ENVIRONMENT: Senegal Shuts Down Mining Operations in Protected Zones

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

By Amadou Sakho

DAKAR, Aug 14 2003 (IPS) - Senegal is shutting down all mining operations in protected forests in a bid to preserve the country’s natural resources.

No new mining permits will be issued for protected forestlands throughout Senegal. When current ones expire, they will not be renewed, government sources say.

Prime Minister Idrissa Seck says the ban – which follows a Jul. 9 decision – “aims at restoring and revitalising protected forests, most of which are in a bad state”.

”The protected, re-generable forests and the land reserves which hold enormous economic potential for environmentally-sustainable activities must be conserved,” explains the Minister of Mines, Energy and Water, Macky Sall.

When Prime Minister Seck presided over an inter-ministerial council at the end of July, he reaffirmed the government’s ”irreversible” need to safeguard and revitalise protected forestlands.

The government will spend 3.5 billion CFA (about six million U.S. dollars) on a prospecting programme that will identify alternative sites where limestone, sandstone and other minerals can be mined.

It will also pay for the relocation costs of the mining companies, while it assesses damage caused to the forests and finds ways and means to repair them.

”The government will restore the ability of the forests to regenerate,” Sall says.

In all, 40 mines are affected. A spokesperson for the National Association of Senegalese Quarry Operators, says the mines account for 100 billion CFA (about 175 million U.S. dollars) worth of investment, with a turnover of 150 billion CFA (about 262 million U.S. dollars) in 2002.

Last year the government collected 30 billion CFA (about 53 million US dollars) in taxes from the mines, according to unconfirmed sources.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have welcomed the decision to shutdown the mines. ”This is a wise decision. We think the government has had a laissez-faire attitude for too long and that it was about time to put an end to the decay of our forests,” says Moustapha Sarr, a spokesperson for the Senegalese Association of Friends of Nature.

The Dakar-based African Centre for Assistance and Protection of the Sahelian Environment agreed. ”We hope that Senegal’s example will be followed by other African countries. Our countries must be able to harmonise socio-economic development with environmental protection,” says Abdallah Goudiaby, a member of CAPES.

But a spokesperson for the Senegalese group, SOS-Environment, believes that the decision is only a half-measure. ”The government should go all the way. Mining quarries near residential zones should also be banned to protect the health of those living around them,” says Alfousseyni Diba, a member of the group.

Last year, the ministry of the environmental launched a campaign to plant five million trees within 30,000 hectares. The aim was to slow the rapid decline of Senegalese forests, which, according to the department of water and forestry, shrunk by 50,000 hectares in 2000.

”The rate at which our forests are shrinking has greatly diminished. While we lost 80,000 hectares in 1982, the present rate is only 50,000. This shows that with its partners, Senegal has expended considerable effort to slow the rate of desertification, which seemed to be irreversible,” says Demba Ba, Senegal’s national park director.

In addition to drought, Senegal’s forestlands have also been overexploited. Each year, between 60,000 and 100,000 tonnes of wood for firewood, or for art work, are cut down.

There is also strong demographic pressure on farmers to settle into or around forestlands, which creates massive deforestation when these lands are transformed into farms to grow crops.

(END/IPS/AF/WA/EN/TRA-FRE/AS/SZ/MN/03)