Contributions to urban reforestation campaigns

Kaolack, a city in the groundnut basin, needs more trees for shade, coolness, and adaptation to climate change. The national reforestation campaign 2026 was launched on August 9th in Darou Salam (Nioro du Rip, Kaolack region), with the theme "From seedlings to trees: responsibility to communities". The government announced a challenge for local authorities, which will distinguish those that maintain and ensure the survival of their trees, and the "One Commune, One Nursery" program to create green jobs for youth and women. In Kaolack, the departmental living environment service is preparing the "Natal Saloum" program, which plans to plant several hundred trees with a monitoring system to ensure their growth. In August 2025, an ecological caravan led by the Minister of Environment planted 2,600 seedlings in Kahone, Médina Baye, Koutal, and Pané Abdoulaye. Other stakeholders are involved: the Amazones du Saloum association donated 1,000 seedlings, student associations from neighboring communes like Latmingué are planting in schools (targeting at least 10 trees per institution), and a "Green Kaolack" project, supported by the Navétanes movement, aimed for 10,000 trees in the city. The challenges remain the survival of seedlings (68% national survival rate for the 2024 campaign), watering, protection, and maintenance. This mission mobilizes the Kaolack diaspora to finance seedlings, watering, communal nursery, and protection, provide expertise, and foster partnerships with NGOs and youth and women's associations.