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| Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity |
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19/04/2010 |
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Two pirogues for Senegal
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 There’s a bit of Slow Food sailing in the Saloum delta, Senegal: two pirogues bearing the symbols of the snail and the Foundation along with the name of the Piedmont Regional Authority, all in the bright colors favored by local tradition. They were donated in 2009 by the Piedmont Regional Authority and the Slow Food Foundation to the community of women living on three of the delta’s islands: Dionewar, Falia, and Niodior.
The Foundation’s activities in the area aim to reduce fishing pressure. Stocks are clearly falling and in particular some mollusk species are suffering: sizes have decreased and quantities caught are declining year by year.
In order to provide new sources of income it was thought there might be good prospects in producing syrups and jams made from Saloum’s abundant wild fruit: Hibiscus, Baobab, Ginger, Tamarind, Ditakh and New. The women already make these products at home for family consumption and local sale. It could become an attractive and profitable business if they could get hygienic certification for the product, package it suitably, and sell it to tourist outlets in the area. With funding from the Piedmont Regional Authority and the support of the Fenagie Pesca association, in 2010 the Foundation will equip a workshop which meets regulations, it will organize training courses for the women, and promote their products with appropriate initiatives.
However there was an initial problem that had to be resolved: the community of women from the three islands depended on the goodwill of fishermen to allow use of their pirogue boats when the women needed to move about. This involved uncertainties for gathering and transporting fruit, exorbitant costs and difficulties in organizing meetings. So as a first step it was decided to make the women self-sufficient and provide two boats. A local artisan constructed the two boats which have been motorized and donated to the communities. Now there are two committees organizing the use of the pirogues and it appears that everything is functioning satisfactorily and a small operating profit is made. The two boats have become something of a positive symbol: they have encouraged the communities to act together and cooperate, and have made it feasible to gather and transport fruit from a much wider area than normally accessed.
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