See a rare West African conservation success story
Shifting mindsets have allowed people living around Senegal's Sine-Saloum Delta – and visitors – to get the most of its lush, life-giving environment
As his wooden pirogue putt-putts through the dense mangroves of Senegal’s Sine-Saloum Delta, Mamadou Bakhoum is in a race with the tide. Dressed somewhat incongruously in an ill-fitting beekeeping suit, he keeps a weather eye on the congested mass of roots beside the boat. If the water rises much higher, his latest honey haul will have to wait.
“Sometimes the tide here is hard to predict,” says the muscular agricultural engineer, one hand resting on the tiller of his rusty outboard. “Reaching the hives across the mangrove mud is difficult at the best of times. When the water’s up, it’s impossible.”
Bakhoum lives with 500 other souls in Dassilame Serere, a scattering of thatched huts, mud-brick buildings and sandy roads next to a stretch of the Saloum River.
Situated just north of the Gambian border, the Unesco World Heritage-listed, 1,800-sq-km delta is one of West Africa’s ecological jewels. Formed where two rivers – the Sine and the Saloum – converge on the Atlantic, the delta’s labyrinthine network of shallow bolongs (creeks), lagoons, mangrove forest and sand islands is home to monkeys, hyenas and a huge variety of birds and fish.
“For an agricultural engineer, the delta is a bountiful paradise,” says Bakhoum, with a smile. “When the tide doesn’t get in the way.”
