Environmental issues in Senegal

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CIA world factbook pressing problems exist with: diminishing wildlife populations which are threatened by poaching, deforestation, overgrazing, soil erosion, desertification, and overfishing.[1]

Climate change

This section is an excerpt from Climate change in Senegal.[edit]
Economic impact of 2°C in Senegal

Climate change in Senegal will have wide reaching impacts on many aspects of life in Senegal. Climate change will cause an increase in average temperatures over west Africa by between 1.5 and 4 °C (3 °F and 7 °F) by mid-century, relative to 1986–2005.[2] Projections of rainfall indicate an overall decrease in rainfall and an increase in intense mega-storm events over the Sahel.[3][4] The sea level is expected to rise faster in West Africa than the global average.[5][6] Although Senegal is currently not a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, it is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change.[7][8]

Extreme drought is impacting agriculture, and causing food and job insecurity. More than 70% of the population is employed in the agricultural sector. Sea level rise and resulting coastal erosion is expected to cause damage to coastal infrastructure and displace a large percentage of the population living in coastal areas. Climate change also has the potential to increase land degradation that will likely increase desertification in eastern Senegal, leading to an expansion of the Sahara.[9]

Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC's) that indicated climate change would be treated as a national priority.[11]

Deforestation and land degradation

Like other parts of West Africa and the developing world, social forces and policies are leading to deforestation and ecosystem degradation, leading to effects like Desertification and social erosion. Charcoal production,[12] alongside pressure to expand agriculture in Senegal to meet the quadrupling of population has led to increased loss of forest.[13]

In 2006, Senegal still had 45.1% —or about 8,673,000 hectares—of forest with 18.4% — or roughly 1,598,000 hectares — classified as

primary forest.[14] In 2007 Senegal was losing 350,000 hectares of forest per year through slash-and-burn for farming because of its rapidly growing population.[13] Variability of rainfall compounded with issues like climate change, lead About 13% of the land - holding about 22% of the population - are now considered degraded.[15] Senegal had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 7.11/10, ranking it 56th globally out of 172 countries.[16]

In 2016, the government warned that the Casamance forest cover would have vanished by 2018, if illegal logging continued.[17]

Mitigation

Since 1970s Senegal has lost 25% of its mangrove forests.[18] Recent efforts have been led by the organization Oceanium to replant the mangroves.[18]

The national Forest Service designed in the early 2000s was designed to democratize and decentralize forest management.[19] However, subsequent analysis by academics found that inequalities favor commercial interests and exploitation by economic forces.[20]

Overfishing

Further information: West Africa § Overfishing

West African communities face pressure from both overfishing by local fleets as well as Asian and European fleets harvesting from fisheries in West Africa as other fisheries become overfished or collapse.[21] For example fleets in 2017 Saint-Louis, Senegal have seen a large decline in harvest, causing ripple effects on nutrition and food supply in the country, where 75% of animal protein comes from fish.[21]

See also

External links

  • Institute, World Resources. "Senegal". Global Forest Watch. Archived from the original on 2018-03-15. Retrieved 2018-03-15.

References

  1. ^ "The World Factbook". www.cia.gov. Archived from the original on 2015-04-04.
  2. ^ Niang, I; Ruppel, O.C; Abdrabo, M.A; Essel, A; Lennard, C; Padgham, J; Urquhart, P (2014). Africa. Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1199–1265.
  3. ISSN 1944-8007
    .
  4. PMID 32817526
    .
  5. ^ "Sea-Level Rise: West Africa Is Sinking". Earth.Org - Past | Present | Future. 2019-09-24. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  6. hdl:10986/31428
    .
  7. ISSN 0027-8378
    . Retrieved 2020-04-22.
  8. ^ team, FPFIS (2018-11-22). "Fossil CO
    2     emissions of all world countries - 2018 Report"    . EU Science Hub - European Commission. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  9. ^ "Senegal | UNDP Climate Change Adaptation". www.adaptation-undp.org. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
  10. ^ "National Adaptation Plans in focus: Lessons from Senegal | UNDP Climate Change Adaptation". www.adaptation-undp.org. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
  11. ^ a b "Review of Current and Planned Adaptation Action in Senegal". International Institute for Sustainable Development. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  12. S2CID 153981110
    .
  13. ^
    urbanisation
    . The result: Senegal loses about 350,000 hectares of its forests annually to fires that are frequently started to clear land for farming, and more than 80,000 hectares for agricultural needs, according to the Centre for Environmental Preservation (Centre pour la sauvegarde de l'environnement, CSE).
  14. ^ "Forest data: Senegal Deforestation Rates and Related Forestry Figures". Rainforests. Retrieved 2018-03-15.
  15. ^ "Déforestation: Le Sénégal perd chaque année 40 000 hectares soit 2,1 % du PIB". SeneNews.com (in French). 2016-05-24. Retrieved 2018-03-15.
  16. PMID 33293507
    .
  17. ^ AfricaNews (2016-06-19). "Senegal govt warns against Casamance deforestation". Africanews. Retrieved 2018-03-15.
  18. ^ a b "Senegal is planting millions of mangrove trees to fight deforestation". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
  19. ^ "National forest programmes". www.fao.org. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
  20. ISBN 978-1-136-34284-4
    .
  21. ^ a b Edwards, Meaghan Beatley and Sam (2018-05-31). "Overfished: In Senegal, empty nets lead to hunger and violence". Public Radio International. Retrieved 2020-04-28.
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