon or resourcer niaiagemcnt capashilitics guiding principle of tdie civirtoniiiiciial iLidividual titles that arc transfcrablc. of rural councils. sustainability of production sy stniis in ______d mnld. Substitute the cuirenit forestry pemnit Review Lie function. niandate anid Greatly iicrease Central Govellitticnit and fee systeni with a forestry or rural organization of the Forcstry support to extensionl services, wilh the cadastre based on lanid registration. Departmenit so that it becomes an objetive ol incirasinig tlie covcrarc if i ______sdvi sory hody to rural1(p ipationis. Xtc sxteno-r_
Merge existing extension servia.es i an1c1woie s r)it biIlltdiii d i into a sinigle rural develitpiciit Hysteins by niakiiig Lticiii the prilinc extension gervice tfarglc f e*!biotisC5ttr i liave (iovernnmentcillaborant FO1 LIs researchprogramits Icss oit closely with NGOs concertimtg speciflc rcsources And more tol the j ______rural extesiett n tnl Systeitic af i[cctr fr c:si-ltti ntttt Ulbin arcas litprove ltie quality of Rcdutce waste proJLrctl i by tiakiitg Decentralize maniagemilentdlie Assist local autlirilies to dray up_ ihfe those responsible liii pollution pay for managemncit of urban areas by ilmediumtcnn (' t o 10 years) the damagc it causes to the delegation of power to development plaits to retiiedy the enviromuncntt. representative local governseitis I develhpmniet probIcitis otf the insaiii utbaniLed areas.
Strengthen the planninig anid Encourage die ctnstructictit of tic managementcapacities of htousitng developmtents, especially lby municipal govcmnuents. placitig new laud ot die iiCrktit a dtt providinig a mrinitiuni of conuttunity ______._____,cI facilitie8. Encouragc local participationl in Rcduce subsidies for dniikitig water Rcutilizc, aftcr ireatnoicit, urbani 6sCage waste nmnagcment through public astd allow the cost of wate- to re(ect watera for garden fariiiittg. education campaigns and greater its true valuc. represenLation at the ncighborhoid I ______level.el ______le I______Biodiversity Preserve natural Strictly apply regulations governing Provide econonic incentivcs to local Set a viable political strategy alid liutoly| biodiversity markcts and boundaries with respect populations by promoting die abidc to it. to the protection of biodiversity. development of areas surroun ding biodiversity conservation areas. SENEGAL COUNTRY ENVIRONM1ENT STRATEGY PAPER ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY MATRIX
IIT Pecrrnrnicdali ns Problems Objec ivea Legal | Insiltutw il | Ma.r.rconornic Sctmral .... j - framiework fran-ev'wirk I 1 dicy ter ii Fisheries and Precrvc sea resoUrca (a) reduce flshinlg eflirt, coastal areas (b) rinlpive knrrwledgc oif hti- k s alid I ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~their flictuatroris, (c) set upl a system to il irrit tI e I CCorloilnic aspects of the fi img
__Ju ~7' ~ iConscrc*easial arcas Intra-lt lo Co_astal_legislatio_n _tect Lnirt piojc,as ii fragdcleaics
plarn .l tferral cy cornstrucnli.nin arrav wrla rallP,hbr,a a
_ _ sbil_s i ______crosluc, n _ | ! s~rnr1il withsfvi11ef li-l.the nat(ilo) siria to the.t C_SEE rrliis.pii plarririuig I Coatal- 'ta - f rv i r q tc;Lrreial ,toeruac ieaiv nlIo. - -rttrrrserlSOiiIi Inroltvc [liec Rcvl;w existinig legishlalotIso dihat ~allLslabhsh a blyherlevel bt-dy, l reIacp,an N,i AI'- -itl, a c-iX ,lal ,n slid corordirn,,6,n and l1,- w mply Willi ihe nail r tat sinmdarIo dic CJN5ELRE's "s(ilt hi"lpin. ay r1 sllh arl planlllrig Ida-inlrg 1 gereCral cnvmr nmritaaI r)(IlV- litllerililislerial e}l ltd rl"
_ | M~~~~~~~~~~~~~aleclivirolrr cllVolirnpia,t Trans tn he ukrrcent 1:ll8bhl,l ( )NSiLYL I a iric.haSl"sllb 1, a:I; lw:ir I cy asscsnicnits conripulsory for all secrctanatrirnto a perriiancrit e,iimenlal iridilai rh in a lici r-k devclopimrnctprojcciJ tcchiical secretariat, vIl0h vould if represcntativc sk,1ijp;eC1-IIs provide te,.hirial Lord0 ufratioin. oversce regulatory nuattersreport on the state of the erivirorrrncirt, arndlead a public cducatirir ______a _prrolrnn rn envinrilliitl ni s _-u_ Clarify thc maridate of dthc tti 1 allue aild uriplllcricirt pi! I | irviitotnenit Dcparnucilt. awarcires prr graris rin crivirr ireriital
Create an iispectorate that will Ilace all land ard niatural rtl..urvea obscrve and document infractions nuaiiagciireit project wirlin loral I to the environimetital legislatir n aldministrative 6rauricwr iW)| rivir,)it ricntal Improve Ilild demand by defininig niinitiiuin Ensurm coordination in lncrease tire coriplirtrliiIy ofl t ic vail ul inifounrLatioi etvironinelntal infornation requirements for environmental infornation matters types of cnvironterital iirnlriratir ri austairutlbility by better cnvironniental inipact asacssmnenta. through periodic consultation tirough the estabrslrirecirt arid adpl tiOllr | use of inforireation among the network of all partners. by all involved of a cormmahonrn inforrrratiron irifrastnric lire Ensure that public inistitutions do not Strengthen, rehabilitate or Facilitate thc cnicrgcnce of service Facilitate the usc of env,roririerital try to derive incotne from the reorganize key institutions, much aa suppliern from tie national private inforenatirin by prriiciri 1 or cnrrivertri^: inf,rnmation they possess. the Service g6Sographique national, sector by opcning pubiic narkets, kcy data sets a.cording ti nrc c,in mnirir thriough the use uuf tcnders, with I arrh cburre, arid lrerahzilig accces, ) +regarda __ to geographirr inft r.nphatroir r,i conditions.
___rdrr ____. ______I _ i rn,tnrir Ir ;slenia u c ,fr ! ~~~I ..... !. ,.frIu,,,zl,, ,, j I i ; rfrrrua'in r;r :iiry |to Or ! | 1 i 1 _ , i_1 - 91~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~rrIu . ~~ ~ ~ ~…..-- _- .- . .~ .- _..
I. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Environmentalissues were propelledto the fore in Senegal by the allocation of part of a protectedforest, the MbegueForest Reserve,for agriculturaldevelopment in 1991. This created a wave of disapprovalamong the majorityof internationaldonors and NGOs for it gave the impressionthat the Governmentwas renegingon its commitmentto promote sustainablenatural resourcemanagement with the participation of local communities.1 Within Senegal itself, the media, national NGOs and the oppositionalso expressedtheir disapproval.
1.2 Mbegueis an illustrationof well-ingrainedhistorical trends that underlymost land use issues in Senegal;the unrelentlessexpansion of groundnutfarming at the expenseof forestsand rangelandsbased on the powverfulpolitical influenceof the Murid religiousbrotherhood 2, giving rise to a power struggle between agriculturalistsand pastoralists. Over the past 30 years, the Mbegue Forest has become a much-covetedoasis in the midst of groundnutfields wherc productivityis decliningrapidly due to soil depletion. Despitethe concernsof livestockherdcrs who lived in the area, the annexationof the reserve had becomealmost irreversible.
1.3 Mbegue,though a regrettableincident in and of itself,triggered a chain of reactionsthat may in the long term be positivefor natural resourcemanagement. It brought donors togetherto pressure the Governmentto address the issues and has givenmomentum to the environmentalmovement in Senegal. Both the National EnvironmentalAction Plan and Bank-sponsorednatural resources management program, which had been stalled, are nowvback on-track and the Governmenthas demonstrateda renewed commitment to the environment.
1 4 The importanceof the eventsat Mbegue,however, should not overshadowother environmental problems. Until recently,environmental concerns in Senegaland elsewherein the Sahel centeredon the green agenda of desertificationand land degradation. The population,living mainly in rural areas, was perceivedas a major threat to managinga sustainableenvironment. The environmentwas essentiallythe preserve of foresters, and sometimesof soil or water scientists,who criticized increases in livestock numbersor in the agriculturalland base. Theyproposed solutions aimed at controllingor restrictingland use, on the basis of morc or less "official"scientific assessmcnts of land suitabilityand carryingcapacity. This vision of environmentalproblems, probable causes and fundamentalsolutions is clearly now outdated. Desertificationand land degradationremain on the internationalagenda, but only as labels and rallyingcries for the transferof additionalfunds from the industrializedto the developingworld.
1.5 The first and main cause of this changeis of a politicalnature. The focus on desertificationand massiveland degradationwas inevitablyparalleled by repressiveconservation measures, which reflected the authoritarianand paternalisticpolitical model inherited from the colonialera. These measuresare no longersuitable to the moredemocratic political culture which is noNvemerging. CentralGovernment will play a smaller role in this new political system, while local governments and the private sector will play a larger role. As power is decentralized, the environmental debate will center on access and ownership rights to land and resources for both individuals and groups. This is in direct contrast with the previous
In April 1991, the Government of Senegal allocated two-thirds (45,000 hectares) of the Mbegue Forest Reserve in central Senegal for agricultural production to the Khalifa general of the Murids. In the days that followed, the Khalifa's disciples (Talibe) entered this area and cut dovynmost of its trees. 2 In addition to their very solid religious organization, the Murids control a large part of groundnut production. Thus, theyrcarry considerable economic and political weight. 2
situation where all land and resources were controlled by the state. The environmental debate will also focus more on local rather than on global problems such as land use, land suitability or land degradation.
1.6 The fact that the majority of Senegal's population will soon live in urban areas is a major change that will reduce the focus on the desertification and land degradation debate. The green agenda will gradually become a "brown" environmental agenda which tends to focus on urban environment issues.
1.7 The impending environmental crisis. Beyond the land degradation debate is the fact that Senegal will soon be facing an overwhelming environmental dilemma, which will restrict and shape its economic development. The facts are unequivocal; Given the current high rate of population growth, the limited resource base, and the low level of technological development, there is no realistic scenario by which Senegal could achieve self-sufficiency in the food and fuel by the year 2015, a declared government objective. Even if improved agricultural practices lead to significant increases in yields, high demand will force direct tradeoffs between food, cash-crops and wood fuel production. Focus will necessarily shift to satisfying basic needs at the expense of concerns about environmental quality, biodiversity, or the acknowledged cultural, aesthetic and spiritual values of natural resources. Moreover, by the year 2015, nine million people, of a total population of 16 million, will live in urban areas, of which 5 million are expected to live in Dakar alone3. This rural exodus will certainly lessen the population pressure in rural areas. However, it will exacerbate current problems in urban areas, which are already quite serious.
1.8 The question is not whether Senegal will become even more dependent on imported food and fuel, but rather how much more dependent it will become and how the country will handle the situation. The main issue for Senegal is to earn enough foreign currency to import the food and fuel it needs. This is the only way to reduce the pressure on its own limited natural resources. Sound environmental management practices must not only be adopted by all sectors of society, they must become second nature. Government policies across the board will have to take into consideration the scarcity of basic environmental resources and the need for their conservation and management, in order to maintain what is already a barely satisfactory quality of life for a large part of the Senegalese population:
- population growth will have to be slowed through family planning, and major improvements in education, particular of girls, and in health conditions; - economic activities will have to be diversified into light industry and exportable goods and services; at the same time, Senegal must capitalize on the competitive edge it carned following the FCFA devaluation to become morc competitive on the international market in order to finance the import of external inputs necessary in the long-term for agricultural intensification; - agricultural yields will have to be improved through better natural resource managcment practices, such as water harvesting, anti-erosion measures (small earth or rock dams, composting) and the integration of livestock and agriculture, all of which will succeed only with clear ownership and rights of land and resources for farmers and herders; - forests will have to be managed for more efficient and more sustainable output; clear ownership is again key to successful forest management as are pricing reforms to price fuelwood at its scarcity value; - extension services will have to deliver a coherent rural development package that unites agriculture, forestry, and livestock around the land use theme;
3 "Senegal2015" prospectivestudy prepared in 1989 for the (Governmentof Senegal (GOS) as a framework for formulatingthe V[IlthDevelopment Plan (1989-1995). 3
- water will have to be conserved, in order to avoid depleting groundwater reservoirs; - cities will need to be planned and equipped with better urban services; - waste from urban areas and industrial activities will have to be disposed of without threatening public health or environmentalsustainability.
1.9 Sound environmental management is not a luxury for Senegal. Until the whole country is fully integrated into the global economy and reduces the relative importance of its primary sector, environmental management will be its lifeline, and its only means of bridging the development gap. And should the country succeed in meeting this challenge over the next 25 years, environmental management, in urban as wvellas rural areas, will have become a permanent fixture in the nation.
I.10 What is environment? The "environment"has become the starting point for a larger debate on the sustainability of development options. From its original focus on natural resources, the debate has evolved to encompass relationships between people and their physical surroundings, the resources they use, be they natural or man-made, and the space they evolve in. The current environmental model which emerged from the United Nations Conference of Environment and Development (held in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992) focuses on the relationship between development and the environment. This vision is based on the idea that any solution must take into consideration the relationship between interdependent parties in complex systems rather than trving to reach a compromise between opposing elements. For example, one should build on the linkages between environmental sustainability, economic development and poverty alleviation rather than treating them as trade-offs.
I.11 Traditional approaches to development have tended to focus on a narrow range of resources or issues, as if thcse were self-contained. Bv neglecting links to other sectors, development efforts have often had indirect and unforeseen social or environmental consequences. For example, the quest for self- sufficiency in cereal production through the irrigation of the Senegal River Valley had the laudable objective of slowing down the expansion of agricultural systems that are deemed unsustainable under cxisting agricultural practices. However, irrigation had a detrimental effect on fish hatcheries, dry season pastures, and floodplain forests. Subsequently, herders who were cut off from traditional dry season pastures sought alternate grazing areas, thus creating a new environmental problem in another location.
1.12 Purpose of the document. This document serves two purposes. The first is to improve the Bank's understanding of environmental issues in Senegal and place them within the overall development context The second is to strengthen policy dialogue between the Bank and Senegal on environmental issues. The document provides a review of available evidence of present and future environmental problems and challenges facing Senegal. It identifies and highlights the key issues and trade-offs that wzillrequire development of a national consensus as regards priorities. It also suggests broad elements of a strategy to remedy current problems and minimize future ones. As such, the CESP is intended to serve as an important input to the NEAP that Govemment and concemed partners are in the process of preparing. 4
I. KEY ISSUES
A. RESOURCE ENDOWMENT
2.1 Senegal is a medium sized country (196,722 km2), located at the westernmost point of the African Continent between 17°40' and 240 latitude north. The landscape is generally low, flat and monotonous. Elevations above 100 m are only found on the eastern and south eastern borders with Mali and Guinea, and near Dakar at the tip of the Cap Vert peninsula.
2 2 Harsh climate. Similarly to other Sahelian countries, Senegal has a harsh climatc with generally high temperatures, and low to moderate rainfall (Figure 1). Senegal's development options are severelv constrained by its arid climate.
Ziguinchor-Kolda 3,000 - Kaolack -.- Saint Louis 2,500 - Evapotranspiration
2,000 --.-- ---.-. ..- ... -.... -...... - - .
1,500
1,000 -_-.
500 * x X
Figure 1. Average rainfall from 1960-1961 to 1983-1984
2.3 The rainv season is limited to a seasonal monsoon, wetter in the south (>1000 mm from May to October) than in the north (<300 mm from June to September). Howvever,the duration, intensity, and seasonal spread of the rains at any one location varies considerably from year to year. This variability is highest in areas of lowest rainfall.
2.4 Although climatic uncertainty is an unavoidable feature of the Sahel, there is a growing body of opinion that average rainfall has significantly decreased over the last 40 years (Shukla, 1990; Hulme and Kelly, 1992). It is now accepted that Sahelian rainfall depends on features outside of its range, primarily ocean temperatures off the coast of Africa, and that temperatures in specific portions of the ocean have been rising. However, there is only speculation as to the ultimate cause of this increase and the resulting decrease in rainfall. Nonetheless, the large sand dunes that givc northeastern Senegal its undulating and ribbed surface are a rcminder that Senegal borders the Sahara descrt and that thcre was in the recent past a much drier period than today. 5
2.5 Evaporation rates are extremely high and potential annual evaporation everywhere exceeds rainfall. The harmattan. a hot wind that blows out of the Sahara for part of the year, exacerbates the problem. carrying dust as far south as Casamance in southern Senegal.
2.6 Surface water. Senegal is cut by four major rivcrs, the Senegal, Saloum, Gambia and Casamance, which are wide and meandering for most of their length. Because of the seasonality of rains, the water level in these rivers is highly seasonal, with high wvatersin September and little or no flow during the dry season. The seasonal contrast is more marked for the Saloum and Casamance Rivers, with watersheds mostly contained in Senegal, than for the Senegal and Gambia Rivers which drain the vast watersheds of Guinea's Fouta Djalon highlands. The decrease in rainfall over the last 40 years has also affccted vearly flood volumes of thesc rivcrs. For example, volumes in the lower Senegal River have decreased from more than 30 billion m3 to lcss than 20 billion m3 , the lowest being in 1984 with less than 10 billion m3.
2.7 Because of the high evaporation rate, there are practically no permanent surface water bodies of significance except for the Lac de Guiers which is replcnished yearly by the floods of the Senegal River. However, there are numerous seasonal ponds. but they usually dry up by January-February.
2.8 Groundwater. Except in the South East, Senegal sits on a sedimentary basin containing fairlv large quantities of groundwater, as demonstrated by the set of hydrological studies conducted since the original hydrological map was prepared by BRGM in 1965. The different aquifers of this basin can be regrouped into two main types (Michel et Sall, 1983):
- The sandstone aquifers of the Continental terminal (Ferlo, Upper Saloum, Lower and Upper Casamance) and the limestone and calcareous clay aquifers of the Eocene in the Cayor and the Baol (Thies, Djourbel et Louga); typically, village wells reach down 30 m to these aquifers in the West of the country and 100 m in the Ferlo. - The deep aquifers of the sandstones and sands of the Maestrichtian at the bottom of the sedimentarv basin. These aquifers are evervwhere very important. Boreholes reach down 100 m in the eastern part of the basin, but are ncarlv 300 m deep everywhere else. Water rises naturally close to the ground surface. The aquifers are partly replenished by river floods, but are also in large part fossil or inherited from earlier times.
2.9 Other sub-regionallv important aquifers should be added to the list, including the infrabasaltic aquifer of the Dakar Region, the Miocene aquifer in Casamance, the alluvial aquifers of the Senegal River. and the aquifers of the coastal sand dunes in the North. Goundwater is also found in the old formations of the geological platforn in South Eastern Senegal (South-South-East of Bakel and South- East of Simenti in the foothills of the Fouta Djalon).
2.10 Groundwater volumcs presently drawn represent only a small fraction of the water resources available in Senegal (approximately 747 million m3/year). Hoevever,the distribution of water resources does not match that of needs. In particular, potentialities arc almost fully used in the Dakar Region (Mott MacDonald International et al., 1991).
2.11 Pumping of wvater for settlements and industry is essentially done by the Societe nationale d'exploitation des eaux du Senegal (SONEES). Nearly 75 million m3 were drawn from the ground for all of Senegal's urban areas in 1989 (Mott MacDonald International et al., 1991). In 1990, the production of drinking water for the Dakar Region (Dakar, Pikine, Rufisque) was almost 54 million m3 . 6
2.12 Along the coast and near estuaries, overexploitation of groundwater resources is bringing about saline intrusions which result in a dramatic loss of water quality. Furthermore, particularly in and around cities, ground waters can easily be contaminated by seeping sewerage or by runoff from large garbage dumps. Chemical products, in particular pesticides, could contaminate large areas, the most vulnerable being Richard Toll and the Lac de Guiers.
2.13 In rural areas, rural hydraulics provides groundwater to approximately 18% of rural populations in 1986 (Mott MacDonald International et al., 1991). Part of this groundwater is drawn from deep aquifers using motorized equipment, with high discharge and elevated reservoirs. In 1989, 661 deep boreholes existed, of which 495 where equipped. The other part consists of wells that are either not equipped or only equipped with hand pumps, sometimeswith wind driven pumps
2.14 Soil fertility. The soils of Senegal range from the dry sandy soils of the Sahel (north of 150 latitude north) through the tropical ferruginous soils of the central Sahelo-Sudanian region to the ferralitic soils of the Sudanian region in the south. The process of laterization, related to average annual rainfall and evaporation potential, has been instrumental in fashioning the present soil types from the original substrate. Overall, soil fertility is low and soils are also generally fragile, making them highly susceptible to sheet and wind erosion when disturbed. Furthermore, the physical violence of tropical storms compounds soil erosion problems.
2.15 Limited natural primary production of terrestrial ecosystems. Senegal's natural landscape is dictated by the climatic and soil constraints descnbed previously, and consists mainly, along a south to north gradient, of open deciduous forest, savanna and steppe, all of which have a fairly low productivity. True forests are small and located either along river valleys, natural depressions or in the extreme south of the country. The natural vegetation is generally very resilient, being inherently adapted to climatic uncertainty and highly responsive to the amount of rainfall. For example, the production of annual grasses, coarse perennials, and shrubby trees in the rangelands of northemmost Senegal is usually of the order of 300 kilograms per hectare. In 1984, as in 1973, production was practically nil because of erratic and scarce rainfall; but in 1988 it reached 2 tons per hectare because of rains that were abundant but also well spread in time (CSE, 1988).
2. 16 The extreme dryness experienced by Senegalese ecosystems during the dry season renders the natural vegetation highly susceptible to bush fires. Once triggered, a bush fire can travel hundreds of kilometers before petering out. Bush fires strongly affect vegetation cover by selecting plant species adapted to withstand these fires. Ecosystems in northern and central Senegal are also vulnerable to periodical locust invasions which damage crops and rangelands.
2.17 The limited primary production potential is a major constraint to the production of crops, livestock and wood fuel that can only be removed by an input of water (irrigation in the case of crops and wood fuel, boreholes in the case of livestock) and nutrients (fertilizers in the case of crops, animal feed in the case of livestock), better management or genetic improvement.
2.18 Fisheries. Senegal's ocean facade offers it an opportunity denied to landlocked Sahelian countries: coastal fisheries. Throughout the dry cold season from November through April, an upwelling from the ocean bottom brings up cold but nutrient rich waters that make Senegal's coasts among the most productive in the world for pelagic fish species, and an important source of export eamings if the fisheries sector is well managed. Furthermore, Senegal's river estuaries and deltas serve as important nurseries for coastal fish such as mullet species, the Fimbriated Herring (Ethmalosafimbriata), various 7
African carps and shrimp. Although important to local economies along the Senegal River, fresh water catches are low and have even fallen over the last 30 years because of the smaller floods.
2.19 Mineral resources. Although Senegal has significant deposits of minerals, particularly of iron, the only significant mining activity is an open-air phosphate mine in Taiba near Thies.
B. POPULATION
2.20 Population growth. The population of Senegal is growing at the relatively high rate of 2.9% per year, having doubled from approximately 3.5 million at independence in 1960 to 6,869,000 in 1988. It is projected to increase to 10.1 million by 2000 and to reach 21.3 million by 2030. The demographic situation is characterized by high fertility rates, currently at 6.5 births per woman, and a very young age structure of the population with nearly 50% of the population under the age of 15. As a result of the combination of these two factors, it is predicted that growth rates will remain high for the next two decades before starting to decrease slightly. The average population density was 35/km2 in 1988, compared to 25/km2 in 1976; outside of urban areas, population density is very uneven, being highest in the central groundnut basin and parts of Casamance (greater than 100/km2) and lowest in the east and southeast (less than 20/km2).
2.21 The second major feature of population is a sustained migration from rural to urban areas (defined as agglomerations of more than 10,000 inhabitants), particularly to Dakar and its surroundings which now comprise close to 2 million inhabitants. Whereas 73% of the population lived in rural areas in 1960, and 27% in urban areas, only 61% lived in rural areas in 1991 and 39% in urban areas (Figure 2). Population growth rate from 1976 to 1988 averaged 3.8% per year in cities and only 2.1% per year in rural areas, even though the total fertility rate is lower in urban areas and slightly decreasing (5.4 vs. 7.1 births for the period 1983-1985; Ndiaye et al., 1988)4. Thus, Dakar has served as a buffer for an increasing population, and as the proportion of the population living in cities increases, we can expect a significant decrease in the overall population growth rate.
4 The total fertility rate corresponds to the average number of descendants at age 40-49 years for a fictitious cohort of women wkithfertility rates per age class that match those observed during this period. 8
20- Urban
15- I Rural
10-
5 /
0- 1950 1960 1975 1988 2015
Figure 2. Changing population pattcrns from 1950 to 1988, projection to 2015.
2.22 Sencgal has been modestly successful in improving the physical quality of life since Independencc: lifc cxpectancN has incrcased from 42 to 48 years and infant mortality (age 0 to 5) has decreased from 135 pcr 1000 in 1970 to 81 pcr 1)000in 19915.
2.23 Slower population growth wvouldcontribute to dampen the demand on environmental resources. Although population growsth,poverty and environmental degradation tend to reinforcc each other, it is rccognizcd that the linkage can be brokcn through the provision of family planning services and by promoting the emancipation of women through formal education.
2.24 The Government of Sencgal is committed to promoting a family planning program. A national policy on population wvasadopted in 1988. and a Priority Action and Invcstmcnt Program (PAIP) has recently becn developcd (World Bank, 1993). The PAIP includes a National Program in Family Planning with quantitative objectives for both the short and medium terms: 22% coverage by 1995 and 28% by 2000. comparcd to 3% in 1992. Thus it appears that the failure to more quickly reduce population growth ratcs is not duc to a lack of an appropriate policy, but rather resides at the implemcnitationand dclivery lcvcls, as Nwellas from a lack of dcmand for familv planning services (Cleaver and Schreiber, 1993).
2 25 Basic education During the 1960-19X8period, enrollment in primary schools in the critical 7- 12 agc group increased from 34% to 58% (70% for Sub-Saharan Africa). There is a high correlation between urbanization and education (Ndiave et al., 1988) and a high correlation betwcen education and fertility For instancc, in 1983-1985. the fertilitv indcx of illiterate women was 6.8 births while that of literate xNomcnwas only 4.6 births. Yet, adult litcracv is still only 32% (23% for women), which tends to be high for the Sahel but much less than the 47% average for Sub-Saharan Africa (Vitagliano, 1992). Furthermorc. primary cducation has littlc advanced over the last five vears compared to other countries in the rcgion.
5World B3ank,19 93 WorldDevelopment Report, p. 292. 9
2.26 Ethnic groups. Most of the population originates from five major ethnic clusters: Halpoularen (Peul and Toucouleur), Wolof, Serer, Mande (Soninke, Mandingo, Malinke, Dialonke) and Diola, although numerous other ethnic groups are represented (for example, Manjak, Balante, Bassari). Each group traditionally had a specific rural production system which evolved out of its ecological niche. However, although ethnic specificities remain important, they are not the predominant factor which they once were, especially in urban areas.
2.27 Religion. More than 90 % of the population is Muslim, and most Senegalese Muslims are affiliated w ith one of three principal brotherhoods (Muridism, Tijaniya and Qadriyya). The brotherhoods, particularly the Murid, have plaed a major role in the expansion of groundnut cultivation because of their ability to mobilize land, labor, capital and public opinion. Groundnut production and trade are the fundamental basis of political power of the Murid brotherhood.
C. USE OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES
2.28 Land use and sustainability. The issue of land use underpins environmental concems in rural areas. Problems are depicted in terms of (i) changes in land use and (ii) sustainability of each particular land use. Two assumptions frequently underlie debate on land use. The first is that certain land use types are more environmentallv desirable than others. The second is that within a land use type, certain practices are more sustainable than others. For instance, residential farming degrades the environment less than cxtensive slash and bum agriculture.
2 29 Furthermore, the interpretation of the terms "desirable" or "sustainable" is ambiguous. Do they mcan the presenration of initial conditions, including natural biodiversity, or only the long term stability (dynamic equilibrium) of production systems, after some initial environmental cost'? Two further assumptions often underlie this ambiguity: 1) natural ecosystems are more resilient and less "accident- pronc" than man-made ecosystems, because they have withstood the test of time; 2) natural ecosystems and their biodiversitv have an intrinsic ethical and aesthetic value. As a result, much of the debate on land use is really a polemic on the validity of the above assumptions. Although each is partly true, each also contains a large part of subjective choice.
2.30 Human carrying capacity is the effective criteria that determines land use in Senegal. More peoplc per km2 can live from agriculture than from pastoralism, and more from pastoralism than from hunting-gathering. Expansion in the agricultural domain is a normal response to population pressure. According to Boserup's hypothesis (Boserup, 1965), it will spontancously stabilize or start to decrease as more intensive agricultural practices are adopted. The increase does not imply a loss of sustainability in the Sahel. although it certainly greatly reduces natural biodiversity. Instead of land use control, the key question is what steps must be taken to increase the efficiency and sustainability of the rural production systems chosen by rural populations. The fact that land is still the primary support system for a majority of the population the rural component -makes improvement of production systems even more urgent and important.
2.31 The maintenance of production systems often requires continuous investment and inputs. By cxtension, rural ecosystems can become "degraded" and unsustainable if farmers do not invest enough to maintain them, for economic, social or political reasons. What many experts define as land degradation is in fact land neglect. Stated in these terms, Government's land use policy should focus on economic, social and political factors that influence investment, instead of on land or the resources per se. 10
2.32 The following discussion looks successively at major land uses as if they were independent activities. This simplifies the discussion but in return tends to obscure important relationships between them. The same plot of land can serve different purposes in different seasons (for instance, livestock feeding on crop residues) or in different years (for example, the agricultural cycle might incorporate long periods of fallow). The distinction between rangelands and forests is somewhat artificial, since most non-agricultural areas, to the exclusion of a few protected areas, are used for both grazing and forestry; the first land use tends to dominate in areas of low rainfall, while the second dominates in areas of high rainfall where livestock is limited because of Trypanosomiasis. Moreover, agricultural activities are conditioned by the strong north-south agroecological gradient that results from the wide range in yearly rainfall, from less than 300 mm in the north to more than 1200 mm in the south. The ideal discussion would focus on production systems, i.e. the peasant's reality, but their diversity, including many variants (Pelissier, 1966), makes their use difficult as an analytical framework.
2.33 Crop production. Existing data on the extent of the agricultural domain, i.e. cultivated lands and fallow lands, does not validate the assumption that it is rapidly expanding to the detriment of rangelands or forests. Estimates for the period from 1960 to 1990 vary from virtually no increase (USAID, 199la; Figure 3) to approximately 25% (Labonne, 1991), compared to a 100% increase in total population. The agricultural domain would now total approximately 40,000 km2 (EROS Data Center, 1992), of which approximately 9,000 km2 would be of marginal potential. Regardless, field observations show encroachment on pastures and forests, particularly in Upper Casamance and southeastern Senegal, and pressure on protected areas.
Areaplanted in 1000ha 0 others Q Groundnuts *FAIlettsorghum 3000
2500
2000 15 0
500
19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 1q t9 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 63 84 85 86 87 88 89 .,' /6 / 6/6 16 /i /6 /6 t6 17n n n17 n n17n /8 /8188/8 /8 /1/8 18e 788 t Figure 3. Changes in the extent of the area planted in crops, from 1960 to 1990 (Senegal Agricultural Sector Analysis. USAID, 1991).
2.34 This situation is all the more surprising given the existence of still unused and potentially suitable agricultural land, representing approximately 40,000 km2 in Casamance and southeastern Senegal (EROS Data Center, 1992). A number of factors could explain the lack of agricultural expansion:
- poor agricultural performance has encouraged a constant rural exodus, thus inhibiting the increase in population residing in rural areas, - crop mixture has shifted away from cash crops (groundnut and cotton) to food crops because of reduced international demand and the abolition of subsidies, I1I
- Onchocerciasis has until recently deterred colonization of fertile valleys in southeastemn Senegal, naalabilit- of water, in the absence of deep wells and boreholes, has limited settlement,
- readily available subsidized imported foods, particularly in urban areas, have depressed the markets for food crops and locally produced meats.
2.35 An additional interpretation is that existing tenurial arrangements have contained agricultural expansion (Labonne, 1991). Although the State is the ultimate owner of the land, rural councils representing local interests decide how land is distributed, a procedure which tends to discourage grants toousdersand population movements, thus containing agricultural expansion. According to such a scenario, expansion was easiest in the rangelands on the margins of the existing groundnut basin or into remaining pockets (the case of Mbdgud), because pastoralism is not recognized as a land use conferring land rights. In other words, expansion has mainly occurred in the pioneer zone of the Terres Neuves in southeastem Senegal, and along river valleys in Upper Casamnance.
2.36 Conventional wisdom asserts that traditional farming practices are not sustainable at high population density because they deplete soil fertility. Yet, there is little direct data to support this. Agricultural yields for rice and maize have increased modestly over the past 30 years, whilst millet and groundnut show no change (Figure 4), even though average rainfall, the major determinant of yields, was decreasing. Nonetheless, soil scientists assert that these data hide a significant loss in soil fertility, most notably because of shorter fallow periods, that has been compensated for by improved seed stocks and agricultural practices (Pi6ri, 1989). Groundnut farmningis the most criticized agricultural production system. Its most salient feature, the practice of shifting cultivation, is a consequence of thie availability of large tracts of cheap land, a situation that will change as rural population increases and less suitable agricultural land remains unoccupied. T'he unsustainability of current groundnut farming practices highlights the need to improve fanning practices.
Yields in Kg/ha
2500 Miltsrh
2000 -0--- Rice .
500
0
6 66 66 66 66 67 77 77 77 77 7 88 B 88 88 88 8 0/ 1/ 2/ 3/ 41 5/ 6/ 7/ 8/ 9/ 0/ 1/ 2/ 3/ 4/ 5/ 6/ 7/ 8/ 9/ 0/ 1/ 2/ 3/ 4/ 5/ 6/ 71 8/ 9/
Figure 4. Changes in agricultural yields from 1961-1961 to 1989-1990 (Senegal Agricultural Sector Analysis. USAID, 1991). 12
2.37 With the exception of the settlement of the Terres Neuves, Government efforts to increase agricultural outputs to meet national demand for food have focused on increasing yields rather than expanding the agricultural domain. Unfortunatelv, attempts to intensify rainfed agriculture in the 1970s by introducing tractors or animal traction generally failed. In fact, the Societe de d6veloppement et de vulgarisation agricole (SODEVA) encouraged peasants to clear the land of most trees under its animal traction extension program. leading to soil degradation and thus lower yields. Many other factors could have forestalled intensification, although their relative importance is difficult to assess because of lack of adequate information. These include:
- Poor soils and current agricultural practices. Senegalese soils are at best moderately suitable for agriculture. Moreover, current agricultural practices, such as clearing all vegetation during the dry season and burning crop residues, tend to reduce the organic matter in soils and increase erosion risks, both through rainfall run-off and wind, thus decrcasing yields. - I'oor economic environment. Senegalese farmers do not make the investments required to increase yields, such as chemical fertilizers, either because the improvement in yield is insufficient to recoup the investment, or because they lack capital or access to cheap credit. - Insufficient population density. According to Boscrup (1965)6, intensificationshould occur spontaneously when population density reaches a critical level. The rural population density 2 exceeds 100/km only in parts of Senegal's groundnut basin, wvheremore than 50% of agricultural land is cultivated vearly. Moreover, the demographic pressure in this area is somewhat mitigated by the high rate of male exodus to Dakar, Western Europe and even NewNYork where they operate as small scale traders. - Social f_Ictors. Various social factors might inhibit intensification. For example, inheritance patterns do not guarantee continuity of land holdings (Gu&yeand Laban, 1990), thus inhibiting long-term investments. In addition, religious brotherhoods have acted as a social safetv net, concentrating and redistributing income. Furthermore, most Senegalese living abroad send home remittances, thus reducing the importance of agriculture in houschold income. - Poor agricultural extension delivery. Until recently (up to 1990), delivery of existing results by extension services has been poor, the major emphasis being on short-term production increases. Natural resource management issues were neglected. Extension efforts were also penalized by insufficient resources, the lack of a national extension strategy and staff that was inadequately trained and managed.
2.38 Rainfed agriculture has just emerged from a long history of state intervention through rural cooperatives and regional development organizations. State control of fertilizer and seed had created market distortions and irregular supplies. These institutions and practices were gradually discarded as the NewvAgricultural Policy, implemented from 1985 onwards, aimed at increasing incentives to the private sector. But up to this day, rainfed agriculture remains a low investment, low yield activity. Furthermore. even though there are now localized signs of spontaneous intensification and serious efforts by Government to improve the delivery of extension messages, soils and climate seriously limit the improvements in rainfed agriculture vields that can be expected in the foreseeable future. But, because so many pcople still live in rural areas, improving the sustainability of agricultural production systems must remain a high priority.
6 TIheapplicabilitv of this hypothesis is contested for the case of Africa. 13
2.39 Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the Government rcgarded development of irrigated agriculture as the answer to the Senegal's food needs. Very large investmcnts were made by Senegal, Mali and Mauritania to dam the Senegal River and promote irrigation. Smaller investments were also made bv Senegal in the Casamance River basin, on the border with Guinea Bissau.
2.40 Completion of the Diama and Manantali dams has stopped the yearly dry-season intrusion of a salt water tongue into the vallev, which could extend over 250 km, and has maintained a minimum water flow during the dry season, thus creating conditions for double-crop irrigation throughout the valley. The Government's aim was to irrigate ovcr 200,000 hectares, the majority under rice, to satisfy most of Senegal's cereal needs. The downsidc of this project was the implicit elimination of recession agriculture7 and a reduction of natural flooding of large areas of natural pastures and forests, accelerating their degradation. Overall, the environmental and social impacts of the dams were given little attention. In addition, the project is having a strong negative impact on public health, by favoring the spread of malaria and Schistosomiasis (Euroconsult/RIN, 1990).
2.41 A new master plan for the left bank of the Senegal River valley (MPC, 1991) has made up for these oversights for both economic and environmental reasons: the irrigation scheme has been downsized to no more than 80,000 hectares and recession agriculture, forestry, and livestock components have been added. In addition, as a consequence of the New Agricultural Policy, the role of the Societe d'amenagement et d'exploitation du delta (SAED) has been cut back, effectively returning the initiative to the local populations which seem to be meeting the challenge. Under the new plan, the Senegal River valley should be able to satisfy the food and fuel necds of its population, estimated at approximately 15% of the national population, with some surplus in cercals. But, contrary to initial expectations, the Senegal River valley will only marginally alleviate the food needs of the rest of Senegal's population. To be successful, the plan should be part of a set of measures that cover the whole of the Senegalese part of the Senegal River basin. In particular, parallel development efforts should be instigated in the Ferlo which constitutes the pastoral hinterland of the valley proper. Moreover, the plan will only be effective if development policies are compatible on the two sides of the river as, for example, it incorporates flood control Nwhichrequires the agreement and cooperation of both Senegal and Mauritania, as well as Mali.
2.42 The proposed construction of a canal through the Cayor, from the Lac de Guiers to Thies, may be an important complement to the Senegal River development scheme. The canal's primary purpose would be to supply Dakar wvithwater. It could eventually serve to irrigate approximately 10,000 hectares along the way. mainlv in the wvestempart of the groundnut basin, with the objective of stimulating and diversifying the groundnut basin's economy and creating a new environmentally sustainable development pole. However, the economic justification of such irrigation developments is dubious, especially when many thousands of hectares of irrigated perimeters remain unexploited in the Senegal River Valley.
2.43 The niayes (small depressions in coastal sand dunes) constitute another intensification pole which has met considerable success in the labor-intensive production of fruits and vegetables for local consumption and export. Farming in the niaves relies on watcr held in coastal sand dunes which is replenished by rainfall. Further development of agriculture in the niayes could deplete these water
7 Traditionally,Senegal River Valley farmersplanted sorghumas floodwatersreceded (October-November), over an arca averaging40,000 hectares but depending on the cxtent of the annual flood. Burrowingof the crop's roots until it reachedthe still moist subsoil assured the water requirementsof the plant and thus its growth, withoutany human intervention This production system requires little labor, while still providing yields of 500 to 600 kilograms/hectare. 14 resources to the extent that they would be polluted by underlying salt water. Already, the remarkably successful tree plantations along the coast from Dakar to Saint Louis have had the effect of reducing water reserves. A tertiary benefit of the proposed Canal du Cayor, which would parallel the coast approximately 50-100 km inland, could potentially be to reduce pressure on the niayes by drawing certain agricultural activities into neighboring regions.
2.44 The negative impact of agriculture on the environment has not yet been quantified. This includes: 1) pollution of surface and underground water due to increasing use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in irrigated areas (although overall use of chemical fertilizers has decreased over the last few years), and 2) soil salinization because of inadequate drainage of irrigated perimeters (sulfurization for perimeters located in mangroves). This issue will become more important as food production intensifies.
2.45 Pastoralism. For nearly 30 years, development experts have claimed that nomadic pastoralism is not an environmentally sustainable production system in Senegal, because livestock numbers exceed carrying capacity causing overgrazing, rangeland degradation and eventually desertification (van Praet, 1984, Le Houerou, 1987). Cattle numbers did increase greatly between 1950 and 1970 in the rangelands of northem Senegal (from about 50,000 to approximately 300,000), as a result of improved veterinary coverage and the implantation of deep mechanized boreholes that tapped the Maestrichtian aquifer and brought year-round access to previously little used pastures. The density of boreholes in northem Senegal is exceptionally high among Sahelian rangelands. Livestock numbers were drastically cut back by the 1972-1973 and 1983-1984 droughts, only to bounce back afterwards, although data sources are unreliable.
2.46 The whole debate about overgrazing and desertification has become emotional and rather futile, with conflicting schools of thought and little objective data. The existence and extent of desertification itself is contested (Hellden, 1988; Warren and Agnew, 1988; Nelson, 1990; Tucker, 1991), and certain authors consider it a myth or even a deliberate political mystification. A revisionist school of thought is now questioning the validity of the overgrazing/land degradation dogma (Behnke and Scoones, 1992). In Senegal, work by the Centre de suivi ecologique, ongoing since 1980, does not support the hypothesis of increasing massive loss of productivity of rangelands (Prevost, 1990; Hanan et al., 1991), although it shows significant changes in species composition and a severe reduction of tree cover, but only in the vicinity of boreholes (the parking lot effect). Overall, herder managed rangelands in Senegal appear less "damaged" than rangelands elsewhere in the Sahel, and are clearly in much better condition than neighboring agricultural areas in terms of land cover and fertility.
2.47 From 1981, the Forestry Department promoted increased beef production under the guise of a natural resource management project around the Vidou Tiengoli borehole in the R6serve sylvopastorale de Six Forages. In 1985, it created ranch-like conditions, with fenced enclosures, water troughs and veterinary care. It used existing legislation to displace established herders, then invited back those who agreed to obey a code limiting livestock numbers. A study was made to assess the project's impact on natural vegetation (Miehe, 1990). The results show, as expected, that controlled grazing had a clear positive impact on tree regeneration, although it did not stop the decline of hard leafed trees, such as, Sclerocarya birrea and Combretum glutinosum, apparently linked to insufficient rainfall. The study also showed that tree regeneration is improved by browsing, but only below a critical stocking rate. However, grass production in control enclosures did not increase in comparison with open range areas. On the contrary, open range pastures were of higher quality with a better balance of plant species. Production in open range pastures depended mainly on the amount of rainfall. Miehe concludes that in the long term, enclosures serve little purpose as fodder reserves. 15
2.48 Government interventions in the livestock sector have been predicated on a lack of understanding of pastoral strategies and objectives. The Government wants to increase offtake and meat production for urban consumption, and to control herd movements, while the pastoralists want to maximize their on-the- hoof capital and milk production, the mainstay of their diet, and retain their mobility as a hedge against droughts. This strategy is typical of all dryland areas in Africa (Behnke and Scoones, 1992).
2.49 National efforts to stimulate beef production in Senegal were spearheaded by a parastatal, the Societe pour le developpement de l'elevage dans la zone sylvopastorale (SODESP). The production chain was stratified into three distinct activities: calving in the Ferlo, growing at the Doli Ranch, and finishing at special lots near Dakar. SODESP essentially bartered inputs (veterinary care, equipment and animal feed) against calves, assessed in terms of live weight. To the extent that growing and finishing took place outside of the Ferlo, herders effectively were excluded from the more profitable parts of the production chain.
2.50 As a rule, Senegalese herders do not find the meat market profitable, except for providing sacrificial animals for religious feasts. Nonetheless, prices for locally produced meat are out of reach of average urban wages. As a consequence, the market for locally produced meat is slow, a situation that is compounded bv imports of low cost meat from the European Union (EU) and South America (3,000 tons per year, half of which is meat and one third poultry; FAO, 1990). Thus, in years of good rainfall herders keep their animals on natural pasture until fully grown and then sell them through traditional channels (Thiam, 1991). They only sell large numbers through "official channels" in drought years, such as 1983-1984, when they urgently need cash to buy food supplements for starving animals. The government regards this behavior as a sign of an irrational attachment to their cattle.
2.51 The future of nomadic pastoralism in Senegal depends on maintaining sufficient rangelands to ensure mobility. This future is seriously threatened by the encroachment of agricultural lands on rangelands. The development of irrigated agriculture in the Senegal River valley has, for example, directly converted seasonal rangelands into croplands. Moreover, the construction of the left bank dike in the Senegal River delta in 1964 cut off approximately 80,000 km2 of dry season rangelands from vearly river floods, turning them into a sterile wasteland (Euroconsult/RIN, 1990).
2.52 The gradual encroachment of agriculture into communal pasture lands also followed the implantation of mechanical boreholes which made permanent settlement possible8. Pastoralists have generally wielded little political power. Their recent history is one of social fragmentation and relatively weak social cohesion at higher political levels (Santoir, 1983). "Hence, without explicit actions to strengthen agropastoral claims and to assure continued access to lands needed to maintain the system's mobilitv, current trends towards a squeezing of the pastoral economy are likely to continue and, possibly, to accelerate" (Schoonmaker Freudenberger, 1991). According to Thiamn(1991), all non gazetted lands in the southwestern Ferlo will have been colonized by the year 2000. Of the remaining three blocks, the Doli Ranch, the Mbegue Reserve and the Reserve sylvopastorale du Sine Saloum, most of the Mbegue Reserve has already been lost and the other two blocks are already speckled with agricultural fields (Thiam, 1991).
SchoonmakerFreudenberger (1991) retraces this agriculturalexpansion: 1) Deali in 1954 (1,200 hectares), 2) Deali and Boulel in 1966 (10,550 hectares), 3) an additional 19,000hectares over the next 15 years, 4) the seizure of 80,000 hectares of public lands in 1968-1971to create the Doli ranch used by SODESP, and 5) 45,000 hectaresof the MbegueForest in 1991. 16
2.53 Forestry. Protecting trees has become the paragon of environmental virtue. Should Senegal's forcst be rigorously protected? Or should land use satisfy social and economic objectives, in addition to mccting criteria of long-tcrm sustainability?
2 54 Estimatcs of forcst area range from 139,000 km2 (71% of total land area in 1978; Ministere du dcvcloppcment rural, 1982) to as littlc as 22.700 km2 (MDRH. 1992), depending on the nomenclature being used and the scope given the tcrm forest9. The tcrm forest is used vcry broadly in Senegal to dcsignate nearlN all non-agricultural lands and unbuilt areas. It includes a wide range of vegetation typcs. from the most open stcppe to the denscst closcd canopy forest stands. Under this definition, some of Senegal's "forests" have a tree covcr of lcss than 5%, while some agricultural areas have a higher tree covcr Using this broadest of dcfinitions, Senegal's natural forest area would total between 140,000 and 150.000 km2 .
2.55 Various rcports suggest that this arca is dccrcasing: I) the World Bank's World Development Report for 1992 (IBRD, 1992) gives a 0.5% rate of dccrease per year; 2) the Ministere du dcveloppementrural (MDR, 1982) gives a figure of 0.2% per year; while 3) the National Plan to Combat Descrtification cstimates it as high as 5% per year (MPN, 1989). Much of the difference in these figures rcsults from diffcrent cstimation mcthods. Neither the areal estimates, nor the estimatcs of annual wood biomass incremcnt and wood fuel consumption1i. are satisfactory or reliable. Government estimates place annual consumption at about 6 million m' and the annual incrcment at about 2 million tons/year (7,161,000 m'/ycar), based on an incomplete database (MDRH, 1992), whereas the ESMAP project to map biomass in Africa estimatcs much higher incrcment rates (see also USAID, 199lb for a critique of Govcrnmcnt figures).
2 56 Loss of forest arca is the counterpart of agricultural expansion. Since the agricultural domain is approximately onc third the forest area, statistics on forcst loss would translate into a rate of expansion for agriculture v%ellabovc what is observed. In fact, loss estimates do not distinguish two distinct phenomcna First, a gradual decrcase in tree cover density throughout the country's "forests", and sccond. the localizcd dcstruction of specific forcsts, small in area but dense in trees, particularly in southcrn and castcrn Scncgal. for charcoal production. In spite of the Mbeguc incident, loss of forest area bccause of encroachment by agriculture is not the main forestry issue in Scnegal. The problem is the unsustainablc management of cxisting forests.
2 57 The production of charcoal for the urban market is the main cause of deforestation in Senegal, accounting for a loss of approximately 50,000 hcctares/vear (MTE, 1992). Producing charcoal is legal in Sencgal. as long as it uscs only dcad wood. Production itself is monitored under a system of permits granted by the Forcstry Department. However, charcoal producers systematically either break the law, by cutting live trees, or circumvcnt it bv killing trecs first (scarring, burning) and then cutting them. Thcrc is no stumpagc fcc. charcoal production is taxed solely on the basis of charcoal produced and not
9 Ihlc 1)92 Wlorldl)cvelopment Rcport, D)evelopmentand the l.nvironment (113RD,1992), gives a figure of I I(,()(( kn2 bor torest urea, whilcWorld Resources1992-1993 (WRI, 1992) gives two figures:first, 59,420km 2 2 tor forestand \%oodlaid, and 57,00() km for permancntpasture in 1987-1989(Table 17.1); and second, 140,730 k1m12 for lbrestand woodllanidin 1980(TI'able 19 1) 1Bccauise Iorest inientorv data are not detailed cnough to estimate torcst loss, a proxy is used: 1) extrapolating cstimiatcsof average annual per capita uxoodfticl cotisLmption to the whole population; 2) comparing the rcsultings figuirc %Niththe estimated anLual increment in wood biomass through natural growth; and 3) transfonning the w oodtucl deficit into an areal estimate by using avcrage standing biomass per hectare figures. I[hezresuiltiig tiglires arc published without any cstimnatcot their rcliability. 17 on the basis of the number of trees consumed. Accordingly, there is no incentive for charcoal production to bc energy efficient. On avcrage, each kilogram of charcoal requires 5 to 7 times its weight in wood. Furthermore, the State controls the pricc of charcoal, in ordcr to keep it within reach of urban populations, thus indirectly encouraging further use of this cheap source of energy. As a result, the taxes collected (75 FCFA per 50 kg bag) are a fraction of the cost of restoring the resource. either through tree planting or management of remaining natural forests.
2.58 The charcoal trade is a highly lucrative business both for the State's coffers and for the fewer than 100 merchants who control it. As a result, relations between the Ministry concerned and charcoal producers have tended to be non-confrontational and regulations have only been laxly enforced by the Forestry Department (Ribot, 1988).
2.59 Until recently, the charcoal trade, by excluding the local populations except as occasional laborers, constituted a major transfer of rcvenue from rural to urban areas and thus a significant diversion of potential rcsources from already poor rural populations. The new Forestry Code (Act 93.06 of February 4. 1993) partially rectifies the system's distortions. For the purpose of the charcoal trade, the State now grants tree cutting rights on public lands to local communities, without charge, under a land use plan developed by the Forestry Department and approved by the communities (Article 6). It is up to the rural communities to assign parcels of forcst land covered by the land use plan to individuals or companies they select (Article 7).
2.60 The rural population's perspectivc on "forests" is diametrically different. There are few untouched forests in Senegal. Practically all land is the object of some form of communal claim. The population has a "holistic" view of the land and does not separate it into forestry, cropland and pasture components. However, the permits now granted by the rural communities are usually issued without prior consultation with the populations having traditional rights on the land in question. They often disrupt established production systems by amputating their forestry component, making them less sustainable. For example, farmers avoid prolonged fallow periods, fearing that their land might be incorporated into public lands by the Forestry Department, preventing its return to agricultural production. Forcst policy therefore creates a disincentive to leave land fallow, thereby exacerbating any loss of soil fertility.
2.61 The Forcstry Department's efforts to control land use and trees in the last few decades, through a reprcssive forcc of forest officers, have little to do with promoting environmental sustainability and much to do with gencrating revcnue and furthering political objcctives. Permits were granted outside of any plan for the sustainable management of natural forests. The Department itself underinvested in the management of natural forests, and instead tried to create its own forests with exotic species.
2 62 The Forcstry Department, with assistance from the FAO and other development partners, has prepared a Senegalese Forestry Action Plan (SFAP) in order to implement a new rural participatory forestry approach that will devolve control of forest management to local populations. Its implemcntation will give concrcte form to the options defined in the new Forestry Code, namely abandonment of State control and recognition of participatory rural forestry. However, implementation of the new Code will be difficult because it entails a radical change to current forestry practices. In the particular case of the charcoal trade, it implies confronting a wvellorganized interest group that will use political lobbying to defend its privileges. Furthermore, most Forestry Department agents will have to be retrained to work with local populations in a participatorv manner. 18
2.63 Carbon sequestration. Concerns about global warming have induced a brand new jargon. Among the new concepts is that of carbon sequestration, that forests must be maintained because they serve as carbon sinks, keeping CO2 out of the atmosphere where it would contribute to global warming. Global warming is a serious concern, but Senegal's forests are not at all comparable with those of Central Africa where carbon sequestration can exceed 400 tons/hectare. Consequently, the contribution of Scnegal's forests to carbon control is probably insignificant.
2.64 Maintenance of biological diversity. Senegal displays a typical Sahelian fauna and flora, with few species rcstricted to its territory. Most of the original wildlife has long disappeared in the face of human encroachment. For example, long established settlements along the Senegal River floodplain progressively wiped out the ungulate populations that migrated seasonally to and from the river valley. Nonetheless, the remaining natural habitats are valuable in that they host species at the southernmost (gazelles), northernmost (various primates) or easternmost (elephants) limits of their ranges, possibly displaying unique local adaptations to extreme conditions.
2.65 The relativcly low biodiversity of Sahelian habitats is compensated for by the presence of coastal and marine life forms. Thus, the deltas and estuaries of the Senegal, Saloum, and Casamance rivers form internationally recognized wetlands that serve both as breeding habitats for various bird species and for marine turtles, and as important staging areas for migratory water birds from Europe. Mangroves are also important areas for marine mammals, including African manatees and certain dolphins.
2.66 Senegal has deployed great efforts in establishing a network of national parks and nature reserves (Tablc I) and in promoting wildlife tourism as a justification for their maintenance. These efforts have salvaged vestiges of the initial biodiversity, but the overall situation is alarming. The intensity of human occupation throughout most of the country is such that there is little left to conserve outside of the national parks. For example, many of the remaining large animal species are close to extinction, among them the ostrich, chimpanzee, wild dog, cheetah, African manatee, African elephant, giant cland and red fronted gazelle (Stuart et al., 1990).
Table 1. Protected areas of Senegal
NAME Area in hectares Creationdate
Parc National de NiokoloKoba 913,000 1954 Parc Nationalde Basse Casamance 5,000 1970 Parc National des Oiseauxdu Djoudj 16,000 1971 Parc Nationalde la Langue de Barbaric 2,000 1976 Parc Nationaldes liesde la Madeleine 450 1976 Parc Nationaldu Delta du Saloum 73,000 1976
ReservcOrnithologique de Ndiael 46,550 Reservede Faune du Ferlo Nord 487,000 Rdsenrede Faune du Ferlo Sud 663,700 Reservede Popenguine 1,009 Reservede Gueumbeul 720 R6scrscde Kalissaye 200 Reservede Kassel 90 Reservede Djovol 3
TOTAL 2,208,022 19
2.67 The Niokolo Koba National Park (PNNK) is the most extensive conservation area in Senegal, preserving a relatively valuable sample of soudanian flora and fauna, including large mammals such as the African elephants, chimpanzees and lions. It is registered as both a World Heritage site and a Man and the Biosphere (MAB'1 ) Reserve. Its ecology and wildlife are interlinked with those of the whole of southeastern Senegal. The park suffers from heavy commercial poaching, especially of elephants, either by armed bands that come from Mauritania or by neighboring populations. Budgets have been insufficient to maintain park infrastructure or provide adequate protection. The future of the PNNK will most likely be affected by two major ongoing development initiatives. First is the eradication of Onchocerciasis in southeastern Senegal. The PNNK is one of a string of national parks and wildlife reserves established in areas where population density had remained very low because of tropical diseases, particularly Onchocerciasis. Following eradication, the lands bordering the Gambia River and its tributaries will attract human settlement. Ultimately, the natural buffer zone that surrounds the PNNK will be colonized and the park itself might be threatened.
2.68 Second is the improvement of the road that cuts across the northern part of the PNNK. Notwithstanding assurances given by the Government that everything would be done to protect the PNNK, new park service rules for the new road were not put in place, and unimpeded poaching reportedly has decimated what biodiversity existed five years ago. The purpose of the road is to stimulate economic growth in South Eastern Senegal, including the area surrounding the PNNK. However, economic development could quicken the parks demise if park management and protection are not improved. Moreover, new secondary roads and other infrastructure such as deep boreholes will favor the expansion of opportunistic slash and burn agriculture into unprotected areas that presently host certain of the park's animnalsat particular times of the year. An additional threat will be possible mining activities, particularly for gold and marble.
2.69 The Djoudj National Park in the Senegal River delta is now, for all purposes, a wildlife irrigation scheme. The Djoudj depression originally functioned as a nursery for sea shrimp and sea fish such as the Fimbriated Herring, and various tilapia and mullet species. These bred in the salt water tongue that entered the delta at the end of the dry season; fish fry and shrimp larvae then moved into the flooded delta where they grew quickly due to the availability of rich grassland residues before retuming to the ocean as waters receded. An open connection between the delta and the sea was thus an essential feature of the ecosystem. It was dramatically modified by the left bank dike in 1964, that cut off the delta's floodplain from the river. The delta was further compromised by the construction of the Diama dam in 1985 that cut it off from the ocean, and the right bank dike built in Mauritania in 1989. The nursery function of the delta had created an abundance of food that sustained large colonies of fish-eating birds on both banks of the river. These conditions were the basis for creating the Djoudj National Park in Senegal and its counterpart, the Diawling, in Mauritania. It is uncertain if the new ecology of the Djoudj will be able to sustain such colonies.
2.70 All protected areas have encountered strong opposition from local populations. Part of the problem results from the heavy-handed way in which some of the parks were established in the 1970s and populations resettled without compensation. The discontent of populations neighboring the protected zones led to their tolerance of poaching by outsiders or even to poaching by these populations. The Department of National Parks has since made efforts to quell the conflicts and to involve surrounding populations more in park management, but with mixed results.
Man and the Biosphere(MAB) was launchedby UNESCOin 1971 as an internationalprogram of research on interactionsbetween man and the environment. 20
2.71 The biggest problem facing the national park network is that it has not attracted the numbers of tourist planned, and thus has not generated the expected revenue. Ecotourism never really took off and, in this matter. Senegal is competing with better organized and wildlife-endowedcountries like Kenya and Tanzania. Ecotourism became significant, but not enough to finance park infrastructure and protection.
2.72 Land use conflicts. Environmental issues often reveal deep political tcnsions bctween differcnt population groups on qucstions of rights of access to land and resources. In this perspective, what happened in Mbhgui is less the environmental disaster it has been painted to be, than a conflict betiveen different communities with different land use patterns. It may be inferred that the Govemmcnt decided the Mbegue bush was more valuable as cropland than as a rangeland, its traditional use. What is dispiriting is the fact that a leading pastoralist had previously been jailed under forestry law for farming in the Mbcguc Reserve, only to bc evicted when the land was opened to farmers.
2.73 As population density in rural areas increases, we can expect local populations to become less and less tolerant of outsidcrs. Points of friction are bound to increase: one group's land rcserve is another group's unused land. Such conflicts can rapidly acquire ethnic connotations and are then amplified into the political arena. For instance, serious conflicts arose in Casamance between 1981 and 1993. There are also other examples, such as the efforts by Murids to acquire land near Podor in the Senegal River valley during the mid 1980s. This issue was mostlv resolved to the benefit of local populations.
2.74 Despitc thesc tensions, with time Senegal appears to have created a system of checks and balances that has limited movements of rural populations and, as a consequence, contained agricultural expansion outside of the groundnut basin. On the other hand, it has created a pressure cooker in the groundnut basin xwhercthe bulk of the population is concentrated and where soils are poor and water insufficient. Nevertheless, the expansion of agriculture in Senegal is less acutc than in other countries, for cxample, Burkina Faso, where the problems of the Mossi Plateau spilled over into most of the southern part of the country once Onchocerciasis was eradicated. The trends observed in Senegal will not changc substantially in the near future. Indced, it would be surprising if the Government were to adopt a proactive policy,towards population movements before the year 2000, given the cthnic tensions that surfaced in Scnegal during the 1980s, particularly in Casamance.
2.75 A likely scenario. The rural population is projected to increase by nearly 75% over the next 25 years. As a consequence, the agricultural domain will cxpand, wherever possible, to the point of including lands of little agricultural potential, better used for other purposes. This expansion will be facilitatcd by the implantation of deep boreholes in areas where water availability is a constraint. Unless there are changes in tcnurc lauv and relative political power, the remaining communal rangelands of central Scncgal will be colonized. A population pole as dynamic as that of the groundnut basin could appear in the Kolda to Ziguinchor corridor. The agricultural potential of the land around this pole will bc completely exploited. Eradication of Onchoccrciasis in southeastem Scnegal and the improvement of the road through the Niokolo Koba National Park will open access to new territory, although little of it is suitable for agriculture, perhaps even threatening the park itself (see Hecht and Toledano, 1991, for a possible sccnario). Under thcsc circumstances, the Govcrnment must confront the fact whether, within the present tenurial framework, it wishes to control the future expansion of agricultural lands and, if so, dctcrminc to what extent it can actually exert control. 2 1
Projectedpopulation in 2015 (in millions of people)
currentarea, current yield, current croprrixture
Currentarea, inrproved yields, currentcrop rrixture
Exparidedarea, inrrroved yield, currentcrop rrixture
Nbximfuimarea, iniproved yields, no
cash crops 1
0 5 10 15 20 Figure 5. Human carrying capacity in the year 2015, accordingto different cereal production scenarios, in millions of people (derived from data in Geographicmodeling of human carrying capacity from rainfed agriculture:Senegal case study EROSData Center, 1992).
2.76 Carrying capacity. Senegal was self-sufficient in cereals at the time of Independence in 1960. In 1989-1990. it produced 564,000 tons of cereals more than in 1959-1960 (1,064,000 metric tons vs. 500,000 metric tons), but still had to import 533,800 tons (FAO, 1990)12. It now faces a chronic cereal deficit roughly equivalent to the requirements of its urban population. Part of this deficit is compensated by the export of groundnut oil (117,000 tons in 1990) and cotton. Nevertheless, even with maximum expansion of the agricultural domain, the elimination of cash crops in favor of food crops, and the expected intensification of production, Senegal wvillhave problems meeting its cereal needs in the year 2015 (Figure 5) from domestic production, let alone earn enough foreign currency for imports13. A policv of total food and energy self-sufficiency is likely to outstrip Senegal's sustainable production capacity and lead to resource depletion, environmental degradation and accrued poverty, as the focus is put on meeting immediate rather than long-tern needs. Moreover, such a policy means that Senegal would direct investment to areas for which it does not necessarily have a comparative advantage.
D. URBANIZATION
2.77 Senegal's growing urbanization brings with it a host of specific environmental problems. They have been compounded by insufficient planning and inadequate investment in infrastructure development. Urban environment issues can be discussed under three main themes (Ta Thu Thuy, 1992):
- urban planning, - urban wastes, - urban consumption of environmental resources.
12 Rice and wheat make up most of the importedcereals, rather than millct/sorghumor maize which are the most importantlocally grown crops.. 13 The scenariosshown in Figure 5. do not take into accountthe need to set land aside for the conservationof biodiversitv,a measure whichwould even furtherlimit cereal production. 22
2.78 Urban planning. The new town of Tionck Essil in Casamance is a remarkable example of a successful transition from a village to a town. Roads, streets, schools and services were all planned before settlement was started. But Tionck Essil and a few other Senegalese towns are exceptions. More often, there is a huge gap between the theory of urban planning and land occupation in Senegalese towns. In the particular case of Dakar, its speedy transformation into a megalopolis exacerbated urban planning and sanitation problems.
2.79 The gap has resulted from the growth of urban areas far beyond predictions and the fact that undeveloped land legally is owned by the Government. This situation has created a very strong unmet demand for urban land that far exceeds existing urban plans. As a consequence, spontaneous settlements precede urbanization programs, confronting administrations with faits accomplis which they cannot recognize without creating dangerous precedents. As a matter of policy, authorities do not provide urban services such as water, sewerage, road maintenance and electricity, to these "illegal settlements" and the population is reluctant to invest in property for which they do not hold title. Anarchic settlement of this sort is a major cause of future urban dysfunction which is almost impossible to correct without moving the settlers, a solution rarely desirable given the high social and economic costs. The end result is insalubrious neighborhoods and a low quality of life. For example, Pikine, a suburb of Dakar, now has the greatest number of houses (31) and inhabitants (242) per hectare of all Senegalese cities, as well as the greatest number of inaccessible streets. As another example, spontaneous settlements appeared in low-lying and badly drained areas near Dakar that had dried up because of the drought conditions in the early 1980s. After heavy rains in 1988, these areas were flooded, the overflow mixing with sewerage waters and creating serious public health problems.
2.80 City planning has thus been incomplete and its different urban elements rarely well integrated. This has resulted in an unbalanced distribution of businesses, educational establishments and services. Poor planning has also resulted in a spectacular deterioration of traffic in Senegalese cities, especially in Dakar. There are very few green spaces in Senegalese towns. For example, the new settlements that have sprouted in the northern part of the Cap Vert peninsula over the last ten years have included no new green spaces. Basic services and infrastructure are often inadequate even for planned settlements.
2.81 A basic dilemma confronting urban administrations, particularly that of Dakar, is between densification and extensification of the urban fabric. Densification of infrastructures and services improves quality but does not cover needs arising from the continuing population influx. Extensification wvillmeet these needs but without reaching the critical mass of services needed to improve the quality of life.
2.82 The growth of secondary cities has lagged behind that of Dakar. Moreover, slow development of secondary cities and rural towns means that they are not playing fully their role as service centers for rural areas.
2.83 Urban waste. Because of their high population densities, the capacity of urban environments to absorb waste is dramatically below what is generated. This waste must be treated or exported if urban quality of life and public health are to be maintained at an acceptable level. Given their limited budgets and the fact that exporting waste is cheaper than treating it, Senegalese towns and cities have no other choice but to export their wastes untreated. Thus Dakar's sewerage and waste waters are collected in 25 canals, most of which are open air, and discharged raw into the ocean. Only 12% of the population is serviced by sewers, although a treatment plant for the equivalent of 100,000 inhabitants is under construction north of Dakar. 85% of the 3,000 m3 of solid waste produced by Dakar each day is dumped 23 at Mbeubeuss, outside of the city limits. Throughout Senegal, solid wastes are dumped at city limits or peripheries, creating characteristic fields of plastic bags.
2.84 A major problem conceming waste disposal in urban areas is the propensity of inhabitants to dump their wastes at the closest convenient location, as they did when living in rural areas. Senegalese towns and cities tend to be dirty with garbage strewn on roadsides and even sidewalks. Solid waste is dumped directly into gutters or canals, thereby clogging them. This frequently causes flooding at the outset of seasonal rains, resulting in property damage, productivity losses and health problems. The limited maintenance crews cannot keep the infrastructure in good order. Keeping Senegalese cities clean requires that the citizens change their perception of waste-related issues, and become stakeholders in the maintenance of their city's infrastructure. They must either correctly dispose of their garbage or pay someone else to do it for them. This will require intensive public education or greatly increased municipal budgets for city garbage service. It will also require that populations participate in the diagnosis of their problems and in the choice of solutions.
2.85 The export of waste by cities casts an environmental shadow on their surroundings, particularly on their immediate surroundings. Thus, Dakar effluent has already heavily polluted the waters off the Cap Vert peninsula to the extent that large stretches are unfit for bathing. People living along bays in the Cap Vert region carry on average three infectious diseases. There are already traces of lead, zinc, chromium and copper in coastal fish species.
2.86 There is presently no system of environmental accountability that would force industrial polluters located near urban settlements to pay for the cost of controlling their emissions to a level compatible with public health. The most striking examples of this are the Bargny cement factory, the Taiba phosphate mine and the Richard Toll sugar cane refinery.
2.87 Urban consumption of environmental resources. The supply of urban areas in essential environmental resources such as food, fuel and water, casts an "environmental shadow" that extends over the whole country. Food preferences may differ between urban and rural populations, but per capita consumption in volume is essentially the same. The biggest difference could come if urban populations started eating more meat than those in rural areas. This is not presently the case, a situation unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.
2.88 On the contrary, per capita fuel consumption is much higher in urban areas. Moreover, urban dwellers rarely use wood fuel, which is not economical to transport over long distances, but instead use either nationally produced charcoal or imported energy sources such as liquid propane gas or diesel fuel, used to generate electricity. Although electricity and gas are becoming more important, the main energy source remains charcoal. Given that several kilograms of wood are needed to produce a single kilogram of charcoal, each urban dweller uses up to five times the wood fuel that a rural person does. As a result, pressure on wood fuel sources is increasing with urbanization.
2.89 As mentioned above, water availability has constrained rural settlement. It is also a hindrance to the development of urban settlements. Outside of the Senegal River valley, water supply is a serious problem because toxms are generally far from surface fresh water sources. Much of Dakar's water supply is piped over 200 kilometers from the Lac de Guiers, the only important fresh water body in Senegal. Othervise, Dakar mainly relies on water drawn from fossil aquifers, as far inland as Thies. These are already overdrawn and risk being contaminated by salt water intrusions. Dakar also draws water from the shallow aquifers in the niayes area that traditionally were used for garden farming. To prevent the depletion of these aquifers, Govemment has set up a water quota for horticulture, equivalent 24 to 7% of the production by the Societe nationale d'exploitation des caux du Senegal (SONEES), the parastatal in charge of supplving water to urban areas. Yet the supply for Dakar already falls short of needs by as much as 15% to 30%. This is why the major function of the Canal du Cayor would be to fill this gap by delivering fresh water from the Senegal river to Dakar. The scarcity of water in Dakar is compounded by the fact that the SONEES currently delivers potable water to the Cap Vert region at below cost and thus encourages wasteful consumption. Not only does this threaten the sustainability of watcr sourccs, but it also means greater volumes of wvastewaters to be treated.
2.90 Most large urban areas also rely on high quality water drawn from nearby fossil aquifers, but watcr offlake can quickly outstrip thcir rccharge and lead to their depletion. Urban areas in which the water distribution netwvorkis insufficicntly developcd still meet part of their water needs by drawing from shallow wclls Thesc are oftcn polluted due to the use of latrines and septic tanks that infiltrate directly into the watcr tablc.
2 91 Employment. The low rate of employment in the formal economy indicates that the tax bases of Scnegal's town and cities are inadequate to financc necessary services and infrastructure. Most of the active population works in the informal sector. The informal economy is very dynamic, but it also has major drawbacks. First. productivity is low. Second. working conditions are poor and frequently unsafe. Finally. it does not pay taxes even though it benefits from public infrastructures and services. One of the rcasons for the informal scctor's expansion is that conditions of entry and participation in the formal sector have bcen a disincentive to the registration of ncw firms.
E. ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT PROCESSES
2.92 Institutional Aspects. Focus on the environment arises from a concern about the quality and sustainabilitv of development and thus touches on nearly all sectors of public affairs. No single ministerial dcpartment presently covers, or could conceivably cover, all environmental matters. Thercfore. the often hcard commcnts that deplore the multiplicity of government dcpartments involved in environmental affairs, reflect an erroneous understanding of the nature of environment. However, the commcnts do rcflcct lack of coordination between dcpartmcnts, turf battles concerning implementation of dcvelopment assistance projccts. lack of leadership on environmental issues and, ultimately, the absence of an environmental policy.
2.93 The Govcrnmcnt has had difficultv in assigning responsibility for environmental management because of its inherently multidisciplinary nature. Followvingthe approach defined at the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the environment, in the late 1970s Senegal created a Department of the Environment within the Ministry of Urbanism, with a mandate of environmental protection. The Departmcnt has since bccn moved several times, first from the Ministry of Urbanism to the Ministry of Naturc Protcction in 1983, thcn to the Ministry of Environment and Tourism in 1989, and again to a ncwl1 crcated Ministry of Environmcnt and Nature Protection in 1993. The present Environment Departmcnt only has about 10 professional staff As a consequence, the scope of its activities has been limited Nxithmorc emphasis given to the implementation and supervision of a few projects, focusing primarily on coastal pollution issues around the Cap Vert peninsula. The Department of Environment has not playcd a major coordination role.
2.95 The institutional location of the Department of National Parks has also changed, depending on howvits rolc was interpretcd. It was initially answerable to the Office of the Prime Minister, then was 25 transferred to the Ministry of Nature Protection in 1980, then to the Ministry of Environment and Tourism in 1989, and again to the Ministry of Environment and Nature Protection in 1993.
2.94 The Ministry of Rural Development and Hydraulics (MDRH) was until the latest government shuffle in 1993 the most important Government body in regards to management of the rural environment. It regrouped nearly all of the Departments and structures involved in the management of rural resources, the main exception being animal production (livestock and fisheries) which are overseen by a ministerial delegation. The Ministry included: the Department of Water, Forestry, Hunting and Soil Conservation Department (5 divisions), the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Hydraulics, the Institut senegalais de recherche agricole (ISRA), the Direction de la Recherche en matiere de production forestiere, the Direction de la recherche en production hydraulique, and the Centre de suivi ecologique. The MDRH was broken down into three separate entities in June 1993: the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of the Environment and Nature Protection, and the Ministry of Hydraulics. The Ministry of Agriculture includes, among other structures, a Soils Office responsible for mapping soil types and for assessing their fertilitv.
2.95 The Office of the Prime Minister is another important player, especially on coordination issues. The Ministry of the Interior, particularlv its Direction de l'Amenagementdu Territoire (DAT), also plays a major role, being responsible for preparing the national land development plan. Other departments within this Ministry supervise the preparation of development plans for the various administrative units. The Ministrv of Economy, Finance and Planning plays an important role, since environmental planning cannot be dissociated from economic planning and management. As the body in charge of overseeing and regulating industrial and commercial activities, the Ministry of Commerce and Handicrafts also exerts considerable influence on the environment.
2 96 The weaknesses of national institutions have been a major barrier to improving environmental management. These weaknesses concern management and planning capabilities, as well as the capacity to coordinate, regulate and deliver services. For example, reduced capacity within the Environment Department has considerably hindered their monitoring of environmental issues. Similarly, the weakness of agricultural extension services makes unrealistic the promotion of sustainable development through improving production system efficiency. In addition, although in many cases appropriate legislation or policy guidelines exist, institutional weakness means that they are not fully implemented.
2.97 Senegal is divided into 10 administrative regions, which in turn are divided into 30 departments (counties), 90 arrondissements (wards), 48 communes (urban areas), 3 17 rural communities14 and some 14.000 villages. In addition to the representative of the central government, each region, department and rural communitv has a Rural Development Committee made up of civil servants, and a Council representing local interests. Members of Rural Councils, the management bodies of rural communities, are locally elected. The primary function of Rural Councils is to adopt, manage and execute the local development budget and handle land tenure matters15.
2.98 The lack of financial and operational autonomy of local governments has limited their role in managing the environment. For instance, Rural Councils are largely powerless since all their decisions can be annulled by the administrative powvers,including those regarding land. Land is awarded to the members of the rural communities who develop it under the control of the State. Furthermore, the
14 A department is comparable to a prefecture and an arrondissement to a sub-prefecture.
15 D)ecret72-1288 relatifaux conditions d'affectation et de desaffectation des terres du domaine national comprises dans les commnunautesrurales. 26 absence of an independent mechanism to arbitrate disputes between individuals and government, or betwccn local and central government, biases the resolution of conflicts in favor of central government. It also makes environmental management more susceptible to political pressure.
2.99 The Conseil des organisations non gouvernementales d'appui au developpement (CONGAD) is the official umbrella organization of NGOs active in Senegal, both national and international. CONGAD is supervised by the ministry in charge of social affairs (currently the Ministere de la femme, de l'enfant ct de la famille). The importance of the environment is acknowledged by the existence of an environmental committee within CONGAD. However, CONGAD does not yet have a strong environmental agenda. Environmental activities of NGOs in rural areas have focused mainly on reforestation and tree nurseries, and less on the management of natural resources. The Federation des organisations non gouvemementales du Senegal (FONGS) is another major player arnongst Senegalese NGOs. It represents ovcr 2,000 village groups, is very active in extension and could serve as a key relay in government programs.
2.100 Many international NGOs are also active in promoting the sustainable management of natural rcsources in Senegal. ENDA tiers monde, based in Dakar, has produced insightful studies, notably on the urban cnvironment. The World Conservation Union (IUCN), an international NGO specifically concerned with the environment, has funded a public awareness program targeted at primary schools. In addition. NGOs from developed countries have received support from their country of origin to implementenvironment related programs in Senegal.
2 101 Environmental information1 6. Decisions affecting the environment should normally take into account the location, abundance and condition of natural resources, current use, and their likely impact on resource sustainability. This is seldom the case in Senegal. This is not because information does not cxist. Granted there is much room for improvement in many sectors, for example agricultural statistics or trec cover and wood fuel biomass assessment. However, as a result of donor supported programs there is a wealth of information on natural resources, much of which is fairly recent. For example: 1:500,00()maps of vegetation cover and forests, erosion risks and rangeland resources produced during preparation of the Plan de d6veloppement forestier du Senegal (1982); detailed rangeland maps for northern Senegal produced by the Institut senegalais de recherche agricole (ISRA, 1973); an integrated rcsource inventory for the entire country, including maps of land use, land suitability, land cover and 7 morphopedology" (Stancioff, 1986) conducted by the DAT in conjunction with USAID; these maps have since been digitized and used by the US Geological Survey (USGS, EROS Data Center) to build a gcographic model of human carrying capacity from rainfed agriculture (1991); a soil map produced by ORSTOM at 1:1.000,000 scale; numerous soils maps at various scales produced by the Soils Office of Scnegal several databases on water resources compiled by the Direction de I'hydraulique;monitoring of rangelands in Senegal from 1980 onwards, taken over by the Centre de suivi ecologique (CSE) in 1986; a NOAA/AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) satellite receiving station, managed by the CSE and used mainly to monitor vegetation production and bush fires; a Meteosat satellite receiving station, managed by the Unite de traitement de l'information spatiale (UTIS) within ISRA's Centre de recherchc occanographique de Dakar Thiaroye (CRODT), used mainly for climatological and occanographic rcsearch.
16 Environmental information is broadly defined as any information used for environmental management, not only infonnation on natural resources. 17 Morphopedology is a description of the land in termnsof landscapes. It combines a classsification based on the nature and origin of topographic features (geomorphology), with a soil classification (pedology). 27
2.102 However, this abundance of information has only marginally improved the level of environmental management. The biggest problem lies on the demand side: the processes that should be using environmental information are either not operative or are organized in such a way that they cannot use it. Let us consider three examples: 1) The environmental assessment process should be the greatest user of environmental information. Instead, it is so weakly implemented that it has not created a strong demand for information; 2) The DAT has held the results of the integrated resource inventory since 1986 yet, to date, not a single development activity planned by the Government of Senegal has made reference to it; 3) The CSE and its precursors developed elaborate procedures to assess rangeland biomass and livestock numbers, yet the Ministry of Animal Resources has not systematically put the results to use except during livestock relief operations in crisis years.
2.103 Information has rarely, if ever, been conceived or organized to satisfy a specific operational management mechanism. It has served to describe problems, such as desertification, overgrazing, deforestation, bush fires or drought, but not to formulate or implement solutions. The root cause is the absence of clear, explicit and strong environmental management objectives and instruments. One of the only initiatives to coordinate environmental information came from the Direction des affaires scientifiques et techniques (DAST) starting in 1985, and was limited to remote sensing activities. It failed, in great part because the DAST was not felt to be impartial.
2.104 Despite the abundance of data, there is an effective information gap in terms of access to existing information, compatibility between data banks, and availability of key data sets. Much of the existing information is not accessible. In some cases this is because it is out of print, for example some of the 1:200.000 base maps or USAID's integrated resource inventory. In other cases, it is because the institution holding the information is incapable of offering a particular service for which it is mandated. For example, the Service geographique national (SGN) finds it difficult to deliver photographic products on demand. Finally, a few institutions withhold information or limit its dissemination by selling it. For instance, the Meteorological Department sells rainfall information at a very high price, thus seriously curtailing its use. Overall, projects have rarely developed long term capabilities to manage and update the various types of environmental information within the institutions specifically mandated by statute to do so. In addition, little effort has gone into disseminating information to potential users.
2.105 The lack of a common data architecture, in particular the absence of standards that ensure the compatibility of different databases, has constituted a major barrier to the use of information from different sources. Maps come in different projections (the integrated resource inventory is in Lambert coordinates, while base maps are in UTM coordinates); maps do not use a common geographic base; vegetation cover assessments or soil maps use different and incompatible nomenclatures (US Department of Agriculture vs. FAO vs. ORSTOM in the case of soils) (see Table 2); databases are incompatible because they are tied to different platforms, are structured differently, and thus cannot be combined. As a result, it is difficult to aggregate data from a larger to a smaller scale. This information Tower of Babel is the result of a lack of communication or worse, of turf battles, between Senegalese institutions or even between foreign institutions. Only rarely have efforts been made to utilize existing information, and complete or simply update what already exists.
2.106 The reliability of the information that is disseminated is rarely assessed. Thus various statistics are produced without indicating the potential sources of error and their importance, leading to misuse. This is particularly the case for certain official agricultural and livestock statistics. 28
Table 2. Sample of land classifications, according to different sources (in sq. km.)
WRI USAID EROSData Center PAFS 1992 1991 1992 1992
cropland 23,500 cropland 21,690 cropland 40,000 arable land 38,500 arable land 80,000 pasture 31,000 shrub 49,000 steppe 32,000 steppe 54,000 savanna 43,061 savanna 91,500 woodedsavanna 29,221 forest 106,000 forest 83,000 forest 43,813 forest 22,700 other 32,030 other 27,030
World Resources Institute, 1992, compilation lJSAID, 1991, from the Plan cerealier 1986 EROS Data Center, 1992, from original data Plan d'action forestier Senegalais (PAFS), 1992, from 1980 data.
2.107 Key information infrastructures are missing, the most important of which is a Digital Base Map Database (DBMD). The purpose of a DBMD is to serve as the common geographic support for thematic information, thus facilitating the overlay of different information layers, a crucial step in nearly all forms of environmental analysis and modeling. This is partly the result of the pattern of investment over the years where donors focused on specialized studies, driven by their own concerns, and neglected the structuring impact that a critical mass of key information, widely distributed, could have on environmental management.
2.108 Because of the above factors, there are no time series that objectively indicate the extent of environmental changes in Senegal, although there is enough data for experts to disagree about.
2.109 Important lessons regarding environmental information can be learnt from the experience of the CSE, the major player in Senegal's environmental information universe. It is the offspring of a FAO/UNDP research project that set out to develop methodologies for monitoring Sahelian ecosystems. The CSE was built on the premise of massive desertification/overgrazing. It never was able to find a mechanism that could act on the basis of its descriptive data - which did not support the desertification hypothesis - the existence of such a mechanism not having been the justification for its creation. To date, it is still not clear what action should be taken, or by whom.
2.110 The CSE wNasestablished as a new and distinct institution that attempted to bypass the difficulty of maintaining databases in a slew of institutions by establishing centralized databases. This approach did not take into account that information tcchnologies will inevitably have an influence on all national institutions, which will then be prompted to set up data bases for recurring information input. As a result, its activities will impinge more and more on those of existing institutions, creating a climate of ambiguity little conducive to open cooperation unless the Center becomes the central hub in a network of producers and users of geographical data. However, that option has not been considered under the current outside-funded project. The CSE program has evolved into a mix of State interventions and 29 commercial services. Due to the lack of a public mandate, veiled subsidies amount to unfair competition with the local private sector, whose emergencc is stifled. Nonetheless, the technical capabilities developed in the CSE, in terms of local staff and their mastery of advanced technology, are exceptional for Sahelian Africa. The CSE has demonstrated the possibilities offered by modem technology, which should be put to better use to aid development.
2.111 Legal Aspects. Because of the trans-sectoral nature of environmental issues, there is no single piece of legislation covering all environmental issues. Instead, many different laws include portions that pertain to the environment. The core environmental law is the Environment Code (Act 83.05 of January 7. 1983) which covers matters related to air, water and noise pollution, including matters of public health and security. Regrettably, the law has had little impact because regulations for its implementation were never passed. The law is currently under review to incorporate issues related to industrial hazard management.
2.112 The National Land Law or land tenure law (Act 1964.46) nationalized all untitled land -over 95% of the non gazetted land. Land use for agricultural or residential purposes was recognized, but the populations lost management rights over other lands, including land under fallow and land reserves. The law abolished private ownership of land, and replaced it by usage rights. It prohibited the sale, rent or anv other form of transaction concerning land and transferred the power to manage land from individuals to populations organized either "on a political or economic basis". Its ultimate objective was to support the national development policy to intensify agriculturc and increase cereal and cotton production. For this purpose, it sought to eradicate the privileges and rights of traditional land chiefs, give peasant masses access to land, and promote a grassroots development model. The mode of enforcement of the law are specified in Decree 72.1288 of 27 October 1972, relative to the allocation and deallocation of land in rural communities. The decree entrusts the law's implementation to the rural councils. It also provides for the establishment of land dossiers and registries for each rural community.
2.113 Act 64.46 onlv recognizes dwellings, agriculture and tree planting as productive uses of land conferring exclusive land use rights; pastoralism and the management of natural forests are not recognized. As a result, the Act is the main cause of the systematic reduction of rangelands. It is regularly called upon to uphold the claims of agriculturalists colonizing rangelands, in particular groundnut farmers, and to turn down the land claims of established pastoralists. In an ironic twist, the argument that pastoralism causes desertification has been used to justify land grants to agriculturalists. The bias created bv the Act has been specifically documented in the case of the rangelands surrounding Barkedji in the southern Ferlo (Toure, 1990; Juul, 1991).
2.114 Act 93.06 of February 4, 1993 relative to the Forestry Code, now replaces Act 74.046 of July 18. 1974. The Forest Code is an essential complement to the National Land Law. Having nationalized all forests and pastures, the Government entrusted their management to the Forestry Department which in turn can now hand over management to local communities, at no charge. As owner of these lands, the State authorizes the exploitation of the vegetation by the local population or private concerns, through a system of permits. As a consequence, any commercial use of forests for which a fee has not been paid to the State and a permit delivered, is considered illegal. Nevertheless, acknowledgment is given to some acquired rights of populations living along rivers, such as the right to gather dead wood.
2. 115 Rural populations have contested this intrusion by the State into their production systems since its initial inception by colonial powers. The new Code, like previous legislation, ignores the underlying relationships between agnrcultural lands and their surrounding forests and pastures, denying history, 30 society and geography. State authority always constitutes an a priori, on the basis of which the rights of the populace are recognized a posteriori.
2.116 The Pastoral Code (Decree 80.286/MDR/DSPA) relative to organization of rangelands and setting conditions of use for grazing grounds, defines procedures for delimiting and organizing rangelands, including the provision of corridors and security zones around vaccination parks and drinking troughs. Coordination is provided by rangeland conservation commissions at the regional and departmental levels. The Decree's impact has been negligible. It does not confer to pastoralists explicit rights to their traditional grazing grounds or define legal procedures to uphold such rights. Rangeland management is not devolved to pastoralists, but remains a prerogative of Central Government. The rangeland comrnissions, which were the only forum where pastoralists could theoretically be heard, never functioned properly. As a result, the Decree does not really protect rangelands from agricultural encroachment.
2.117 The Water Code (Act 81.13 of March 4, 1981) defines water as common property. The law defines the powers conferred on the water police to "repress all anarchic use, all waste, all acts causing voluntary or involuntary pollution of water resources, and all things that go against the general interest." In 1989, none of the decrees setting implementation procedures had been passed. However, an interministerial order dated May 13,1985, set water tariffs and other fees for livestock.
2.118 Human resource development. Generally, human resources are less of a constraint in Senegal than in other Sahelian countries. Nonetheless, human resources available for environmental management remain vastly insufficient both within and outside of Government. In particular: 1) few Ministries have staff with expertise in environmental issues or economics; 2) there is a major competency gap at the rural community and commune level; 3) no programs to develop environmental awareness and environmental management capacity exist within the government; 4) the focal point for the environment, the Ministry of Environment, has too little technical staff to fulfill its mandate; and 5) the national private sector has rarely been called on to provide expertise on the environment. On the positive side, the Institut des sciences de l'environnement (ISE), a training and research establishment, plays a significant role in training high level national experts although, given recent cutbacks in the civil service payroll, employmentopportunities are limited.
F. GOVERNMENTPOLICY AND PROGRAMS
2.119 Senegal does not as yet have a policy framework specific to environmental matters. However, the preparation of Senegal's contribution to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) increased the Government's awareness of the linkages between the environment and national development, and of the need for such a policy framework. In addition, the international outcry following the opening of the Mbegue Reserve to agriculture showed the need for a more consistent environmental policy. As a result, the Government created the Conseil superieur des ressources naturelles et de l'environnement (CONSERE; Decree 93.885 of August 4, 1993) with a mandate to supervise and coordinate action plans for management of the environment and natural resources. The primary function of the Conseil will be to draft a National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP).
2.120 Despite the lack of a policy framework document, at least six existing planning exercises directly concern the environment. Three of these are planning mechanisms that go beyond environmental affairs: the National Planning System, the Plan national d'amenagement du territoire, and the Regional Development Plans. The other three have concerns narrower than the environment: the National Plan to 31
Combat Desertification, the Senegal Forestry Action Plan, and the National Conservation Strategy. The Plan directeur de la rive gauche du fleuve Senegal should also be mentioned, since many of its recommendationsdirectly concern the environment.
2.121 National Planning System. The NPS consists of a new planning system, the latest being the Vlllth development plan for the period 1990-1994, and a 3-year sliding investment program. Preparation of the Vlllth plan was preceded by the "Senegal 2015" prospective study, in which the environment is discussed as a priority concern. Government efforts to liberalize the economy are well developed in the prospective study and clearly reflected in the 5-year development plan and 3-year investment programs. In contrast, environmental concerns are less vigorously presented. Nonetheless, the plan ties natural resource management with community based management, and suggests numerous measures to improve the management of environment that include the management of land and resources in a participatory manner, a better understanding of production systems, and implementation of the land tenure law. However, the plan's investment program addresses environmental issues in a fairly classic manner, with a large role still given to State controlled interventions and an emphasis on technical concerns such as the fight against desertification.
2.122 Plan national d'amenagement du territoire (PNAT). The PNAT conveys a philosophy of spatial regulation by the Central Government in order to correct regional disparities, reduce urban growth and better use natural resources (Khamtouche, 1991). Solutions are framed in terms of interventions bv Central Government and its dismemberments, through a "coherent hierarchical organization of settlements from the national capital to the rural relay". The focus is on redefining the administrative regions of the country and introducing major infrastructure such as roads and harbors (Saint-Louis, Ziguinchor and Kaolack). Quantitative targets are set for population growth, urbanization and education. The PNAT questions the liberalization efforts underlining the new agricultural policy and the new industrial policy implemented by the Government in the 1980s. There is no explicit environmental management philosophy and no hint of decentralization or increased empowerment of society at large within the national planning framework.
2.123 Regional Development Planning (RDP). The Regional Planning Department has produced regional development plans for all 10 regions in Senegal. Alas, implementation of these plans has been incomplete and the plans have remained indicative. In addition, the Direction du service de l'expansion rurale in the Ministry of the Interior, through its Cercles d'expansion rurale (CER), has produced development plans for most rural communities. These plans are a precious source of information on local conditions, issues and expectations.
2.124 National Plan to Combat Desertification (NPCD). The NPCD was produced in 1989 after four years of preparation and debate, on the basis of a seminar held in Saint-Louis in 1985. The plan stipulates that drought frequency is increasing and that it is "the cyclic manifestation of a desertification process". This process has manifested itself by a decline in vegetative cover; land degradation; a reduction in surface waters; a lowering of subsurface water levels; a drop in agricultural production; a decrease in livestock and continental fish stock numbers; disruption of production systems; a domestic energy crisis; deterioration of the nutritional and sanitary status of populations; and aggravation of the rural exodus.
2.125 The NPCD stresses physical factors, most notably the extension of agriculture, overgrazing, bush fires and the unregulated production of charcoal as the major causes of desertification. There is little analvsis of the underlying social and economic mechanisms. Accordingly, the solutions it proposes tend to emphasize the role of central government, the strengthening of its capabilities, and the 32
reinforcement of its control on natural resource use. For example, the NPCD favors Government control of sand dune fixation, bush fire control and soil restoration efforts, the sole concession being the possibility of village forestry, but then only in combination with State controlled plantations (page 246). Although the NPCD does mcntion the importance of local level development (page 247), it sees this as an implementationissue of a State controlled program.
2.126 Senegal Forestry Action Plan (SFAP). The Sencgal Forestry Action Plan (MDRH, 1993) replaces and updates the Plan directeur de developpement forestier of 1982 and corrects its numerous shortcomings. Its action at the national level includes: I) creating a coordination framework for management of natural resources; 2) rcorganizing the Forestry Department; 3) establishing a unit to promote, evaluate and stimulate the plan's execution; 4) providing institutional support to the Forestry Department; 5) continuing and accelerating the revision of forest legislation; 6) implementing a program of forest inventory and monitoring; 7) reinforcing national research capabilities; 8) rationalizing forest exploitation: 9) rationalizing wood fuel consumption; 10) making local communities responsible for managcment of local forest resources. Implementation of these proposals should result in a very substantive improvement of forest policy and administration, and a somewhat improved coordination with other sectors.
2.,127 National Conservation Strategy (NCS). The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and its Resources (IUCN) prepared a national conservation strategy for Senegal in the mid- 19X0s. It was transmittcd by IUCN to the Government, but its rcception was never acknowledged.
2.128 All six of the above policy exercises contribute elements to a national environmental policy. However, thex generally are weak on the analysis of the causes and mechanisms of the current environmental crisis and on the integration of social and economic agendas. Moreover, they all Justify increased State intervention as the primary solution. Only the SFAP proposes a reforn of current laws and institutions, albeit only partial. The articulation of these six proposals with each other within an overarching cnvironmental policy remains to be defined. This is now being envisaged within the preparation of the National Environmental Action Plan. 33
III. BASIC PRINCIPLES
3. 1 This section presents the rationale for the strategy recommendationsthat make up the next section. The approach adoptedis systemicin that it seeksto examineenvironmental issues in the broader context of cconomicand social development. Consequently,it focuses on the relationshipbetween economic systems and thcir sustainability. It places people, rather than forest conservation or biodiversity.at the centerof the debate.
3.2 Two conceptshave dominatedthe debateon the environmentin Senegal:desertification and food sclf-sufficiency.Self-sufficiency in food and fuel was to be achievedby controllingdesertification. The precedingdiscussion shows that both conceptshave limitedutility. It questionsthe current depictionof Senegal as a rapidly desertifyingcountrv: land use is changing,but no more than would be expected giventhe populationgrowvth and inherentvalue of the land. Moreover,approaching development issues fromthe point of viewof desertificationor land degradationhas led to recommendationsfor solutionsin the formof Governmentintervention.
3.3 The core cnvironmentalissue is the ownershipand control of natural resourcesand land. As such, the root of the presentenvironmental crisis is the excessivelydominant role played by the State in this area. Hence, a well-designeddevolution of responsibilityfor environmentalmanagement, comparablein scope to the reformistwvave that has affectedthe economicsphere over the last 10 years, is the elcmentthat wouldmost greatlycontribute to resolvingthe problem.
3.4 The environmentalframework proposed in the CESP consistsof two principalparts: 1) a general framewNorkestablished and maintainedby the State, that includes policies, institutions, a physical infrastructureand services,and 2) a myriadof decentralizedand independentdecisions taken by society at large. Thesc decisionsare the dynamicelements that shapethe outcomeof developmentefforts. The challcngeis to conceivea frameworkthat will channelthe dynamicelements into activitiesthat will lead to a sustainable and socially beneficial equilibrium. The Government took a command and control approachin an attemptto regulatethese elements,yet, merelysucceeded in inhibitingall initiatives. The State shouldnow devolvepart of its control over environmentalresources and land, which presupposes trust and mutualunderstanding, factors that currentlyare often lacking.
3.5 An indispcnsableprcmise of the strategyis the state's recognitionthat decisionswill be taken by socicty at large, often outside of governmentcontrol. The Governmentshould therefore decentralize control over land and natural resourcesand return it to local populations. It should free market forces that determine land and natural resource use and production, and allow populationsto weigh the tradeoffsassociated wvith their decisions. Empowermentof local populationsshould also reduce ethnic tcnsion and form the basis for a politicalconsensus. In such a system, the deforestationat Mbegue would not have occurredbecause pastoralists would have hcld clear and exclusiveland rights and would have had access to an independentjudiciary to uphold them. However,the eventual creationof a land markct system that takes into account customary rights should incorporate measures to prevent the marginalizationof the most disenfranchisedsocial classcsand groups.
3.6 Howcver,transfcrring control over land and natural resourcesto local populationsis likely, in the short-term.to lead to a massiveerosion in biodiversitythat only the Governmentcan stop. The Govcrnmentshould select the most importantand valuable areas and rigorouslyensure their protection. There is little usc setting up conservationareas for posteritv if they are not ecologicallyvaluable or 34 politically viable. Acceptance by local populations would depend on whether or not they could benefit from some of the spin-offs of this protection, for example from tourism or game hunting.
3.7 At least in the short- to medium-term, every effort must be made to increase the long-term efficiency of production systems in order to postpone a food and wood fuel shortage. The main incentive for the sustainable intensification of a rural production system will be the growing urban market. In addition to social and economic measures, local and central governments should concentrate their efforts on improving services (extension, education and health) and infrastructures (roads and communications). This would be best accomplished through a hands-off approach that focuses on improving the services offered by local and central governments.
3.8 Because of the expected growth in population, Senegal cannot be self-sufficient in food and wood fuel energy in the long-term. Pursuing self-sufficiency could actually lead to environmental damage and cconomic distortions. Food and fuel will have to be imported. To offset the costs of importing, the economy will have to diversify, shifting from agriculture to light industry and export of services, capitalize on its position as a convenient stopover point for oceanic trade and air travel, a strategic location for telecommunications facilities, and as a natural gateway to the Sahelian hinterland. Therefore, a huge investment in human resources development is a prerequisite of the strategy because an educated population has more economic options and because environmental management requires educated, well-informed people who have the capacity to make objective decisions. Moreover, education, particularly that of women, is the most effective way of controlling population growth and accelerating the onset of demographic transition.
3.9 In the y'ear 2015, most Senegalese will live in cities. Consequently, much more emphasis will be placed on urban environments and their economy. "Brown" environmental issues, such as urban infrastructure, water supply and waste treatment, will become more important than the "green" cnvironmental issues that currently receive most attention. This is taken into account in the strategy. On the other hand, the reduced role of rural areas as providers of food and fuel will lead to a better appreciation of their environmental quality as urban populations look to rural areas to escape city life. This will place a premium on environmental conservation: farmers will become the caretakers of the land and the natural resources.
3.10 Finally, the main determinant of the strategy will be an accountable governance process. Environmental management is not different in any way from other governance processes. Establishing a suitable environmental management framework will entail changes in the State's policies, institution, and regulations. and will require greatly improved abilities to plan, monitor and coordinate activities that affect the environment. Moreover, the State must explicitly discuss the linkages between economy and ecology at the national level. These structural changes will be arduous and complex, and should be undertakcn as long-term processes. 35
IV. TOWARDS AN ENVIRONMENTAL STRATEGY FOR SENEGAL: UNDERLYING FACTORS AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
4.1 This document places environmental issues within the overall context of Senegal's economic, social and political development. The issues have been framed in terms of two nexuses. The first is the population, poverty, environment nexus; the second is a political, economic and environment nexus. This is an area which has been less explicitly explored in the analysis of environmental problems. However, ultimately, rural environmental issues of land use and sustainability revolve around questions of ownership and use of natural resources; an area which is essentially socio-political not ecological in nature. 4.2 The aim of this strategy is to propose ways in which to break or transform the linkages of these nexus so that rather than creating a vicious circle of poverty, disempowerment and environmental degradation they lead to a situation of improved incomes, empowerment and sustainable resource use. Instead of focusing on technical interventions to solve environmental problems, the strategy focuses on how to set in motion a process to promote improved environmental management and provide individuals with the legal rights and incentives that encourage more sustainable use of natural resources. 4.3 The strategy first looks at the four major environmental challenges facing Senegal -- sustainable management of natural resources, improving the quality of the urban environment, biodiversity depletion, and overfishing -- highlighting their underlying causes and making suggestions as to how they could be addressed. It then examines how to strengthen the institutional framework for environmental management. Finally, it highlights the main implications of such a strategy for the Bank.
A. MANAGEMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES
4.4 Land use is the result of arbitration between uses which are often mutually exclusive, especially when each is supported by different individual or group interests. Arriving at a balance between cropland, rangelands and forests, determined by a combination of cultural choices and market forces, would probably be the most sustainable use of Senegal's land and natural resources from both an economic and an ecological perspective. Unlimitedexpansion of the agricultural domain runs contrary to Senegal's best interests, because it would compromise environmental quality and nullify current efforts to preserve biodiversity, particularly in the southeastern part of the country, while not even satisfying the country's long-term food needs. At present, at least three aspects of the current legal and incentivc frameworks favor agriculture over more sustainable land uses:
(a) The current framework for arbitration of land uses is the land tenure law (Law 64.046). The referee is the Rural Council, under the supervision of administrative authorities who represent Central Government. The law recognizes agriculture and tree planting as land uses justifying granting exclusive user rights. Pastoralism and the management of natural forests, however, only warrant the status of non exclusive access rights. Hence, when a rural council is confronted with conflicting claims on the same piece of land, for example from an agriculturalist and a pastoralist, its decision is guided by the law and systematically favors the agriculturalist. The law thus encourages the expansion of the agricultural domain into rangelands and forests. Moreover, the law tends to disenfranchise groups, such as pastoralists, that favor production systems which do not emphasize agriculture. Marginalization of certain social groups could lead to serious conflicts as population density increases. 36
(b) The new forestry law maintains the principle of a protected forest domain, under thc control of the Forcstry Scrvice, made up of all the land which is not cultivated or gazetted, representing close to 70% of the country. Land previously cultivated and then abandoned automatically becomes part of the protectcd domain once natural vegetation has grown back. The law thcreforc favors cropland, since no one would consent to lock up their good cropland forever to plant trees on it. The law also discourages certain land management practices that replace soil fertility, for example, in the case of shifting-agriculture production systems.,very common in south and eastern Senegal, soil fertilitv is reestablished only after a prolonged period of fallow, bv which time the area is naturally reforested. (c) The current incentive framework creates economic distortions which make woodfuel production less profitable than agriculture. Thesc distortions includc: (a) the currcnt system of forestry permits and fees, since it reduces the profit that landholders can make from managing forcst resources as well as their management options; (b) price controls on charcoal which cncourage consumption and discourage investment in the regeneration of the resource; (c) frec access to land for agricultural purposes, whilst access to forest resources is charged; (d) subsidies on imported fuels such as bottled gas, if they make sustainably produced woodfuel too expensive. The latter type of distortion could be alleviated by a uniform pricing of all domestic energy sources according to their energy value (BTU).
4.5 Recommendcd is a review of the legal and incentive frameworks to eliminate biases against the managcment of natural forests so as to give incentives to local populations to make long-term investments in the sustainable management of natural resources. The main mcasure that could be taken is to recognize the legality of peoples' user rights to the land and natural resources that they use. The range of land uses justifying the granting of exclusive user rights, presently limited to agriculture and tree planting, would be enlarged to include pastoralism and the management of natural forcsts, thus defining "village lands" that would be subtracted from the current protected domain. These rights could be rccognized through a registration process analogous to that already provided by Decret 72.1288, but starting from the population's land claims that would be taken note of in the field, published and made opposable. Since recognizing customary laws may marginalize the poorest members of society, which have no rights to land, it should be matched with preventive measures such as limiting the amount of land that can be accumulated by individuals and redistributing vacant lots to those without land rights. 4.6 It is probable that the Government will want to make provision for environmental safcguards in ordcr to conserve collective land-related environmental assets such as vegetation cover for erosion control. natural habitats for rare species or collective amenities. Mechanisms should be put in place to confirm that land is being used by farmers as was declared when their rights were recognized. It is particularly important that farmers do not draw a quick and easy profit from the one-off sale of the rcsources for which they have just obtained the rights. This can in part be achieved if the supervising authority adopts an environmental policy independent of land titling procedures (Wachter 1992). 4.7 A second measure wvouldbe the gradual elimination of state controls on the price of wood fuel at every stage, from the producer to the consumer, so that wood fuel prices would he governed by supply and demand. Increased prices brought about by scarcity of wood fuel will force consumers to use it morc cfficiently. for example in improved wood stoves, and will make investment in the sustainable production of wvoodfuel more profitable. 4.8 A third measure would be the substitution of the currentforestry permit andfee system with a forestry or rural cadastre based on the land registry. The taxation rate could be linked to the degree of land accumulation to slow down speculation and discourage individuals or groups from holding land for 37
non-productive purposes. Except for the land and resource tax, rural producers would keep all the revenue that they get from their land. As a consequence, land use would be mainly driven by market prices. The State could always levy direct taxes, for example on revenues, or indirect ones, such as a sales tax, 4.9 Another important measure would be tofacilitate the gradual evolution of land use rights into either common or individual land titles. This would favor the emergence of a true land market which would establish land as an explicit production factor, Such a market would allow for land to be allocated more efficiently, according to scarcitv, existing demand, and available capital and labor. Granting of transferable land titles would make it possible to mortgage land. and would thus stimulate private investment in land and natural resource management. The measure would be most useful for the niayes area and for irrigated perimeters in the Senegal River valley. In spite of these advantages, privatization of land remains an extremelv sensitive issue which must be tackled with care and only with a long-term perspective. It would nonetheless be desirable not to systematically exclude a flexible evolution of current communal tenure systems into a more structured land market, whenever suitable. 4.10 An additional measure Nvouldbe to transfer the supervision of land and natural resource management from the State to rural communities. Rural communities have the advantage of being relativelv independent of Central Government, and, more importantly, of being closer to the concerns of local populations. As a consequence, it would be easier for thcm to take into account the logic behind production systems when refereeing land use conflicts. Central Government would verify a posteriori the quality of communal management, including its soundness in matters relating to the environment, and would onlv intervene in cases of patent mismanagement. 4. 11 Rural councils could avail themselves of at least four tools to orientate land and natural resource utilization: (a) the above-mentioned land registry, which they would manage and keep up to date according to guidelines set by Central Government; (b) land taxes which should slow down land accumulation while providing resources necessary for local investments; (c) communal bylaws which would reorientate land use for the public good and increase the sustainability of production systems, for example by creating communal forests or greenbelts; (d) prior authorizations which would limit the cxtent that resources can be used on a particular piece of land. 4. 12 At present, rural councils remain largely unempowered and their decisions are still subject to approval by the central authorities. Broadening their mandate to include the management of land and natural resources, and increasing their autonomy, would imply prior strengthening of their public administration capacities. 4.13 Recognizing the rights of populations on land and natural resources over most of the protected domain, and eliminating the current permit and fee mechanisms puts into question the role played by the Forestry Service, currently the State's structure responsible for controlling the use of land and natural resources and collecting their rent. Hence, at a minimum, there is a needfor an in-depth review of the function, mandate and organization of the Forestry Department so that it can act as an advisory body to rural populations in maintaining sustainable systems for producing food and wood fuel. The Water and Forestry Department, as it currently stands, is a part of the problem more than a part of the solution. Peasants and Government officials will continue in their adversarial relationship, still intense after 10 vears of "participation," until the Department is reformed, demilitarized and focused on plaving a largely advisory role. However, the Forestry Department's jurisdiction over gazetted forests should remain intact. 4. 14 Rural production systems generally continue to reflect low-investment, low-yield strategies - vestiges of a time when population density was low, and land relatively abundant, when labor availability was the main constraint and agriculture was for subsistence. Low labor, low yield strategies are also a 38 way to hedge investments in an ever-changing social and physical context. With population growth and the advent of cities, demand for rural products now exceeds the existing production capacity many times over. As long as economic and political stability is maintained, increased demand will be a powerful driving force in the intensification of rural production. 4.15 Economic liberalization, scarcity of agricultural lands and high demand for rural products should encourage rural populations to maintain and increase the output of production systems. Improving natural resource management (NRM), most notably that of vegetation cover, soil, soil fertility and water, will be crucial to ensuring that this increased production is sustainable. In Senegal and elsewhere in the Sahel, an important body of knowledge already exists, either gathered by rural populations or resulting from applied research, that could be implemented to increase sustainable agricultural productivity. Appropriate technologies such as water harvesting (small-scale earth and stone bunds), water and wind erosion control, agroforestry, dune fixation, vegetation rehabilitation, village water supply (wells, boreholes, carth dams) and agricultural techniques (integration of agriculture and livestock, organic fertilization and composting using crop residues and manure, management of irrigation waters, crop rotation or improved varieties) can provide incremental but significant yield increases of more than 20%. It is essential to integrate natural resource management (NRM) into all rural development projects. 4.16 Natural resource management differs from conventional intensification programs in that they are designed to ensure the viability of the overall production system, rather than to simply respond to the needs of a single crop. It is most often incremental and qualitative and can thus be easily adapted to local conditions by rural populations. Moreover, many of the techniques are labor-intensive rather than capital-intensive and thus has the added benefit of promoting rural employment. 4. 17 A movement to improve natural resource management is already occurring throughout the Sahel. Over approximately 10 years a community-oriented,land-use-based development paradigm has gradually evolved, developed through trial and error by communities and NGOs. The relationship between the community and Central Government under this new approach is one of mutual obligation. The community commits itself to a program of resource management in return for services and investments from the Central Government. 4.18 Under such an approach, the Central Government's main role in environmental management in rural areas would be to deliver information on existing technologies to rural communities and to help these communities adopt and adapt the techniques most suited to their own circumstances. Extension services are pivotal in this process. There are currently many extension messages, each addressing immediatc production constraints, with a view to increasing output for one specific type of production. Extension efforts will provide greater long-term benefits if they are conceived with the guiding principle of environmental sustainability of production systems in mind, and harmonized to increase their coherence as a whole. Key issues such as the maintenance of soil fertility, water harvesting and the management of common land should be directly addressed. For communal lands, extension recommendations should be developed with the population within a framework of community management of resources and land. 4.19 Delivery of environmentally coherent extension messages requires that all technical departments lend their support through a single channel of communication. Currently, the responsibility for extension services is divided among different ministries and rural development bureaus. Coordination is notoriously inadequate. The present sectoral extension services of the Direction de l'agriculture, the Direction de l 'elevage and the Direction des eaux etforets should be merged into a single Direction nationale de la vulgarisation rurale, staffed by polyvalent field agents, each advising a specific group of villages over a prolonged period of time and backed up by subject matter specialists at the rural community leveL In addition to a more coherent and comprehensive message, the joining of these 39 extension services should result in substantial cost savings through economies of scale and elimination of overlapping jobs. However, a large proportion of Forestry Department staff would need thorough retraining before being effective as extension agents. 4.20 The delivery performance of existing extension services has also been severely hampered by inadequate counterpart funding to the Bank supported National Extension Program (PNVA), too few staff at the field level, and extension-research-farmer linkages that take time to develop. To rectify this situation, Central Government could greatly increase its support to extension services, with the objective of increasing the coverage of extension such that most, if not all, rural communities receive effective services. 4.21 Since men account for the majority of the people leaving the country for the city, women are taking on increased responsibilities in rural areas. In many cases, it is they who carry out most of the farming activities, as well as having to ensure household fuel and water supplies. In the past, extension services have been mainly directed at men. Given the vital role that women play in agricultural production, it is clear that more attention needs to be paid to understanding and targeting their needs. A Bank-sponsored study has recently being carried out to evaluate extension services to women that will make operational recommendationsto the Sahelian Governments and to the Bank as to how to improve the situation. 4.22 The importance of producer organizations and NGOs is a distinctive feature of rural Senegal's social landscape. NGOs have promoted the adoption of development strategies which are based on local initiative and control of development efforts. In view of the decision to promote participatory development, Central Government could as a matter of policy collaborate closely with NGOs concerning rural extension, so that NGO activities effectively serve as a complement to government programs. 4.23 Senegal's forestry and agricultural research institutions, particularly ISRA, are mandated to fine tune technological programs that are then disseminated by the extension service. For such research to be effective at the field level, development of research programs should be seen as a joint venture between the research community, the extension service and the farmers, coupled with a feedback mechanism on program performance, with research supporting the extension service and with extension services helping the farmers. 4.24 In order to set up an environmentallycoherent extension program, major changes are called for in the area of research, in addition to current efforts to make research more closely driven by farmer needs. The most important of these would concern the integration of the research program on production systems and the forestry research program into an amalgamated program on environmental processes. Research should concentrate on gaining a better understanding of the environmental phenomena which make it possible to foresee the impact of decisions that relate to resource and environmental management. As a consequence, research programs should be less resource-specific and should focus more on the systemic aspects of the environment. In particular, forestry research should be less tree-specific and more oriented towards the sustainable management of natural forests.
B. URBAN ENVIRONMENT
4.25 Increasing urbanization is both an inevitable and integral part of the economic development process. The driving force behind urbanization is a population shift from rural to urban areas, a move fueled by the perception that there are more economic opportunities in cities than in rural areas. This rural exodus is encouraged by the existence of hidden food, fuel and service subsidies for urban 40
populations. The urbanization trend will most likely continue unabated until the vast majority of Senegal's population is urbanized. Hence, the increasingly important economic role of urban areas. 4 26 Better planning. The high rate of urbanization has surprised most observers. Senegalese government authorities. like many of their foreign partners, despair at the trend and have generally rcfuscd to recognize it explicitly. Sufficient measures have therefore not been taken to accommodate and anticipate the urbanization process. The most dramatic consequcnce has been inadequate urban planning and plan implemcntation, which has led to cities with insufficicnt land available for housing and deficient transportation infrastructurcs and public services. This, in turn, has led to housing development in environmcntallNprecarious areas, a chronically congested road network, and public health risks due to inadcquatc water supply, overflowing scwage and accumulating garbage. Poor planning is creating cnvironmentallv unfit cities. Strengthening urban planning development and implementation is therefore central to tackling urban environmental problems. If local authorities were to draw up medium-term (5- to I 0-year) development plans that takc into account current migration patterns, and to implcment them systcmaticallv and rigorously, it would in large measure remedy the development problems of the main urbanized areas. These programs would hclp anticipate necessary housing areas, transportation infrastructure and services. 4.27 Decentralization. Lack of dcccntralization of urban administrative powers and the ensuing weakness of municipal governments have compounded the above mentioned problems. Urban areas were originally governed by the Ministry of Urbanism. Insufficient rcsources impaired its capacity to fulfill its mandate In addition, its actions reflectcd the Central Government's positions rather than those of the urban citizcns directly involved. Since 1983, a limited number of municipal administrations have been grantcd recognition, most notably that of Dakar. The total decentralization of municipal government, .vhich wvould take the form of a delegation of power to representative local governments, is presently cnvisaged by the C'cntral Government. Such a move wvouldconstitute a great stride forward. Effective dccentralization implies that local authorities devclop the necessarv skills. Consequently, decentralization of government functions should he accompanied by measures that strengthen the planning and management capacities of municipal governments. Among other things, these measures could include (a) a systcm whereby the Ccntral Govcrnment would provide the newly empowered city govcrnments wNithtraining and advice. and (b) the opportunity for local governments to levy their own taxcs The Bank is currcntly helping the Government dcvelop a project to strengthen the capacity of municipal governments bascd on such principles. 4.28 Availability of land for housing development. Insufficient allocation of affordable land for privatc-sector housing development has led to severe housing shortages, artificial increases in official housing prices which arc totally out of reach of the urban poor, and unauthorized spontaneous settlemcnt. particularly in the Dakar arca. Public resources have largely been invested in building mcdium-cost housing for the formally structured work force. especially civil servants, instead of providing affordablc land for housing developments. The most striking example of this housing policy is the rolc that was playcd in the past by the Socicte Immobilicre du Cap Vert (SICAP) in providing housing in Dakar that was too expensive for most potential customers. In order to catch up and anticipate futurc demand, city governments could take measures to foster construction of new housing developments, especiall hbyplacing new land on the market and supplying a minimum of community facilities. 4.29 Waste management. Cities produce vast quantities of waste such as sewage, solid waste, various cfflucnts and pollution, all of which must be managed in order to maintain an acceptable quality of lifc and health standards in urban environments. This can be achieved by treating the waste or by evacuating it far away from urban arcas. At the present time, it is those who live downstream from the w-asteproduction area who arc forced to assumc the cost of waste treatment, rather than those who live 41 upstream. The upstream inhabitants therefore have no incentive to reduce the quantity of waste they produce. Application of the principle that those responsible for the pollution should pay for the damage it causes to the environment would substantially reduce waste production. 4.30 Successful waste management in cities can only be achieved through much greater participation of local populations. Thev could be encouraged to take part in identifying priority environmental problems, in decision making regarding the measures to be taken and in the actual waste management process. Public education campaigns and greater representation of residents in local government councils should increase the level of participation of local populations in urban waste management. 4 31 Water supply. Lack of access to wvateris a severe problem in Senegalese cities. Although the construction of the Canal du Cayor could alleviate the present water shortage in the Cap Vert region, numcrous other measures could be taken to correct the imbalance between supply and demand and reducc the enormous cost of new fresh water abduction works. The main measure would be to reduce subsidies for drinking water and allow the cost of water to reflect its true value. Government should implement accompanying measures, however, to make water available to the most socially disadvantaged social groups, for example by establishing public water points. A second measure would be to reutilize, after treatment, urban se vage waters for garden farming. This would require establishing a distribution netwvorkand drafting legislation covering the utilization of sewage waters (user rights, property rights. rates, health standards, monitoring and control mechanisms). Reutilization of sewage wvaterswould thus become a key issue in the management of water resources. Such a vision would also conciliate Dakar's water needs and the promotion of agricultural production, while also meeting the policy requirements for the recuperation and recycling of wastes.
C. BIODIVERSITY
4*32 National Parks and other officially protected areas are important not only for Senegal but also for the rest of the world. They have been set aside to minimize human impact and thus preserve biodivcrsity'. They can also generate income from ecotourism. If these objectives are not met or if the Statc fails to pursue them in earnest, then the designation of these areas is meaningless and the areas' status should be reviscd to reflect reality. Creating a National Park by definition implies freezing land usc within the designated area, inevitably leading to conflicts with local interests. Although there is some room for compromise, it would be preferable that the Government set itself and firmly abide by a politicall' viable strategy with regard to preserving biodiversity. 4 33 A large part of the problem that the parks are encountering with neighboring populations stems from the wav in wvhichthe new national parks were created in the 1970s. In most instances, there were few or no consultations with local populations prior to their establishment. The parks profoundly disrupted long-established production systems, most notably in the Saloum Delta and in Casamance. Overnight. rural populations going about their usual activities on their ancestral lands became poachers and were prosecuted as such. The result was a deep-rooted adversity between park authorities and local populations. At present, this can only be alleviated through extensive and conclusive negotiations with local representatives. The introduction of measures to promote the development of areas surrounding biodiversity conservation areas, such as natural resource management initiatives, wvouldprovide an economic incentive that would induce local populations to cooperate. 4,34 International Conventions. Senegal adheres to the principal international conventions concerning the protection of ccosystems and preservation of biodiversity. Among these agreements are the Ramsar Convention, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the World Heritage Convention of UNESCO, and the Convention on Biodiversity 42
announced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the Global Warming Convention and the Montreal Protocol on chloro-fluoro-carbons (CFC). Some of the obligations assumed under these agreements have been translated into national legislation, which, if they were applied, would adequately protect ecosystems and endangered species. However, these laws are not applied rigorously or consistently, and significant trade persists, particularly the export of certain bird specics and the sale of ivory. The strict application of regulations governing markets and boundaries with respect to biodiversity would help safeguard its future. In cases when the activity does not meet acccpted investment criteria, Sencgal could seck support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
D. FISHERIES AND COASTAL HABITATS
4 35 Conservation of fish resources. The drop in fishing yields per-unit effort"8 seems to confirm that stocks are being over-fished. This trend is likely to continue if efforts are not made to conserve the resource. Three types of measures arc required to offset the problem. The first should concentrate on reducing fishing activities through (a) stricter control over licensing and the technologies used (b) surveillance and monitoring of fishing vessels; (c) restructuring of the fishing industry and the phasing-out of less viable undertakings. 4.36 The second category of measures should aim at improving knowledge of the stocks and their fluctuations in order to make it possible to exercise tighter management of the resource. Research projccts should focus primarily on dcmersal species (sole, sea bream, grouper, mullet, cephalopods, crustaceans), which have becn harvested to the limit of their sustainable yield, Nvetwhich account for the large majority of exports. Priority should be given to two research activities: (a) the study of biological and ecological factors affecting cephalopods (octopus and cuttlefish), which will be headed up by the CRODT, (b) the creation of a data base on fishing through computerized access to information already collected bv research institutes in Senegal as wvellas in Mauritania, since these two countries harvest a common stock. 4.37 Thc third category of measures should aim at setting up a system to monitor the economic aspect of the fishing industry. This mechanism would constitute a simple, permanent means of conducting analyses according to type of catch, helping identify physical and economic pattems (tonnage of catch according to the gear used, technical and commercial systems. cash flows, added values, costs of hard currency, Statc revcnues). This mcchanism would be a useful adjunct to fish stock monitoring for purposes of optimal resource management. 4.38 Protection of the coastal habitats. To protect fish stocks, it is essential to preserve the coastal and estuarine cnvironments that are frequented and used as nurseries by several species of fish. The ccosvstem of these environments should be disturbed as little as possible. Thcre is reason to fear that building the Diama dam and dyking the riverbanks has cut off the very young fish of certain species (mullet. Fimbriated Herring, prawn species) from their nursery grounds, which would have negative repercussions on population numbers of these species. Development of mangrove swamp areas in the Saloum and Casamance river deltas could also have dctrimental consequences. Pollution from sewage, drainage, industrial waste or cleaning of ballast tanks by large ships could eventually cause significant degradation to some coastal environments. The southern part of the Cap Vert peninsula is already very polluted, which affects aquatic biodiversitv and jcopardizes public health. This degradation of coastal environments could be limited through two measures: first by introducing legislation to protect
The yield per unit eflort is the ratio between the fish catch and the etforts required to make this catch. 43 coastal zones and to control pollution sources, and second by making compulsory the preparation of an environmental impact assessmentfor all large development projects affecting coastal areas. 4.39 Coastal erosion. Marine erosion is evident along the entire coast of Senegal. Several probable causes have been suggested to explain the phenomenon: the dam on the Senegal River, drought and global warming, which causes the polar icecaps to melt and sea levels to rise. Historical documents on the Langue de Barbarie (Senegal River) or the Pointe de Sangomar (Saloum River) reveal that these phenomena are not recent. Human populations living on unstable sand spits or in low-lying areas that are rclatively unprotected by coastal dunes are exposed to periodic flooding during spring tides or endure losses of pcrsonal possessions and land. This was the case in Saint-Louis, Rufisque, Bargny and along the coast between Joal-Fadiouth and the mouth of the Saloum River. The populations affected by these phenomena requested public assistance. This experience showed that, with the exception of a few specific areas where verv high investments in real cstate or infrastructures had been made, it would be more cost-effective and viable in the long term to move these populations to higher grounds than to build protective structures. A measure that would eliminate a possible worsening of the problem would be to prohibit any' construction in areas with a high incidence offlooding.
E. COORDINATION AND PLANNING
4.40 The preceding chapters emphasize the need for increased participation of society as a whole in environmental management, both in rural and urban areas. The Central Government would gradually become less involved in the details of environmental management, yet would set up and maintain conditions conducive to the implementationof an environmental management policy. 4.41 The role of the Central Government. The creation of the Conseil superieur de l'environnement et des ressources naturelles (CONSERE)19 in 1993 ushered in a new era in environmental management policies. CONSERE's primary mandate is to complete the preparation of the National Environmental Action Plan (NEAP), which will set forth the institutional, legal, economic and technical measures needed to incorporate environmental concerns into national development efforts. CONSERE's activities only began in February 199420° The approach adopted to prepare the NEAP incorporates the experience gained through other planning activities that have already been conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa. The NEAP wvillbe prepared in accordance wvitha multidisciplinary approach that encourages the active participation of the entire Senegalese society, including the NGOs and community and associative movements, and willfocus on sustainable development. 4.42 The establishment of CONSERE in 1993 was also the first step towards redefining the Central Government's various roles in environmental affairs. The existence of CONSERE creates a de facto distinction between coordination functions, which now fall under CONSERE's responsibility, and implementation functions, which remain the responsibility of the technical departments, including the
19 The CONSEREis made up of three bodies: the InterministerialCouncil, which takes decisions, the Permanent Committee, xhich provides follow-np, and the Permanent Secretariat, which implements. The Intenninisterial Council is made up of 14 ministers and is headed by the Prime Minister. The Permanent Committee is made up of representatives of the same 14 ministries plus 12 representatives from a range of institutions including professional associations, mayors, N(30s, donors and the Chamber of Commerce. The Committee's President is the Minister of Environment and nature Protection, and its Secretary is the CONSERE's Permanent Secretary. The Plermanent Secretariat is placed under the administrative supervision of the Ministry of the Environment and Nature Protection. 20 CONSERE has been set up with the support of USAID. Several other backers also intend to provide financial support for CONSERE activities, notably UNDP/UNSo, the Netherlands and Canada. 44
Environment Department. However, this is a transitional situation since the NEAP will establish a definitive institutional framework that may differ from the existing one. 4.43 The first issue regarding the environment involves the distinction betwcen coordination and implementation. The multidisciplinary nature of environmental management makes it unrealistic to place the entire responsibility for implementing an environmental policy on a single institution. The real challenge is to incite all ministerial departments, along with local authorities, to integrate and promote sound environmental management throughout their program portfolios, according to each department's statutory mandate. Central coordination of all environmental affairs is nevertheless needed if there is to be a coherent, unified effort. All ministerial departments would thereforc be involved in the implementation of environrmentalpolicy, while coordination and monitoring would be the responsibility of a central body.
4.44 The second issue pertains to the means chosen to coordinate the implementation of the environmental policy. Since no ministerial department has the power to override a decision made by a department in another ministry, interdepartmental coordination can be handled only by a body that is independent of the ministries themselves. The establishment of a high-level body similar to the interministerial council that oversees CONSERE could provide the coordination needed for the implementation of environmental policy. 4.45 The third issue deals with the technical aspects of coordinating environmental activities. One possible approach would be to transform the current CONSERE secretariat into a technical secretariat for the Interministerial Committee, which, in addition to providing technical coordination, would oversee regulatory matters (especially environmental impact assessments), produce an annual report on the state of the environment for the Interministerial Council, and lead a public education program on environmental issues. However, this technical secretariat would not carry out project implementation, directly monitor environmental indicators, or enforce or monitor the application of environmental regulations. 4.46 Within this institutional framework the Environment Department would have a mandate distinct from that of the CONSERE. The Environment Department could be responsible for the technical aspects of policy implementation, as well as supervising projects related to urban sanitation, the control of air and water pollution, the monitoring of industrial toxic waste, and environmental issues related to public health.
4.47 Regulatory function. In addition to coordinating development activities, the Central Government must establish a regulatory framework that ensures long-term sustainability. This cntails reviewing existing legislation so that all laws comply with the national environmental policq. This approach is more pragmatic than the suggestion that a global environment code be adopted to replace the body of current environmental legislation. There may be grounds for modifying the land tenure law and the forestry code in order to introduce measures that are essential to the management of the sustainable development of land and natural resources. There are also grounds for developing legislation that pcrtain to specific areas that are currently not sufficiently dealt with: - waste management;
- environment-quality standards, particularly with respect to air and water quality and noise levels, - gas emissions, effluents and solid waste; - water cxtraction; - hazardous and toxic chemicals such as pesticides. 45
4.48 Regulations might be developed in conjunction with a system of permits or marketable points to limit pollution to acceptable levels. 4.49 The implementation of sustainable development mcasures implies that all national development projects would bc subject to sustainability criteria. Administrative proccdures would therefore have to established in order to review or, if necessary, even block projects that are deemed contrary to principles of environmental sustainability or create an environmental risk. Environmental impact assessments (EIA) would be the most effective regulatory tool to reorient development activities towards environmental sustainability. The rigorous and systematic application of EIAs to the public investment program (PIP) would equate to a comprehensivcenvironmental review of the development portfolio. 4.50 Monitoring key indicators of the statc of the environment, such as water quality measurements, is indispensable to orient environmental policy and identify areas for which new regulations must be drafted or existing legislation adapted. Government should establish a mechanism to monitor key environmental indicators in a network of representative sample points. Setting up such a network would require: 1) detcrmining environmental quality standards; 2) improving and harmonizing existing data collection systems; 3) standardizing data collection and analysis procedures, and ensuring compliance by participating institutions procedures through testing. Data collection would be entrusted to existing ministcrial departments, each focusing on his area of expertise. Results would be gathered by the technical secretariat for the environment, which would determine the necessary palliative measures. 4.51 A mechanism should be established to deal with violations observed in the field through the monitoring network or citizens' reports to the authorities. A monitoring body such as an inspectorate could be established within the technical secretariat to the Interministerial Committee, to observe and document violations and provide technical support in building files in order to charge offenders. The necessary mitigative and control measures would be determined by the existing judicial system. 4.52 Creating public awareness. Senegal's environmental management policy will be effective only if it receives popular support. Making the public aware of environmental issues is therefore indispensable. An essentialfunction of the Central Government would be to organize and implement public-awareness programs on environmental issues. In order to carry out such programs, the Governmnentwould have to focus on information, education and communication through media campaigns, extension services and formal education for both young people and adults. One message that must be conveyed is the strong synergy and causal link between demographic growth, land and natural resource management practices, environmental degradation and limited agricultural production capacity. Other messages wvouldfocus on environmental management at the household level, involving issues such as water, sanitation, waste disposal, green space and civic responsibility. Because of their ongoing presence at the local level through extension services, NGOs should be key partners in any such endeavors. An essential corollary measure would be to facilitate public access to environmental information held by Government, so that the population can bc better informed about the possible options. 4.53 Capacity building in local governments. A key factor in the environmental strategy would be the greater role plaved by local governments, specifically those of rural communities and communes, as decision-making centers that are distinct from Central Government and directly accountable to their electorate for their performance. Management of land and natural resources would be, a priori, a prerogative of these local governments. Central Government would only intcrvene in local affairs a posteriori, such as in instances when laws have been violated. 4.54 Because of the inadequate local tax base, a very large part of local-level development activities is conducted through foreign-funded development projects. Although local Governments are now systematically involved in project preparation and planning, they often remain at the periphery of project 46 management. In fact, many development projects still spawn de facto independent administrative bodies2' that are exclusively focused on project objectives, instead of developing the management capacity of local Governments. Although convenient in terms of project management, investment in such ephemeral structures over time undermines the development of capacity within local Governments, most particularly in matters related to the environment. Moreover, because of their relative autonomy, foreign-funded development projects often reflect perceptions and objectives that are often not in keeping with those of the local community for which they are intended. To correct this imbalance, foreign- funded projects concerned with the environment should fit into the local administrative framework and should systematically support the development of its environmental management capacities. 4.55 Environmental information. 22 Ideally, the strategy adopted by the Government of Senegal to gather information on the environment would be driven by the role that this information plays in environmental management23. In the past, the control exercised by the Central Government over environmental management has tended to stifle requests for environmental information, especially at the local level. The actual demand for information, and hence the amount of money required to gather and process it, Nvilltherefore depend on the measures taken to improve environmental management. Such measures include the decentralization of natural resource management to the benefit of rural communities, legal acknowledgment of collective or individual land rights in rural areas, performance enhancement of the State's institutions responsible for managing natural resources (forests, water, mines), modernization of public utilities (water, sewage treatment, electricity, telephone) and the creation of formal regulatory mechanisms for the environment. Most of these measures have implications that transecnd environmental considerations. However, Government could, within the context of its environmental policv, define minimal information requirements for environmental impact assessments would give rise to a strong and sustained demand. 4.56 Certain measures can already be taken in the short-term to lift constraints to the use of information currently available. Given the trans-sectoral nature of environmental issues, environmental information comes from a number of different sources. These sources currently use incompatible frameworks or nomenclatures, which represents a major constraint on information integration. The establishment and adoption by all partners of a common information architecture (geographic scales, base maps, data-exchange systems, nomenclatures) would increase the compatibility of the various types of environmental information as well as standardize environmental information to other types of information. The Government could encourage the use of this common architecture by adding a clause in every contract signed by the public sector that stipulates this standardization and making it a guiding principle of environmental assessment. 4.57 Another means of promoting this common architecture would be to standardize a critical mass of information and make it easier to access. In this light, the use of environmental information would be facilitated by the production or conversion of key data sets, according to a common information architecture, as well as by availability to this information at reproduction cost, either as hard copy or in digitalformat. The availability of normalized databases would encourage all institutions involved in development to use them when producing new informnation,which would thus automatically follow the common data architecture. An important additional measure to further promote use of information and increase access would be to ensure that public institutions do not try to derive income from the
21 CurrentWorld Bankpolicy is to avoid settingup autonomousproject management units. 22 For intbrmationon basic principlesunderlying the establishmentof an EnvironmentalInformation System (EIS), see Chapter 7 of liassan, H1.and C. Ilutchinson. 1992. Natural resources and Environrmental Information for Decision-Making. The World Bank. 164 pages. 23 Sec Falloux, Fran,ois (1989). Land information and remote sensing for renewable resources development in Sub-Saharani Africa: a demand-driven approach. World Bank Technical Paper 108. 70 pages.. 47 information they possess for purposes of covering their operating costs, to the extent that it reduces information availability and overall use. 4.58 The themes and the geographic scales of the databases that should be produced or converted according to a common architecture will depend on the choice of environmental management mechanisms for which the information is intended (central vs. local government, urban vs. rural zones, land use vs. land tenure). Nonetheless, standardization is already urgent for: 1) property mapping, using aerial photographs; 2) base maps; 3) certain large-scale thematic interpretations, such as morphopedology or land use; 4) registries of forest or mineral concessions, 5) population censuses; 6) certain statistical information per administrative unit. 4.59 Production capacities and the processing of environmental information in the public sector, and even more, in the private sector, should be considerablv strengthened in order to respond to needs linked to development initiatives, especially at the local level. Opening public markets with regard to geographic information production through the use of tenders would facilitate the emergence of service suppliers from the national private sector. An effort must also be made to develop national capacities to conduct spatial analyses in support of environmental management and planning. 4.60 Command of computer technologiesfor the management of environmental information, and their systematic use in public institutions is a major challenge. Use of these technologies would aid in developing standards, improving data processing productivity, facilitating the analysis of data coming from different sources, as well as in aggregating data from a larger to a smaller scale. Insofar as the responsibility for updating and managing environmental information is divided among different institutions, each according to its statutory mandate, it wvouldbe desirable to adopt an organizational model based on task sharing. This type of approach would mean strengthening, rehabilitating or even reorganizing certain key institutions, such as the Service geographique nationaL 4.61 Not only would the environmental information come from many sources, but it would be of interest to many users, which makes overall coordination even more vital. Periodic consultation among the network of all partners involved in environmental information matters would constitute the minimum necessary to ensure coordination. This network would have as its fundamental mandate the promotion of information sharing and exchange, bv making existing data accessible to the public, by facilitating data access conditions and by favoring the adoption of compatibility standards. The hub of the network could be the Centre de suivi ecologique (CSE), which could coordinate and orient geomatic activities in the public sector and could also be given the mandate of formulating and promoting a national geomatics strategy. The CSE could give demonstrations and counsel national services in order to strengthen their skills in processing and using environmental information. The responsibility of putting a national environmental information policy into place would fall to public administrations, with the support of private sector firms, which could provide the necessary services.
F. IMPLICATIONS FOR THE BANK
4.62 Senegal already has an active NEAP process underway within which it is hoped many of the above issues will be addressed. Country ownership is essential for NEAP success. The Government should therefore focus on the process of developing the NEAP, ensuring that there is broad participation so as to build up ownership and consensus among different stakeholders. The most obvious and immediate role for the Bank is to continue to play an active role in the NEAP process in coordination with other donors. Ultimately, the lack of an environmental policy with strong political backing is one of the main constraints to environmental management. The NEAP process provides an opportunity to define such a policy and develop a national consensus as to where the priorities lie. Within the NEAP 48
proccss, thcre arc scvcral issucs in addition to those discussed previously that need to be addressed including * The impact of the devaluation on the cnvironment, particularly the impact on producer incentives (livestock/rangclands; crops/soil fertility. fuclwood /reforestation). The NEAP provides an opportunity to introducc any necessary preventative or compensatory measures. * Valuation of the costs of environmental damage and its prevention or alleviation. Damage to the cnvironmcnt has thrce potential costs: (a) human hcalth may be harmcd; (b) economic productivity man bc rcduced, (c) the pleasurc of satisfaction obtaincd from an unspoiled environment, often referred to as the "amenity value". max be lost. All are difficult to measure, particularly the third. However, it is imperative that environmcntal costs arc quantified as much as possible so as to help dccision-makers prioritize environmental issues and make explicit the potential trade-offs between economic development and environmental protcction and minimize their consequences. Analytical frameworks cxist to carrv out such valuation and prioritization which could be usefully applied as part of the NEAP process, though it must be recognizcd that they are continually being developed. Such exerciscs must bc vicwcd as part of a long-term proccss of building-up national capacity in environmentalanalNsis and planning. The immediate constraints to be overcome are (i) lack of rcliablc data and (ii) the shortagc of trained pcrsonncl who can carry out this type of work.
* Broadening of the environmental debatc beyond the Ministry of Environment to other Government agencies. local authorities, community and associative movements, and clarification of the institutional structurc and functions of environmental managcment. In this regard, the Bank's expcricncc with institutional capacity building for environmental management in the Gambia may bc usefully shared with the Senegalcse. 4 63 The Bank is alrcadv supporting several projects which together begin to address some of the environmental problems outlined in this report. These include the Agricultural Services Project which aims to strcngthen and increasc the cffectiveness and rcsponsiveness of agricultural extension services; the Urban IV and Urban Environmental Management Projects (under preparation) which aim to strengthen the capacity of local governments and assess and design measures to improve urban environmental managemcnt, and the Sccond Energy Project which will support measures to improve forest management. intcrfuel substitution. the dcvelopment of renewvableenergy technologies and pollution control. 4 64 This document has highlighted the need to take an intersectoral approach to the environment and to promotc a morc deccntralized and participatory approach to environmental management. This has important implications for the Bank. It will require more active collaboration between the different scctors. in particular, a strengthcning of the linkages betwveenprojects that touch on the different facets of the same envirollmelltal issuc. For instance, developing the complementarities of the Energy 11, the Agricultural Services. and the Agricultural Research projects, as well as the Agriculture Sector Adjustment Plan. xNould probably greatly increase their cumulative impact. Certainly, the implcmentation of any natural rcsource management project would in large part depend on extension activities. A sccond bundle could comprise the various projects that affect urban areas, such as Urban IV. AGETIP. Water III and. again. Energy 11. Looking more closely at the linkages between these projccts could also hclp idcntify critical gaps between projects or programs that need to be filled. 4 65 Anothcr important implication is the need to increase stakeholder participation in the development and implcmcntation of projects, and to encouragc Government to redefine its role and to provide incentives to individuals to cncourage better rcsourcc management. The breadth and diversity of the Bank's portfolio in Scnegal give it a comparative advantage to understand and integrate better 49 environmental, social and economic issues in policy and program design. It also allows the Bank to assist the Government tackle both the policy and investment aspects of environmental management. 50
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Toure, 0. 1991. Developpement pastoral et contraintes foncieres dans la zone sahelienne du Senegal. Centre de suivi ecologique, Dakar. Tucker, C.J., Dregne, H. and W. Newcomb (1991). Expansion and contraction of the Sahara Desert from 1980 to 1990. Science 253: 299-301. USAID, 1991a. Country Program Strategic Plan for Senegal: Population growth and Natural Resources, reaching a balance. 62 pages. USAID, 199 lb. Senegal Agricultural Sector Analysis. USAID/SENEGAL/ADO. 404 pages. Vanpract, C.L. 1984. De la surveillance continue des ecosystemes pastoraux a une meilleure gestion des paturages. In Vanpraet, C.L. ed. Methodes d'inventaire et de suiveillance continue des ecosystemes partoraux sah6liens: applications au developpement. Actes du colloque tcnu a Dakar les 16, 17 et 18 novembre 1983. Ministere de la recherche scientifique et technique du Senegal. Vitagliano, B. 1992. Senegal Women in Development: country assessment and strategy. The World Bank, AF5PH. Wachter, D. 1992. Land titling for land conservation in developing countries. The World Bank Environmental Department. Divisional Working Paper No. 1992-28. 123 pages. Warren, A. and C. Agnew (1988). An assessment of desertification and land degradation in arid and semi-arid areas. IIED Drylands Program Research Paper. London. World Resources Institute. 1992. World Resources 1992-1993: a guide to the global environment. Oxford University Press. 385 pages. The boundories,colors, denominotions ond any MAURITANIA SENEGAL 'ther information shown on this Informcxtonshownot on this map do not, ud WCOUNTRY ENVIRONMENTALSTRATEGY PAPER imply, on t e part of o 0 The World Bank Group, e° u'' e VILLAGES any judgmenton the legol VILLAGES status of any territory, Cj) REGIONCAPITALS or any endorsement 0 R or acceptanceof such r NATIONAL CAPITALS boundaries. N
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