Overview of Social and Environmental Issues
Senegal is a country rich in culture and tradition. Though, similar to many countries throughout Africa, Senegal confronts serious problems with poverty and malnutrition. The majority of the population, over 70%, lives in rural areas and their lives and agriculture practices are dependent on infrequent and unpredictable rainfall, infertile soil, and the ability to protect their crops from pests. With the changing climate, their situations are becoming more desperate.

Less than half of the country’s forests remain, and are under constant threat from increased deforestation. The need for fuelwood, charcoal and construction materials requires people to encroach further and further into the forests. Moreover, uncontrolled slash and burn agriculture practices, peanut farming, and overgrazing further harm the land. The Sahelian desert is quickly expanding throughout the country. As the rich topsoil continues to degrade, crop yields are diminishing, and people’s livelihoods are further threatened.

Our Response
In response to the problems faced by the rural people, Trees for the Future is teaching people how sustainable agriculture practices along with tree planting addresses many environmental, social, and economic problems simultaneously. Under the leadership of technicians Omar Ndao and Karamba Diakhaby, our activities are changing lives.

Multipurpose windbreaks, alley cropping, and living fences have turned degraded areas green again and given farmers new hope. We are now taking agroforestry to the next level by adding additional income generating opportunities. The forest garden approach is becoming increasingly popular, as farmers see the benefit in integrating trees into their gardens. Having already planted well over a half million trees, the Senegal program continues to expand quickly under the guidance of Omar and Karamba and through the passion of so many hard working community leaders. We have been able to bring together the efforts of local NGOs, Peace Corps, and the Senegalese Ministries of Agriculture and Forestry, all of whom are currently using our training sites.

Program Update
November 2009
The rains finally arrived in Kaffrine and Kedougou and the farmers were able to transplant all of the seedlings in their tree nurseries. Omar worked in 27 different communities with the help of Peace Corps volunteers. Most farmers planted multi-purpose agroforestry trees as live fencing, windbreaks, and alley cropping in their fields. A number of fruit trees such as the desert date, cashews, papayas, mangos, bush mango, and moringa were planted for their economic value, as well as to improve household nutrition. In June, a couple of Peace Corps volunteers from the Gambia with their Gambian counterparts traveled to Kaffrine to learn from our projects and meet with Omar. They are developing agroforestry projects back home in the Northern part of the Gambia based upon our work in Senegal. In Kedougou, Karamba worked with farmers and Peace Corps volunteers in a number of different communities to plant trees in their fields. He also improved his demonstration site.

June 2009
The rains are late this year in Kedougou, making Karamba’s work with the farmers more difficult. Despite the challenges, Karamba is confident the program will be successful this year. With the help of Peace Corps volunteers, he is working with numerous farmers and cooperatives throughout the region. A strong focus is placed on planting trees in gardens along the Gambia River to decrease the erosion of rich topsoil during the rainy season.

Following a large training workshop in late February in Kaffrine, Omar is working with over 70 participating farmers to help them establish and maintain their tree nurseries. Many of the farmers are new to the Trees for the Future program, while others have been benefiting from our work for over 5 years. This year, the primary goals of the program in Kaffrine are to reach more local farmers, increase the number of trees being planted, and improve farmers’ fields from previous years of work.

January 2009
This past rainy season was very successful in Senegal. Omar worked with over 200 farmers in 17 villages, and Peace Corps volunteers, to plant trees throughout the region of Kaffrine. Large quantities of tree seeds were also provided to Kaffrine’s Eaux et Fôret department as well as a number of local organizations for their own tree planting projects. Our program is also successfully expanding to the Southeast region of Kedougou where technician, Karamba Diakhaby, is working with local farmers and Peace Corps volunteers to develop agroforestry projects. He is also improving his agroforestry demonstration site, similar to Kaffrine, which will be used to train farmers in the future.