06/17 NFI NL: Early Planning Landscape of the Year

Informations from the Landscape of the Year 2018/2019 – Senegal/The Gambia

As mentioned in the last newsletter, a cross-border area between Senegal and the Gambia was picked for the Landscape of the Year 2018/2019. From now on, there will be short articles about the Landscape of the Year on a regular basis in the NFI newsletter. Agreement on Forest Resources and Wildlife Management between Senegal and the Gambia Due to the successful political changes in the Gambia, conditions for the cooperation between Senegalese Naturefriends and their partners across the border improved tremendously. Extensive woodlands in the border regions of the two countries have suffered strongly because of illegal deforestation and overuse. Now, both countries had their Ministries for the Environment sign a cooperation agreement in April 2017 regarding the responsible use of forest resources close to the border. According to the agreement joint programmes and strategies shall be developed and implemented, which includes a participatory approach to include the local communities. This is fully in line with the interests of local Naturefriends, who now have the chance to be the first in the region to start new developments and/or be part of such changes. Both the Senegalese and the Gambian press have covered the agreement extensively: english | french Partner meeting in Koungheul The first meeting of all actors in the Landscape of the Year will take place in the second half of july. The partners will have the possibility to get to know each other better and to plan the common activities in detail.