Conservation and development aid: an experience in Mauritania

Abstract

Conservation and development aid: an experience in Mauritania.

The Tagant massive, in the Mauritanian Islamic Republic, harbours along  an  interconnected  web  of  wetlands,  the  last  populations  of  the  desert  crocodile  (Crocodylus niloticus suchus), until very recently considered to be extinguished. Those populations have been able to withstand the Holocene desertization of the Sahara due to the existence of a number of ponds (gueltas in Arabic) which are formed after the monsoon summer rains and which are interconnected through a number of  either  transient  or  permanent  water  bodies  forming  the  Gabou  Lake  Basin.  These  wetlands,  without  any  protection  to  the  moment, constitute  the  base  of  the  more  than  forty  thousands  Tagant  inhabitants  economy,  mainly  based  in  the  livestock  and  a  poor  agriculture. Aware of the important naturalistic potential of the zone, the Government of Mauritania, asked our NGO to prepare a candidature for the
Ramsar wetlands Convention (UNESCO), in order to achieve its international knowledge and protection status. The present work tries to explain how the use of the desert crocodile as focal species for the protection of these important wetlands can as well serve for the local
development of the region, through the implementation of a sustainable tourism activity based in the attractiveness of the Tagant’s natural heritage to scientists and naturalists.