Senegal’s Langue de Barberie National Park is located in a region known as the Gandiol, a natural estuary where the Senegal River meets the Atlantic Ocean. The area is a beautiful ecosystem of vast sand dunes, mangroves, river, ocean, and an excellent array of wildlife, including one of the largest populations of migratory birds in the world. Only 18km south of the popular tourist destination and former capital of French West Africa, Saint Louis, the park is easily accessible to tourists and is the only Senegalese national park open year-round.
The villages surrounding the Langue de Barberie National Park have been traditionally recognized for their artisan fishing industry, their sparse and seasonal agricultural output (onions), and increasingly for seasonal salt extraction. On a global level, cost of living increases and an increasingly competitive global market have left these raw material producers at an economic disadvantage in comparison to other modern forms of employment. Their situation is further aggravated by the promotion of large foreign and local fishing vessels monopolizing the fishing industry. This is true of many villages on the coast of Senegal.
More particular to the region, during the night of October 3, 2003, a canal was constructed along the Langue de Barberie 5km south of St. Louis to reduce flooding in the city that occurred due to high water levels in the river. The canal was made without first conducting an environmental impact study and the ecological and economic repercussions have been drastic, changing the ecological balance of the region and further compromising the quality of life for the local population of Gandiol. While the canal allowed the flood waters in Saint Louis to recede, it also allowed the ocean to advance into the Senegal River delta. As a result, the canal has dramatically increased the level of salt in the river and soil of the entire region, increased erosion to the main attraction of the park, a birds’ reproductive island, and has changed the physical geography of the national park. Since the opening of the canal, there has been a scarcity of fish in the river and the agricultural fields at the base of the river have been abandoned because the high levels of salt in the soil and water makes it impossible to cultivate. In a community that is economically structured around fishing and agriculture the opening of the canal has been a sharp blow to the livelihood of its community members. The national park, international partners, and local leaders are working hard to find economic livelihood alternatives to traditional employment with hopes that ecotourism will play a primary role.
Since it’s creation in 1976, the national park has worked to preserve the natural environment of this unique region and develop opportunities in tourism. Specifically, the park and the surrounding villages that make up the Gandiol region have emphasized the development of ecotourism, versus large-scale classic tourism that has fundamentally changed the environmental and cultural characteristics of many other areas in the country, such as Saly-Portugal, south of Dakar. Ecotourism as supported and applied in the region is composed of activities that generate tourism-related revenues, protect the natural environment, and which reinvest a portion of those revenues in community development projects such as micro-finance loans to community entrepreneurs, the construction of health clinics and schools, and other infrastructure improvement.
To date, the GIE (Gestion Interet Economique) of Eco Guards at the Park has successfully created and managed profitable enterprises in ecotourism including guided boat tours of the park and bird reproductive island, a restaurant at the entrance to the park, and horse cart tours of the adjacent village of Mouit and nearby agricultural fields.
The Eco Guards have also undertaken extensive reforestation projects, park cleanups, education sessions in the local schools, and regional trainings to teach community members about the importance of conservation, ecotourism, and waste management.
The GIE of Eco Guards is made up of volunteers from the various villages that make up the Gandiol region who make a small fee for their services as park guides. They are an incredibly motivated, talented, and representative group of young people who care deeply about their community and its future.
The GIE of park Eco Guards and the local community seek to create an ecotourism campement in the village of Moumbaye where tourists can enjoy extended stays in the park. The location selected by the community for the campement is directly across from park’s main attraction, the bird reproductive island, a large protected nesting ground which sits in the middle of the Senegal River and is home to thousands of migratory birds including pelicans, cormorants, herons, egrets, sterns, and gulls. The location is idyllic—bordered by palm and pine trees, a wide expanse of beachfront, and the nearby village of Moumbaye—it is sure to attract many tourists. From a marketing perspective, the location is strategic because every visitor to the park will pass in front of the campement as they visit the bird island.
Most tourist campements in Senegal use the typical method of building with cement bricks and rebar, usually with thatch or grass roofs. Buildings fashioned in this method can be found across the region and require consistent upkeep and maintenance. By contrast, the GIE of Eco Guards at the Langue de Barberie National Park are excited to employ a unique, durable, and artistic building method known as “Superadobe,” a natural building technique developed by Iranian architect Nader Khalili at Cal-Earth Institute. The basic construction technique involves filling sandbags with earth and laying them in courses in a circular plan. The circular courses are corbelled near the top to form a dome. Barbed wire is laid between courses to prevent the sandbags from shifting and to provide earthquake resistance. The system employs the timeless forms of arches, domes and vaults to create single and double-curvature shell structures that are both strong and aesthetically pleasing. It is cheap and allows buildings to be quickly erected by hand by the occupants themselves with a minimum of training. The shelters focus on the economic empowerment of people by participation in the creation of their own homes and communities. Because the structures use local resources – on-site earth and human hands – they are entirely sustainable. Men and women, old and young, can build since the maximum weight lifted is an earth-filled can to pour into the bags.
The design for the park’s campement calls for building two large “eco-domes” which can accommodate groups of up to six people each, along with five smaller domes that would accommodate individuals or couples. With this configuration, the campement would accommodate up to 22 people, with additional room for tourists with their own tents.
The campement would include a basic concrete kitchen to serve meals, a concrete sanitary station with 3 bathrooms and 3 showers, a small concrete office and gift shop, and a large Mauritanian style tent with mats, pillows, and low-profile tables and chairs for relaxing in the shade and eating meals. Additional components of the campement would include an entranceway with an attractive sign and a low-impact gravel road connecting the site with the main road, piped water, solar panels, hammocks, and fixed bird-watching telescopes.
With funding in place, the GIE of park Eco Guards would assume responsibility for actual construction of the campement. The volunteers themselves would provide most labor, but would also collaborate with local and international school groups interested in natural building technique, as well as hire other laborers from the local community as needed. The construction would be supervised by the park conservator, Lieutenant Mamadou Sidibe, with assistance from the local Peace Corps volunteer, Nat Parker. All materials except the Superadobe sandbags and design blueprints are available locally. With all materials and financing accounted for, the construction process itself would take approximately 4 months. An additional 2 months would be needed for site clean-up, facilities preparation, and community sensitization. This would include discussions and trainings conducted by the Eco Guards with the local community to familiarize them with the campement, its rules and norms to respect, and to provide a routine channel for community feedback.
The campement would be managed by the GIE of park Eco Guards. The GIE of Ecoguards is a well-functioning group of male and female volunteers from each of the villages that make up the Gandiol region, including Moumbaye, where the campement will be located. The group is structured with a president, vice-president, treasurer, and secretary who meet regularly with the other eco guards to review and make decisions on all GIE projects, including the park boat tours, park restaurant, reforestation, and community education. As with all other activities the GIE conducts within the park, its management is overseen by the park conservator, Lieutenant Mamadou Sidibe. Staff responsibilities for the campement including reception, cooking, and cleaning would be distributed on a rotational basis among the eco guards. All profits from the project will be divided between staff wages, depreciation costs for campement equipment, the GIE group account, and the Gandiol micro-credit and development institution CLGB (Commite Locale pour la Gestion de la Biodiversite).
To ensure and measure the success of this project, the GIE of Eco Guards will distribute a customer survey to all tourists who stay at the campement. The survey will assess all facets of the tourist’s experience, including the quality of the facilities, food, staff support, and general suggestions. Surveys will be reviewed in conjunction with the park conservator and Peace Corps volunteer on a monthly basis to identify areas of improvement and any associated trainings required for successful management of the campement. Local community members in Moumbaye, along with the Village Chief will be invited to GIE monthly meetings to provide feedback and air any concerns regarding the campement.
The villages surrounding the Langue de Barberie National Park have been traditionally recognized for their artisan fishing industry, their sparse and seasonal agricultural output (onions), and increasingly for seasonal salt extraction. On a global level, cost of living increases and an increasingly competitive global market have left these raw material producers at an economic disadvantage in comparison to other modern forms of employment. Their situation is further aggravated by the promotion of large foreign and local fishing vessels monopolizing the fishing industry. This is true of many villages on the coast of Senegal.
More particular to the region, during the night of October 3, 2003, a canal was constructed along the Langue de Barberie 5km south of St. Louis to reduce flooding in the city that occurred due to high water levels in the river. The canal was made without first conducting an environmental impact study and the ecological and economic repercussions have been drastic, changing the ecological balance of the region and further compromising the quality of life for the local population of Gandiol. While the canal allowed the flood waters in Saint Louis to recede, it also allowed the ocean to advance into the Senegal River delta. As a result, the canal has dramatically increased the level of salt in the river and soil of the entire region, increased erosion to the main attraction of the park, a birds’ reproductive island, and has changed the physical geography of the national park. Since the opening of the canal, there has been a scarcity of fish in the river and the agricultural fields at the base of the river have been abandoned because the high levels of salt in the soil and water makes it impossible to cultivate. In a community that is economically structured around fishing and agriculture the opening of the canal has been a sharp blow to the livelihood of its community members. The national park, international partners, and local leaders are working hard to find economic livelihood alternatives to traditional employment with hopes that ecotourism will play a primary role.
Since it’s creation in 1976, the national park has worked to preserve the natural environment of this unique region and develop opportunities in tourism. Specifically, the park and the surrounding villages that make up the Gandiol region have emphasized the development of ecotourism, versus large-scale classic tourism that has fundamentally changed the environmental and cultural characteristics of many other areas in the country, such as Saly-Portugal, south of Dakar. Ecotourism as supported and applied in the region is composed of activities that generate tourism-related revenues, protect the natural environment, and which reinvest a portion of those revenues in community development projects such as micro-finance loans to community entrepreneurs, the construction of health clinics and schools, and other infrastructure improvement.
To date, the GIE (Gestion Interet Economique) of Eco Guards at the Park has successfully created and managed profitable enterprises in ecotourism including guided boat tours of the park and bird reproductive island, a restaurant at the entrance to the park, and horse cart tours of the adjacent village of Mouit and nearby agricultural fields.
The Eco Guards have also undertaken extensive reforestation projects, park cleanups, education sessions in the local schools, and regional trainings to teach community members about the importance of conservation, ecotourism, and waste management.
The GIE of Eco Guards is made up of volunteers from the various villages that make up the Gandiol region who make a small fee for their services as park guides. They are an incredibly motivated, talented, and representative group of young people who care deeply about their community and its future.
The GIE of park Eco Guards and the local community seek to create an ecotourism campement in the village of Moumbaye where tourists can enjoy extended stays in the park. The location selected by the community for the campement is directly across from park’s main attraction, the bird reproductive island, a large protected nesting ground which sits in the middle of the Senegal River and is home to thousands of migratory birds including pelicans, cormorants, herons, egrets, sterns, and gulls. The location is idyllic—bordered by palm and pine trees, a wide expanse of beachfront, and the nearby village of Moumbaye—it is sure to attract many tourists. From a marketing perspective, the location is strategic because every visitor to the park will pass in front of the campement as they visit the bird island.
Most tourist campements in Senegal use the typical method of building with cement bricks and rebar, usually with thatch or grass roofs. Buildings fashioned in this method can be found across the region and require consistent upkeep and maintenance. By contrast, the GIE of Eco Guards at the Langue de Barberie National Park are excited to employ a unique, durable, and artistic building method known as “Superadobe,” a natural building technique developed by Iranian architect Nader Khalili at Cal-Earth Institute. The basic construction technique involves filling sandbags with earth and laying them in courses in a circular plan. The circular courses are corbelled near the top to form a dome. Barbed wire is laid between courses to prevent the sandbags from shifting and to provide earthquake resistance. The system employs the timeless forms of arches, domes and vaults to create single and double-curvature shell structures that are both strong and aesthetically pleasing. It is cheap and allows buildings to be quickly erected by hand by the occupants themselves with a minimum of training. The shelters focus on the economic empowerment of people by participation in the creation of their own homes and communities. Because the structures use local resources – on-site earth and human hands – they are entirely sustainable. Men and women, old and young, can build since the maximum weight lifted is an earth-filled can to pour into the bags.
The design for the park’s campement calls for building two large “eco-domes” which can accommodate groups of up to six people each, along with five smaller domes that would accommodate individuals or couples. With this configuration, the campement would accommodate up to 22 people, with additional room for tourists with their own tents.
The campement would include a basic concrete kitchen to serve meals, a concrete sanitary station with 3 bathrooms and 3 showers, a small concrete office and gift shop, and a large Mauritanian style tent with mats, pillows, and low-profile tables and chairs for relaxing in the shade and eating meals. Additional components of the campement would include an entranceway with an attractive sign and a low-impact gravel road connecting the site with the main road, piped water, solar panels, hammocks, and fixed bird-watching telescopes.
With funding in place, the GIE of park Eco Guards would assume responsibility for actual construction of the campement. The volunteers themselves would provide most labor, but would also collaborate with local and international school groups interested in natural building technique, as well as hire other laborers from the local community as needed. The construction would be supervised by the park conservator, Lieutenant Mamadou Sidibe, with assistance from the local Peace Corps volunteer, Nat Parker. All materials except the Superadobe sandbags and design blueprints are available locally. With all materials and financing accounted for, the construction process itself would take approximately 4 months. An additional 2 months would be needed for site clean-up, facilities preparation, and community sensitization. This would include discussions and trainings conducted by the Eco Guards with the local community to familiarize them with the campement, its rules and norms to respect, and to provide a routine channel for community feedback.
The campement would be managed by the GIE of park Eco Guards. The GIE of Ecoguards is a well-functioning group of male and female volunteers from each of the villages that make up the Gandiol region, including Moumbaye, where the campement will be located. The group is structured with a president, vice-president, treasurer, and secretary who meet regularly with the other eco guards to review and make decisions on all GIE projects, including the park boat tours, park restaurant, reforestation, and community education. As with all other activities the GIE conducts within the park, its management is overseen by the park conservator, Lieutenant Mamadou Sidibe. Staff responsibilities for the campement including reception, cooking, and cleaning would be distributed on a rotational basis among the eco guards. All profits from the project will be divided between staff wages, depreciation costs for campement equipment, the GIE group account, and the Gandiol micro-credit and development institution CLGB (Commite Locale pour la Gestion de la Biodiversite).
To ensure and measure the success of this project, the GIE of Eco Guards will distribute a customer survey to all tourists who stay at the campement. The survey will assess all facets of the tourist’s experience, including the quality of the facilities, food, staff support, and general suggestions. Surveys will be reviewed in conjunction with the park conservator and Peace Corps volunteer on a monthly basis to identify areas of improvement and any associated trainings required for successful management of the campement. Local community members in Moumbaye, along with the Village Chief will be invited to GIE monthly meetings to provide feedback and air any concerns regarding the campement.
posted by Nat Parker | 10:19 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home