The Dindéfélo Community Nature Reserve (RNCD, 13,300 ha), in south-eastern Senegal on the border with Guinea, is one of the country’s last remaining areas of large wildlife: it is home in particular to a chimpanzee population that has been monitored by the Jane Goodall Institute since 2008.
The presence of waterfalls, caves, cliffs and gallery forests makes it a unique place in Senegal, visited by around 3,000 tourists a year, though it is threatened by poaching, resource overexploitation and uncontrolled land clearing.
Following scientific studies conducted by the Jane Goodall Institute, to which the NGO Neene Ladde contributed, the Rural Council decided in 2010 to create the reserve (legally recognised by the State), with the clear objective of protecting chimpanzees and developing ecotourism. A management plan was drawn up for the 2012-2016 period, funded by the Fundación Biodiversidad and USAID, which also made it possible to begin chimpanzee habituation and carry out a species inventory.
Protecting these natural resources is all the more important as the Reserve would form part of a cross-border protected area with Guinea, totalling 125,000 ha.
The objective of this one-year project is to build the RNCD’s Visitor Centre, train and strengthen the capacities of its managers (8 people), and design a wildlife-viewing circuit, which will be trialled over 10 months with 10 groups of 4 visitors (the group of chimpanzees semi-habituated to researchers, around 15 individuals, will thus be able to be observed regularly).
