The first two photographs where taken in 1982 at a permanent monitoring site near Thies, Senegal during the wet and dry seasons, respectively. The third photograph was taken during the dry season 10 years later. Notice the large tree in the left foreground in the 1982 picture has been removed by the time the site was revisited in 1992.
Many challenges continue to face the nations forming the western bulge of Africa.
Complex challenges such as these dictate a critical need to properly manage and conserve West African resources. In addition to protecting their resources, West Africans also must take care to avoid further degradation of biophysical riches. The collaborative project also aims to better understand how humans and climate influence these changes. Senior Applications Scientist Gray Tappan heads a pilot project featuring this monitoring framework in Senegal - a nation roughly the size of South Dakota. According to Tappan, the West African nation of Senegal is the best choice for the pilot- program because of the EDC's experience there, and a detailed data base already exits.