Status report on CBNRM project monitoring system and NRM KAP study

The NRM KAP Study has completed the informal survey phase, questionnaire development is proceeding, and a stratified sample of villages had been selected. This report provides a brief preliminary summary of rural Senegalese conceptions concerning their environment and its natural resources. Rural Senegalese manage their natural resources to assure their subsistence. In fact, natural resources are largely defined in terms of their contribution to that end. Forests, plateaus, river beds, rangelands, etc. each provide a range of opportunities to conduct agriculture, fishing, hunting, mining, raising livestock, and collecting forest products. Lack of water is seen as the major problem by the population in all zones. It is this condition on which the exploitation of all other natural resources depends. Its quality (salinity, potability) and proximity, as well as the amount are all important factors. There appears to be a general awareness of the existence of the Law on the National Domain and a Forestry Code throughout the population. However, traditional land allocation practices dominate. When a household or compound head needs additional land, he will most often turn to another head to borrow land. Very few were aware that there was a new Forestry Code.