The Médina Yoro Foulah department, located in the Kolda region in Casamance, in the south of Senegal, was home to a three-day “Forests Festival”. Organised as part of the civic mobilisation project for reasonable and joint use of natural resources (Commun), this event brought together several hundred people in discussions, and scientific and cultural events on preservation of forest resources.
Casamance has significant ground vegetation with numerous lush forests and an abundance of wildlife. Faced with recurrent bush fires and excessive wood cutting, between 2010 and 2015 this region lost 10,000 hectares of forests[1]. The disappearance of these forest zones poses a threat to the socio-economic development of populations in this zone, as well as to the ecosystem. The Forests Festival was organised by GRET and the National Council for Rural Concertation and Cooperation (CNCR) as part of the Commun* project. It aims to raise the awareness of populations in the Médina Yoro Foulah department on the challenges of preservation of forest resources. The scientific and cultural activities were conducted in relation with the local authorities and State representatives. Apart from inhabitants in the neighbouring localities, the Médina Yoro Foulah festival also welcomed participants from all over Senegal and the sub-region.
Combining education, awareness-raising and entertainment, the Forests Festival mobilised citizens of all ages around preservation of forest resources. As protection and preservation of this common good requires commitment from all, numerous formal and informal discussions took place between inhabitants, local authorities and citizens, thereby contributing to the dialogue necessary for a shared governance dynamic.
For Serigne Segnane, programme coordinator with the CNCR and partner of the Festival, “this festival provided a good forum for debate on forest governance and on opportunities to valorise forest resources at various levels, with inhabitants and local authorities. Organising the next edition of the festival jointly with other countries in the sub-region to effectively include the cross-border dimension of forest resource management is currently being envisaged.”
* The Commun project has been promoting the development of active civic involvement in environmental issues for the last four years, through populations’ participation in joint responsible forest management. Procedures and rules for local governance of forests were developed jointly, in keeping with sociocultural realities in the territories of intervention.
[1] According to the Institute of safety studies.
