Senegalese villages fight desertification and poverty by becoming ecovillages

It is no secret that traditional villages consume much less resources than we do in the West. Indeed, until relatively recently, communities everywhere in the world were essentially self-sufficient and had very low environmental footprints. But today’s environmental challenges, coupled with the spread of Western culture and consumerism, are making traditional self-sufficiency increasingly difficult. This is leading to a decreased quality of life in rural areas, which in turn leads to migration to urban areas. An interesting counter-example can be found in Senegal, where communities facing environmental challenges are taking control of their own futures by declaring themselves ecovillages.

Senegal is unique in the world in that it has a National Agency for Ecovillages, created in 2008. This government program calls for villages to be self-sufficient in terms of food, water, electricity and wood, and the ambitious plan is to create 14,000 such ecovillages by 2020. The government hopes that these ecovillages can be models of economical, environmental, social and cultural sustainability – in short, models for the future of rural Senegal. But the ecovillage movement in Senegal started at the grassroots level well before government intervention. This movement mobilized into an organisation called GEN Senegal, a branch of the Global Ecovillage Network, and some of the participating communities have been involved for more than 30 years.

A few months ago I visited one of these communities myself, namely the eco-community of Guede Chantier in northern Senegal. During my visit I could hear and see how water management, organic farming and reforestation are improving both soil qualities and people’s lives in Guede Chantier and other ecovillages of Senegal. Guede Chantier is also the home of REDES, a non-profit organisation dedicated to bringing solutions to the environmental and socio-economic challenges that the region faces. Possibly the biggest of these challenges is desertification and the spreading of the Sahara desert south, right into Senegal.

Desertification in the Sahel

Senegal is located in the Sahel region of Africa. The Sahel is the transition between the Sahara Desert and the tropical areas further south. Desertification and the spread of the Sahara Desert south are major threats impacting lives in the Sahel. Because of desertification, Senegal is one of the countries most threatened by climate change.

Many people think desertification is about droughts, but really it is about soil. Desertification refers to the biological degradation of land in dry areas as a result of human activities and climate change. The biggest factor causing desertification in the Sahel has been deforestation done to clear land for agriculture. With no trees, the strong winds from the Sahara blow away the organic top soil and uproots seedlings, leaving behind nothing but infertile sand. Cutting down trees also reduces the soil’s ability to hold water. This degradation of land, coupled with increasingly irregular rainy seasons in the Sahel, result in decreasing crop yields every year.

The people of the Sahel and Senegal are used to living off the land, with many being subsistence farmers. Because of desertification, every year farmers have to go further and further to find vegetation for their animals to graze on. The soil is so degraded that people can’t grow enough food for themselves or their animals anymore. With little or no other economic opportunities in rural areas, these people are driven further into poverty. Eventually these people have no choice but to migrate, first to Dakar, and then, if possible, to Europe or North America. The UN has predicted that globally, 50 million people will be forced to leave their homes by 2020 because of desertification.

Water management and environmental protection in Senegalese ecovillages

Access to water is another major factor behind rural to urban migration in Senegal. One of the most important steps Senegalese ecovillages have taken is ensuring sustainable water management with the help of irrigation, boreholes and solar technology. As a result, these villages have become more resistant to droughts, and traditional farming and herding activities have been are strengthened. Food security has also been improved while villagers find new economic opportunities in selling their produce.

Good water management strategies make it possible not only to grow food, but also to plant trees that help fight desertification. Many Senegalese ecovillages have realized that trees keep the soil healthy, and these communities have started reforestation campaigns and food forests that are restoring the productivity of the soil and helping reverse desertification. Trees make the ecosystem healthier and they reduce soil erosion caused by water and wind.

A prime example is Diara ecovillage, where three decades of reforestation has brought back not only the trees, but also birds and animals. Thanks to organic farming and permaculture techniques that benefit from the now healthy ecosystem, the village has prospered and a lot of migrants have also moved back to Diara from the cities. People in the village live a simple life, but they have good food and they are healthy – and happy.

The residents of Senegalese ecovillages are also more aware of the environment, for example of the polluting effect of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. In a sense, Senegalese ecovillages are calling for a return to the past, when people were more connected to the environment and had more respect for it. In Guede Chantier for example, the river has become cleaner and there is more fish than there used to be. There are still environmental challenges to solve – such as plastic waste – but having awareness of these issues is a first step to solving them.

Improved livelihoods in Senegalese ecovillages

Better environmental protection has been followed by better human welfare in Senegalese ecovillages. Most villages in Senegal are very poor, and often it is this poverty that forces people to destroy their environment. Senegalese ecovillages show that the quality of life can be improved by protecting the environment instead. Permaculture is the tool that is increasing productivity in Senegalese ecovillages and creating new income-generating activities – bringing rural villages back to live and reversing rural-urban migration.

Irrigation systems coupled with organic farming are increasing agricultural productivity and making villages more resistant to droughts. This improves food security while also creating surplus food that can be sold to generate income. This is especially impacting the lives of the women, who often have special community gardens in the villages. In Guede Chantier, women also do more food processing now, which adds value to products and increases the lifespan so that less goes to waste. Fish ponds, biogas, rocket stoves, composting and beekeeping are some of the other solutions that are improving food security and creating economic opportunities in Senegalese ecovillages.

Solar power is another solution that can strengthen economic activities in villages that are not connected to the national grid. In Bakombel – one of the pilot villages of the government ecovillage program – solar panels not only provide light but also power a computer lab at the village school, connecting the village to the rest of the world through the internet. Solar panels also run a mill and pump water from a borehole. Having solar power is a big change for the residents of Bakombel, who previously had to spend a full day walking to and from another village just to charge their mobile phones.

Meanwhile, a 30-year project in Ndem has managed to regenerate soils that had been degraded as a result of intensive monoculture peanut farming introduced by the French, coupled with climate change and desertification. The village now runs on solar power, has a sustainable water management system, and is turning peanut waste into biofuel that replaces fuel-wood. The villagers also grow their own organic cotton, and artisanal shops sell Ndem’s fair trade textiles both locally and internationally, fueling the economy of the village.

REDES and Lahel ecovillage development

During my stay at Guede Chantier I also became familiar with the work of a non-profit organization called REDES. REDES aims to regenerate the ecosystem of the Sahel by promoting biodynamic farming and forestry in order to relieve poverty and to stop mass migration. REDES is based in Guede Chantier, but the organization works in 38 villages in Senegal and neighbouring Mauritania. REDES has invited many other partner organizations and groups to come to Senegal to do various projects in the villages, such as irrigation and gardening projects, as well as educational projects dealing with topics like permaculture, organic farming and nutrition.

During my visit, REDES was just getting started with a new ecovillage development close to the existing village of Lahel, near the Senegal-Mauritania border by the river Senegal. Less than 100 years ago, the area surrounding Lahel was covered in lush forests with abundant wildlife, including elephants, hippos, lions and crocodiles. Deforestation started when the French colonialists came to clear space for agriculture, and it was later continued by the Senegalese. Today the landscape is barren with only a few trees left struggling in the sand. REDES plans to start a food forest in Lahel in an effort to regenerate the degraded soil and to attract people to the village. The goal is to reproduce what has already happened in many prosperous ecovillages of Senegal, continuing the movement of the future villages of Senegal.