In Benin, salt production follows a traditional method that relies heavily on mangrove wood consumption (15,000 m³ of wood consumed per year). Salt production employs women during the dry season (from December to April). They obtain highly concentrated brines from the saline soils of the marshes, which they scrape, store and leach with seawater in large filters known as “bous”.
Traditionally, these brines are boiled for several hours over fires fed with firewood, to extract the salt through complete water evaporation. Over the past decade, efforts have been made to improve salt production, notably through the introduction of solar salt production techniques. This wood-free technique helps preserve the mangroves.
The project’s aim is to preserve the mangrove by reducing wood cutting. This involves providing traditional (fired) salt producers with an alternative production technique that does not require wood. The project’s beneficiaries are the 3,000 women salt producers of Benin’s south-western lagoon (from Togbin to Avlo). The project will also reach other women along the lagoon who did not previously engage in salt production but who may be interested in the new technique.
