Communities unite to tap and preserve forest resources

Village chief of Boula Téné, Theodore Mada Keita, holds up the fonio grain that helps feed his family. With USAID support, his community is working to better process this nutritious grain, which is increasingly in demand in specialty markets overseas. Photo by R. Nyberg, USAID

KOUSANAR, Senegal -- Beating a quick triplet rhythm, three women raise enormous pestles over their heads and drive them with a heavy thud into a mortar full of fonio grains. For hours on end, Ellen Samura, Sira Samura, and Meta Camara in Boula Téné, a village of 200 people of the Bedik tribe, keep march tempo: Ellen, Sira, Meta, Ellen, Sira, Meta. They are working the traditional way – the hard way.

It’s a common sight in Senegal’s southeastern Tambacounda Region, home to about 530,000 people, most of them subsistence farmers and cattle or goat herders.

It will likely take this trio more than three hours to pound, winnow, and wash three kilograms of fonio. Growing it, however, makes good sense. Fonio (Digitaria exilis) thrives even in poor soils found in this region and is increasingly sought after as a regional delicacy.

Fonio is said to be Africa’s oldest cereal crop. When cooked it is similar to couscous. It is often served with a peanut sauce or chicken stew. Rich in amino acids and gluten free, it is easy to digest and low in natural sugars, making it an ideal food for the sick or diabetic. With support from USAID/Senegal, farming communities like this one are working together to boost production to meet growing demand – including new specialty markets in Europe and the United States.

Since 2003, Wula Nafaa (meaning “benefits of the forest”), a five-year, $11.75 million USAID/Senegal project working in the southern half of Senegal, has trained people in fonio transformation and organized the 45-strong “Fonio Network of Boula Téné” to increase production. After taking out what they need to feed their families, the association sold 200 kilograms of fonio in 2005. Wula Nafaa has helped similar associations export a total of 13,000 kilograms in 2005.

Adama Awa Suwaré from the southern Senegalese town of Dindéfelo saves hours of hard labor each day processing the local grain, fonio, following techniques and using equipment provided by USAID/Senegal. Photo by R. Nyberg, USAID

To help meet market demand for fonio, USAID is helping improve the processing capacity of local associations. For example, last September, USAID supplied a similar network at Dindéfelo near the country’s southern border with a machine to separate the grain from its hull. Adama Awa Suwaré is president of the committee in charge of the machine. “It used to take me five hours to transform three kilograms of fonio,” she said, beaming, stretching out her scarred and swollen hands. “With the machine, it only takes five minutes.”

These are just two of more than 2,070 producer groups and family enterprises assisted by USAID over the past three years to boost production in a range of products, such as fonio, karaya gum for use in the pharmaceutical industry, baobab, jujube and madd (local fruits) and honey, benefiting over 20,000 rural Senegalese. But the overall work of USAID/Senegal in this activity goes far beyond securing greater profits for local producers.

Nature, Wealth, Power

The Senegal Mission’s Wula Nafaa project adopts the Nature, Wealth, and Power approach, based on experiences learned by USAID throughout Africa over the last 20 years. The approach promotes environmentally-sound management of natural areas (Nature) by transferring management responsibility to local governments (Power) and creating wealth through sustainable use of local, natural products (Wealth).

Koussanar, a town of about 2,000 people which lies 30 miles west of the regional capital, Tambacounda, is a case in point. Here, dozens of groups harvest karaya gum, baobab fruit, jujube, and fonio – lucrative alternatives to traditional cash crops of peanuts and cotton – for export. Brought together by USAID-paid local facilitators, communities work with local administrative and national forest department officials to establish rules governing the use of the forested areas, and set up fines for damaging vines and trees or setting bushfires.

In late January, Wula Nafaa staff trained 64 men chosen by their local development committees in 31 villages in the Koussanar area as forest guards to enforce the local forest code drafted with the help of the USAID project’s team. Koussanar is the seventh community where USAID has worked alongside residents and authorities to draft local conventions on resource use.

“A key objective is to get community members working with local and national authorities so they can develop forest management plans,” says Peter Trenchard of USAID/Senegal. “This will provide them the legal basis to manage and profit from the products in a sustainable manner.”

Some other results: exports of karaya gum more than tripled last year, to over 140 tons with an increase in revenue of 430%, and “instant” baobab powder for juice for local consumption increased from about a quarter ton in 2004 to 5.5 tons in 2005.

Koussanar’s local officials are convinced of the need to plan carefully for future forest products.

“Before the arrival of Wula Nafaa, it was as if the people had not taken part at all in preserving their natural resources,” said Diambar Ba, president of Koussanar’s rural council environment committee.

At a ceremony to award the new forest guards with badges, the Koussanar Rural Council President El Hadji Massamba Ndiaye said the council would “stand behind the entire law as it relates to the forest,” adding it was imperative that the work to protect these resources, in part through the USAID-trained guards, succeed.

Nature, wealth, power: It’s a rhythm that helps drive rural development in Senegal.