Key policies and governance approach

The government of Senegal has designed several policies to prevent land degradation and rehabilitate degraded lands and enhance land productivity, including the National Action Plan to Combat Desertification and the National Framework for Investment into Sustainable Land Management (CNIS/SLM). In addition, Senegal was a pilot country of the UNCCD Land Degradation Neutrality LDN process in 2015  [14].

In 2004, Senegal enacted the Agriculture, Forestry, and Livestock Act (LOASP) with an objective of increasing private agricultural investment and ensuring Sustainable Land Management (SNM) [15].

Land governance in Senegal is dominated by two different management models: a modern model based on national legislation and a traditional model founded on customary rules. In June 1964, Senegal adopted a new land law, the Law on the National Domain (LOI No. 64-46). It considers the majority of Senegalese land and especially rural land used for living, agriculture and cattle raising as a national domain. This means that local communities can only obtain user rights: land cannot be sold or bought. At the time of independence in 1960, the national domain constituted 95% of Senegal’s land of which individuals, irrespective of gender, could claim land or obtain user rights as long as they used the land productively and lived in the community where the land is located [16].  

Within this system, land governance in Senegal is decentralised and becomes the responsibility of local governments and rural communities. However, democratic processes at local level (and the election of representatives) often do not work as they should. In many cases, these processes are overruled by customary practices. The success of these processes depends on the willingness of governmental bodies to involve communities and the capacity and resources available to both local governments and communities [16].  

A good deal of effort has been invested in supporting women in Senegal, yet they had to wait until 2001 to see equal access to land and property rights for men and women enshrined in the Constitution (Article 15) and are still waiting for concrete legislation to bring this law into force [10].

The pursuit of the land reform is clearly expressed in the orientations of the Emerging Senegal Plan (PSE, 2019-2023). The Government of Senegal recognizes that land access is one of the conditions for economic emergence and intends to reform the land sector [17].

SUCCESSES AND REMAINING CHALLENGES

Land governance in Senegal is problematic. In some areas, agribusinesses now dominate huge tracts of what used to be family farmland. The transactions that private investors use to acquire this land are rarely transparent, and often undermine local communities’ collective rights to use the land in their territory.

Local producers are caught between three systems: the legal system; customary norms; and actual practices on the ground. Most producers acquired the land they occupy through traditional inheritance systems that they still regard as legitimate, but they have no security of tenure because the land has not been allocated to them by the authorities and they hold no legal title to it.

Compensation for loss of land to mining and agribusiness is arbitrary and inequitable. Since the majority of rural people have customary rights to their land rather than land titles, if the state grants concessions to mining companies on land in the national domain, companies are in a position to evict original occupants [10].

The trend towards greater land ownership by larger-scale private investors is having particular impacts on Senegal’s traditional farming communities. Outsiders are creating limited job opportunities in rural areas, but they are also occupying land that might otherwise be available to local farmers. They also consume other resources, such as water — in the Niayes region, a study found that the investment required to secure access to water is often beyond the reach of smallholder farmers [12].

Attempts at land reform have remained unsuccessful for the past 20 years. The Senegalese government has attempted to reform its land tenure policy several times over the years, without any significant progress to date. The different attempts at reform met with: (i) operational difficulties: the number of different commissions proved to be excessive, while at the same time under-representing civil society and the private sector. Activities were focused on dialogue and reflection instead of on specific references capable of informing the debate; (ii) unresolved issues: discussions concerning land reform became mired in complex land tenure policy questions such as the legal value of rights, the development of a land market, or the respective role of the government and the municipalities concerning the management of the national domain. These issues were never resolved, and a vision shared by all the stakeholders in the land sector has yet to emerge [17].  

Initiatives and Development Plans

A major initiative to combat desertification and land degradation in Senegal has been the Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative, which aims to restore degraded land across the Sahel Region. Spanning 20 African countries and backed by a broad set of international partners, the initiative supports several sustainable land management projects. Together, these projects form an 8000 km “wall” across the width of Africa. This provides a compelling solution to tackle the threat of desertification and the degradation of natural ecosystems, while providing alternative livelihood opportunities for local communities.

The GGW initiative supports an integrated approach to sustainable land management, combining agricultural and rural development, food security, biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. Since start of the initiative in 2007, around 15% of the intended land has already been restored, bringing improved food security, jobs and stability to people’s lives. In Senegal, 12 million drought resistant trees have been planted in less than a decade [18].  

In addition, through the Regreening Africa project, the European Union is supporting land restoration across one million hectares, benefitting 500,000 households in Senegal, Mali, Niger, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Rwanda. Through a diverse set of agroforestry practices and practical innovations, the initiative has proven that it is indeed possible to restore degraded lands and critical ecosystem functions [19].

FAO is also active in Senegal to combat desertification and prevent land degradation under the ‘Action Against Desertification’ Programme. With funding from the European Union, Action Against Desertification supports the work of Senegal’s National Agency of the Great Green Wall on community-based management of land and natural resources through sustainable land management and restoration. 7,876 ha of degraded land have been restored over the course of the project through a combination of mechanized and manual restoration [20].

Additionally, UNEP is implementing the project ‘Promote Sustainable land Management (SLM) practices to Restore and Enhance Carbon Stocks through Adoption of Green Rural Habitat Initiatives’. The goal of the project is to support scaling up of SLM practices in land use planning and promote technology that can enhance carbon stock, reduce emissions and generate revenue for local communities through increased productivity and green jobs.

Goals and Ambitions

To combat the issue of desertification, under the ‘Emerging Green Senegal Plan’, the country is focusing on a major reforestation programme with a total value of 50 billion CFA francs (just over 76 million euros).

By 2030, the Great Green Wall initiative aims to restore 100 million hectares of currently degraded land in the Sahel region, including Senegal, sequester 250 million tonnes of carbon and create 10 million jobs in rural areas.