Rabat – Morocco’s OCP Foundation announced its commitment to support a sustainable development project in Senegal seeking to help mitigate pressure on the Niokolo-Koba National Park, 650 kilometers away from Dakar in the Tambacounda region.
The project aims to reduce external pressure on the park, which serves as an essential reservoir of faunal and floral biodiversity.
“The park is subject to multiple stresses from the local residents causing devastating effects on its natural resources, particularly water,” the foundation said.
In response, the OCP Foundation developed a partnership with Senegal’s Ministry of Environment to reduce pressure on the park.
The project, which was launched in 2021, over a duration of three years hopes to support the National Parks Direction (DPN) in different areas. Areas the project plans to support include monitoring the quality of the park’s water, empowering local communities by developing income-generating activities for women, and raising awareness among communities about preserving the environment.
Monitoring water quality
The OCP Foundation said that it relied on Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) to provide training cycles on water quality control. The training in water quality control benefitted 24 participants.
OCP’s Foundation also provided DPN with the necessary equipment for monitoring water quality, including a mobile laboratory, two pickup vehicles, and six motorcycles equipped with analysis kits for monitoring the quality of groundwater and surface water.
The partnership between the OCP Foundation and the Senegalese ministry also enabled the implementation of an agro-ecological project based on the management of natural resources to allow neighboring communities to access new sources of income.
The implementation of the project will help reduce pressure on the park’s resources.
OCP Foundation provided DPN with a mobile laboratory
“Indeed, by using rational use of water (drip- irrigation and clean energy for pumping), the women’s cooperatives benefiting from the project are able to sustainably increase agricultural yields and ensure food and nutritional security for their households, the OCP Foundation said, stressing that a community diagnosis mission was set up in partnership with the UM6P’s Cooplab in February 2022.
The mission assessed the communities’ needs in terms of income generation support, 50 women benefited from the building program.
The OCP Foundation and the Ministry of Senegal will now mobilize to support a “Caravan of Ambassadors” that will travel through 17 communities surrounding the park to raise awareness about environmental issues.
The foundation said that such projects are in line with the group’s actions and commitment to contributing to sustainable development across Africa.
