Work on the project to strengthen cross-border cooperation and manage and restore the ecosystems of the Senegal River delta in a workshop began yesterday, Wednesday, in the Diawling National Park. Financing for this project was approved by the Global Environment Facility in 2021 with a financial envelope of more than three million dollars over a period of three years, and its implementation will be supervised by the ministries in charge of environment and sustainable development of Mauritania and Senegal.
The project aims to enable the population to strengthen its control of the region's natural resources within the framework of consultation and to resolve development problems, particularly those linked to access to drinking water, isolation, to health, education and better protection of biodiversity and the taking of effective common measures to face multiple environmental challenges.
Mr. Daf Ould Sahla Ould Daf, director of Diawling National Park, indicated that the project covers an area of 641 hectares, representing the total area of the transboundary biosphere reserve in the Senegal River delta; a reserve classified at the request of Mauritania and Senegal since July 768, 19 as part of the UNESCO program on man and the biosphere.
He added that the area concerned by the project is home to no less than 375 people residing in 000 communes (5 in Mauritania and 2 in Senegal), and its central zone includes 3 protected areas (10 in Mauritania and 2 in Senegal).
Mr. Daf recalled that the twinning existing since May 20, 2000 between the Diawling National Park in Mauritania and the Djoudj National Bird Park in Senegal aims to strengthen the links of technical, scientific and cultural cooperation. This twinning is at the origin of the common policy of creating a cross-border biosphere reserve in the Senegalese delta.
For his part, the executive director of the trust fund for the Banc d'Arguin and for environmental, coastal and marine diversity, Mr. Ahmed Ould Lefghih, explained that the fund has, since 2015, provided the Diawling Park with an amount of 900 euros allocated to monitoring and research, noting that this project will provide support for actions that do not fall under the fund's interventions.
In turn, Mr. Mohamed El Bechir N'diah, representative of the International Union for the Protection of Nature, stressed that this project responds to an urgent need of the two countries in terms of sustainable development.
For his part, the deputy director of the Senegalese national reserves, Colonel Paul Moïse, praised the level of bilateral cooperation that exists between the Senegalese reserves and their Mauritanian counterparts, emphasizing the importance of the project and the joint preservation action. and protection of ecosystems.