Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the best results are to be seen in protecting Mali's desert elephants. Another excellent ex-
ample is the Tabala Conservation Zone spanning the Guinea-Sierra Leone border.
Local community projects around Toubab Dialao and the Réserve de Popenguine in
Senegal are a fine example of community-driven conservation. In Côte d'Ivoire, a village
tourism project reduced forest clearing and poaching in one of West Africa's largest stands
of rainforest in Parc National de Taï prior to the conflict; many such projects are yet to re-
start now that peace has returned to the country, however.
PURIFY YOUR WATER & SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT
When confronted by West Africa's often overwhelming environmental issues, it's easy to feel helpless. But there
is one small but very significant thing you can do to minimise your impact on the environment: don't buy bottled
water. Instead, purify tap water for your drinking needs. Plastic water bottles and plastic bags are one of the most
visible scourges across the West African landscape; you'll find plastic water bottles (and half-litre bags of mineral
water) everywhere for sale when they're full, and then again littering the streets, fields and roadsides once empty.
Water purification has come a long way since the days of unappealing iodine treatments, and one purification sys-
tem we've trialled on the road in West Africa are Micropur tablets, although there are plenty of other brands on
offer. The impact of travelling this way is easily calculated: if you drink 150L of purified water, you'll keep
around 100 plastic water bottles off the streets, not to mention save a considerable amount of money (in the UK
Micropur costs UK£6 per 100 tablets, enough to purify 100L).
