Located in Mauritania, the National Park of Banc d’Arguin covers 12,000 km2, an area comparable to the territory of Gambia, or 5 times the size of Luxembourg! Half land, half sea, since 1989 the park is classified as a world heritage site by UNESCO, and is one of the most important in Africa.
Dunes, mangroves, mud flats, reliefs or sand plains, the fascinating diversity of the Banc d’Arguin’s landscapes abounds with animal life:
The Park is home to over 2 million migratory birds from northern Europe. It is also home to a number of other species like the Great Cormorant, the White Pelican, but most of all the Spoonbill and the Grey Heron who do not reproduce any place else.
The Banc d’Arguin waters are some of the world’s richest fish waters, thanks to the phenomenon of upwelling: dominant east winds pushing surface waters out to sea. This movement provokes the upsurge of deeper waters, cold and nutrient rich, allowing for an explosion of phytoplankton. The Park’s sea space is nursery area, reproductive space, and important sources of food for fish populations, not only for Mauritania’s fisheries but also for the sub-region.
The marine biodiversity of the National Park of Banc d’Arguin is particularly rich; different turtle and sea mammal species are represented including the green turtle, bottlenose and humpbacked dolphins. The Park’s hundreds of monk seals, one of the 12 most endangered animals in the world, are one of the species’ last major colonies.
The Park’s challenge is to defend the totality of its natural resources and its ecosystems, threatened by overfishing, human development and climactic changes. Sidy’s observatories contribute to this effort. Along with the Imraguen community, the fishing peoples inhabiting the Banc d’Arguin for centuries, Sidi works for the conservation and sustainable management of this unique heritage.

Photo by Hellio & Van Ingen

Date: 18th till 20th August 2011 Where: Casamance, Senegal Info: Under the slogan “For a green and protected littoral from Kafountine to Cap Skirring. Our natural environment is our wealth!” Augustin and his association together with school groups and students from the agro-forestry department from the University of Ziguinchor are organizing three days of reforestation of the Atlantic littoral in Casamance. You are invited to join!

Lush and green, rice fields or fruit orchards, Casamance is abundant with natural resources. From Dakar, either an overnight ferry or a day long car trip will get you to Casamance, the region situated at the southern most end of Senegal, between Guinea Bissau and the Gambia.

For Senegalese, Casamance is known as the country’s bread basket, rich with the gifts of nature and fertile soil. For tourists, it has long been a destination of choice, with its fine combed sand beaches, ancestral cults, and traditional villages of complex architecture and two story huts.

Casamance certainly deserves its title as breadbasket for the country: close to 80% of the population practice an active agriculture on 80,000 hectares of land, over half dedicated to rice. Other crops include peanuts, cashews, black eyed peas, corn, sorghum, mangos, bananas and grapefruits. Whether Christian or Muslim, the region’s majority ethnic group, the Diola remain quite proudly tied to their animistic roots. Spirits are omnipresent and protect each element of nature. For the Diola, nature contains essences of the Divine, and respect and human protection for nature are fundamental.

Want to learn more about the Casamance, the Diola and their green culture? Contact Augustin, champion of his ecopark project. He’ll be happy to share!

2 July we kicked off Ecofund, a nonprofit association offering a unique one to one platform for the environment.

You’re invited along since we know everyone can do their part to preserve nature, whether with simple and concrete projects, like our champions, or like you with a generous hand of support to these projects.

How can you help? What steps to take? It’s simple.

1. Register on our site, www.ecofund.org

2. Give what you can to the project(s) you like: these projects benefit the environment and are made real, thanks to your participation. Anyone and everyone can do their part for as little as 5 euros!

3. Tell your friends, spread the word about Ecofund! Get others to join!

Now go and enjoy the web platform: flip through our photos, use our articles to cyber travel to new and distant places, discover the earth’s incredible biodiversity, and send us your projects!

And oh, yeah, here’s a video of our kickoff party at Koolgraoul in Dakar just for you!