Africa Water, Sanitation & Hygiene January - February 2016 vol.11 no.1 | Page 17

© PhILIPPE hERREn

© LIVELIhooDS FUnD

Wetlands and sustainable livelihoods:
From vicious circle to virtuous cycle
Wetlands are essential for humans to
live and prosper. They provide freshwater
and ensure our food supply. They
help sustain the wide variety of life on
our planet, protect our coastlines, provide
natural sponges against river flooding,
and store carbon dioxide to regulate
climate change.

From vicious circle...
Alarmingly, 64 % of the world’s wetlands
have disappeared since 1900, and
freshwater species populations declined
by 76 % between 1970 and 2010. The
wetlands that do still remain are often so
degraded that the people who directly
rely on them for fish, plants, and wildlife –
often the very poor – are driven into
even deeper poverty.

To virtuous cycle...
Enabling people to make a decent living
while at the same time ensuring that
wetlands can still provide their essential
benefits, do not have to be conflicting
goals ! In fact, the new United nations
Sustainable Development Goals
underline that reducing poverty actually
demands that we also protect and restore
ecosystems such as wetlands.

www.worldwetlandsday.org

Creating the right conditions
There are multiple models outlining
how to promote sustainable livelihoods
in wetlands, and they share several
key points :
1. Understand peoples’ needs, especially

how vulnerable they are to shocks and
natural disasters, and how the seasons
affect their incomes.

2. Provide them with many different

sorts of ‘capital’ including :
products harvested from wetlands such
as reeds, rice, fish, etc.
training and knowledge in using
wetlands wisely
a voice in planning how local wetlands
should be used
basic equipment and tools
credit, cash or micro-loans

3. Identify who can actually provide these

resources – often governments,
nGos or community organizations – and
help them make the changes happen.

Case study : Senegal

Mangrove restoration to ensure
sustainable livelihoods
Senegal still has some 185,000 hectares
of mangrove estuaries in the Casamance and
Sine Saloum regions, but 45,000 hectares have
been lost since the 1970s. healthy mangroves
serve as effective salt water filtration systems,
provide protection against storms, and act as
nursery grounds for fish.
The world’s largest mangrove reforestation
project is under way here thanks to Danone
and the Livelihoods Carbon Fund, who are
working with the Senegalese nGo océanium.
This project :
has replanted 79 million mangrove trees
on more than 10,000 hectares
promotes the restoration of rice paddies
will produce up to 18,0000 extra tons
of fish annually, along with shrimps, oysters,
and molluscs
plants trees that will store 500,000 tons
of Co2 over 20 years
has mobilized the efforts of 350 local villages
and 200,000 people