Senegal – Green Energy (Nébéday)

Project Manager:

Nébéday

Location:

Northern Senegal, Sine Saloum, Popenguine

Duration:

1 year (renewable)

Projections:

150 – 200 households per facilitator, 12 tonnes of biochar per 3 facilitators

Objectives:

Raise awareness on environmental issues: reduce firewood consumption, combat bush fires, spark interest in tree planting, and change cooking practices;
Train volunteers in villages to produce biochar from straw;
Provide training for women in building improved cookstoves;
Improve the living and working conditions of women;
Set up an income-generating sector through the sale of biochar.

Concerned Ecosystem:

Sahelian savannah, mangroves

Project Overview:

In the Sahelian zone, the climate is semi-arid or arid, and the herders, particularly the Fulani, present in many regions in the country and renowned for their ancestral practice of itinerant livestock farming, have to travel hundreds of kilometres a week in order to find food for their livestock. Forest resources are scarce there. Women also have to travel long distances in order to collect firewood for cooking, a practice that puts significant pressure on the dry forests of the arid zones. The problem is the same on the city outskirts since population density generates significant pressure on forest resources.

Biochar is produced from straw; it is therefore possible to use invasive grasses for its production. The improved cooking stove involves a simple technique, using materials available on site (clay, earth, manure, straw and water) and which makes it possible to lessen the need for firewood by 50%. Thus, these two techniques make it possible to improve the living conditions of the women who are responsible for collecting firewood, but also to reduce the pressure of local populations on dry forests while improving their living conditions. The populations’ involvement in these projects is real since improvement in their living conditions is evident.

Since these practices influence a change in habits, especially in women, this project includes intense training and awareness.