DAKAR (IRIN) - Concrete walls, boulders, tyres; enclosed
vegetable gardens: These are just some of the means Senegal's coastal
communities are using to stop trash-dumping and sand-mining as well as the
reckless chopping down of the coast's protective trees.

These illegal but profitable activities are eroding Senegal's coast and
damaging the marine environment, and community groups and authorities say
it must stop.

"There is increased exploitation along this strip that must prompt the
local population to mobilise to protect this treasure," El Hadj Amadou
Bèye, president of SOS Littoral (SOS Coastal), told IRIN.

The organisation, created in 2007, installs all sorts of protective
barriers and educates coastal residents "in an effort to block these horse
and cart drivers who attack the marine environment", Bèye said.

The trees (casuarinas equisetifolia) - planted between 1925 and 1949 by
the colonial power France along the coast from the capital Dakar to Saint
Louis about 270km to the northeast - were meant to protect vegetable
gardens near the coast from sanding over and stem coastal erosion.

"These trees have a clear function in the life of the coastal populations
and visitors," said Amadou Baldé, an agricultural engineer who lives along
the coast and is a member of SOS Littoral. "But the trees are being wiped
out. It's a discouraging and intolerable situation for us, the
inhabitants."

The tree's wood - ideal for cooking - is prized by those running Dakar's
shops selling grilled meat, called 'dibiteries'. The needles are used as
fertiliser by vegetable growers and the wood for furniture.

Exploitation of the sand is lucrative as well. "With the real estate boom
in Dakar, entrepreneurs are crying out for more," agriculture engineer
Baldé said. "One horsecart driver, if he is free to move about as he
wishes, can do 20 loads a day, at 2,000 CFA francs (US$4.46). It's more
profitable than a taxi."

Another way the coastal area is being exploited to make money is rubbish
dumping. Owing to Dakar's ineffective refuse disposal system, Yakham, a
cart driver for 40 years, does well for himself. "I no longer need to
return to the village to work in the fields," he told IRIN. "With my
horse, I make a decent living." If he doesn't find merchandise to deliver
to area shops, he collects rubbish, dumping it along the coast.
Illiterate, he is unaware of the environmental regulations which prohibit
such dumping.

Environmental activists say local officials have failed in their duty to
ensure proper refuse disposal.

Citizen action

The current surge in local initiatives to protect the coast illustrates
the scale of the damage to the coastal zone. Local environmentalists,
however, have meagre means. They fight their fight through the creation of
monitoring committees, through awareness-raising campaigns and by putting
up their makeshift barriers.

They also collaborate with the security forces. "These horse and cart
drivers are youths who are aggressive and often armed [with wooden
clubs]," engineer Baldé said. "They come at night or during the weekdays
when we are at work. to come and remove the barriers."

Residents of coastal neighbourhoods have spoken out against those
extracting sand or wood, risking a brawl. They have begun to change
tactics, favouring instead a community alert system.

Since the beginning of the year, 30 people have been arrested for the
illegal extraction of coastal sand and 36 horse-drawn carts have been
immobilised by gendarmes, according to the national gendarme spokesperson,
Daouda Diop.

He said the gendarmes have a new environment squad, assisted by personnel
in the coastal zones who patrol on motorbikes and on horseback. "I am
pleased with the collaboration of the residents who stop the cart drivers
and inform us via a toll-free number."

Residents are voluntarily standing guard and patrolling to compensate for
a lack of water and forest department agents, observers say. "Just two
agents cannot keep watch on the 8km of protected forest [north of Dakar],"
SOS Littoral's president, Bèye, said. "The authorities must multiply that
by three or four."

In a recent visit to Guédiawaye - a suburb of Dakar seen as the nerve
centre of the coastal band - Environment Minister Djibo Ka promised to put
more agents on duty in the zone. "I am looking at how to put up an
enclosure wall - I will put the necessary resources into saving this
protected forest."

New laws?

In mid-November, members of a parliamentary environment committee visited
the coastal zone. Lamine Thiam, head of the delegation, told reporters the
members would call on the government to put in place "a special programme
of coastal management as well as make sufficient funds available to
ministries dealing with the environment."

Thiam said: "The fight against coastal erosion is a delicate environmental
issue and the management of Senegal's coasts is a priority." He said
environmental laws were being studied to determine how well they provided
coastal protection.

Rather than simply enforcing the law, agriculture engineer Baldé thinks it
is possible to redeploy the horses and their owners: "We can envision
transforming this strip of trees, replacing the cargo carts with passenger
carriages to transport visitors so they can visit the forest, walk in the
sand and breathe in the sea breeze."

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