Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ing the southward march of the Sahara, which left sandy wastelands where it went. Fast forward to 2009 and
something remarkable has happened. Satellite images show that three of Niger's southern provinces (especially
around Tahoua) now have between 10 and 20 times more trees than they did in the 1970s. According to the Un-
ited Nations Environment Program (UNEP), this is 'a human and environmental success story at a scale not seen
before in the Sahel'.
The secret to the success has been giving farmers the primary role in regenerating the land. Faced with arid soil
where agriculture was almost impossible, farmers constructed terraces and rock bunds to stem soil erosion, trap
rainfall and enable the planting of trees. Trees planted by the farmers now serve as windbreaks against the desert
and, for the first time in a generation, agriculture (millet, sorghum and vegetables) is possible almost year round,
even in the dry season, thanks to improved water catchment and soil quality. Farmers no longer uproot trees to
plant crops, ploughing around them instead, with the result that crop yields have increased.
In what has become known as 'farmer-managed natural regeneration', the flow-on effects have been ex-
traordinary: not only has agriculture become possible, subsistence levels have risen and the local economy is im-
proving, and the region's groundwater table has also risen, in some places from a depth of 20m to 3m. In some
areas, pockets of desert now resemble agricultural parklands, with more than 200 trees per hectare. Even in years
of drought when crops fail, the trees, a small proportion of which can be sold for cash, serve as a last bastion
against starvation; in the 2005 food crisis, death rates from hunger in the three southern provinces were much
lower than elsewhere in the country.
Reptiles & Amphibians
West Africa's most notable reptile is the Nile crocodile, which was once abundant all over
the region; few remain, due to hunting and habitat destruction. Your best chance to see
them is along the larger rivers such as the Gambia, Senegal and Niger, although an un-
likely population also survives in Mauritania's Saharan oasis of Matmata. Two lesser-
known species, the dwarf crocodile and the slender-nosed crocodile, also occur.
Benin has the highest ratio (23%) of protected areas to total territory, followed by Côte d'Ivoire (16.4%),
Burkina Faso (15.4%) and Ghana (14.7%). Lagging behind are Cape Verde (0.56%), Mauritania (1.7%),
Mali (2.1%) and Nigeria (2.1%).
Turtles survive along the coast of West Africa and on some of the offshore islands. The
females come to the beaches to lay eggs in the sand, sometimes several hundred at a time.
The threats faced by turtles are considerable, and include damage by humans to nesting
areas, hunting, and the effects of water pollution - turtles often mistake floating plastic
bags for food. The best places to see sea turtles are at the conservation project at Ebodje in
Cameroon, on the Cape Verdean island of Boa Vista in July and August, the João Vieira-
Poilão National Marine Park in Guinea-Bissau, or in Ghana at Akwidaa Beach and Beyin.
West Africa has a full complement of both venomous and harmless snakes, but most
fear humans and you'd be 'lucky' to even see one. The largest snake is the non-venomous
python, which grows to more than 5m in length. It kills by coiling around and suffocating
