Toubacouta- Friday
We started the day by visiting a fishing center in Missirah near Toubacouta. This center was financed by the Japanese, and works to train and equip Senegalese to be professional fishermen. While this goal has been largely successful, there is now a problem with overfishing. There are too many fishermen, the worst of whom are large Korean and Japanese industrial fishing boats which come into the area and catch a lot of fish. I didn’t understand this exactly, but their fishing rights are somehow connected to the center. Perhaps they financed this fishing center in exchange for the industrial fishing rights, I’m not sure. Anyway, but now the center is trying to implement policies, like licensing fishermen and monitoring the size of fish caught, to increase the population.
While it seems like a good environmental policy, requiring fishermen to have a license creates an interesting cultural problem. Traditionally, many Senegalese in the rural areas were both farmers and fishers. They switched back and forth, according to the weather and which enterprise was more successful at the time. However, imposing the license requirement removes a revenue source for the non-professional fishers because it doesn’t economically make sense to buy a license to only fish part time.
After the fishing presentation, we went to talk to a group called ANCAR (Agence nationale de conseil agricole rurale, which means National Agency for Rural Agricultural Advice). I was really looking forward to this presentation, since it was about ag, but honestly I couldn’t understand a lot of the presenter was saying. He is an agricultural technician, but he had a strong accent, and was using a lot of fairly technical vocabulary. I learned that the main crops of the region are peanuts, corn, rice, and millet. The main goal of the group was to address farmers’ questions and problems, and the technician went over some of the main agricultural challenges, like young people leaving their villages to go to cities to find jobs.
After lunch, we got into some canoes and headed for La Parc Nationale de Delta du Saloum (Delta Saloum National Park), a national park in the tidal mangrove ecosystem. When we got to the park we hiked for some time to reach the park office and camping facility. There we sat and listened to the conservation officer talk about the park and mangrove ecosystem. The park has only been officially a conserved area for a few years, but they have already seen an increase in the number of animal and plant species in the area.
This park and its mission of conserving the environment reminded me some of the RSCN sites I saw in Jordan. However, it was different in that the officer said that the Senegalese aren’t really interested in conserving the environment. Most people are poor to the point that the environment is seen as a means of living, not something valuable to be conserved. Poverty simply is or has been in the recent past such a difficult reality for so many people, that conserving the environment still seems like an unrealistic use of resources. As of now, it seems like the most environmental success has come through teaching people new ways to get the same resource in a more sustainable manner, like a new method of harvesting oysters that doesn’t destroy the mangrove roots where they live. Helping the nature still needs to help the people to be feasible here, but the latter hasn’t really taken root yet.
Friday night the group went to a village dance soiree. The environment was very similar to la lutte, but this time we knew what was going on, and what to expect. There was a traditional Senegalese dance troupe who performed several dances in different Senegalese styles. After that, a fire juggler and stilt walker came out, and did some impressive tricks, which reminded me of a circus. Finally, there was an open dance circle. Individuals, pairs, or small groups would go into the middle of the circle and dance for a little bit while everyone watched and cheered. It was really neat, and at least in this village, the Senegalese were very good dancers.
Love,
Mel
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