Participatory governance of marine protected areas in Senegal

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By: Aissatou Niasse

Organisation: Directorate of Community-based Marine Protected Areas Senegal

Location: Senegal

Published: 02 July 2019

Photo: Clean-up of plastic waste by the local population of the Abéné Marine Protected Area in Casamance (Senegal) © Paul Moise Diedhiou

Summary: Participatory governance is a new experience developed by Senegal in the process of organizing, setting up and managing its network of marine protected areas. This approach allows Senegal to better implement its commitments in relation to international conventions that the country has ratified, such as the Convention on Biodiversity adopted in 1994, and to move from a regalian management model to a participatory process allowing it to transfer its powers to local authorities for the governance of their natural resources. It is an iterative and participatory process encouraged and supported by the State to enable local communities, which are the bearers of initiatives, to create and manage protected areas as a tool for the sustainable management of natural resources and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits.

To share the wealth of global knowledge on the  aspects of Integrated Ocean Management (IOM) with the 22 countries of the Abidjan Convention’s region, the Mami Wata project takes advantage of existing IOM solutions that have been successfully implemented already. The Blue Solutions presented here are part of and featured on the Marine and Coastal Solutions Portal on the PANORAMA platform. These solutions are being contributed by a broad range of providers from across the planet.