By Mouhamadou Kane and Lucia Bird Ruiz Benitez de Lugo

  In West Africa, communities increasingly engage in illicit economies to cope with the severe impacts of climate change. However, the environmental impacts of illicit economies magnify the harms of climate change. This report explores these interlinked phenomena in communities peripheral to Senegal’s Niokolo-Koba National Park and proposes responses. Recommendations Local communities have a major role to play in any measures to address the interlinked challenges of illicit economies and climate change. Moreover, their exclusion has impacts beyond conservation and climate change, threatening the legitimacy of the state. Such measures should seek to: l Strengthen the social compact between communities and local governance authorities. l Address corruption in the management of national parks and protected spaces. l Mitigate the negative impacts of securitising protection in national parks. l Support community resilience to climate change impacts through adaptation projects and/or climate resilient livelihoods. l Advance policies to provide feasible pathways to formalise artisanal gold mining.

OCWAR-T Research Report 11

OCWAR-T Organised Crime: West African Response to Trafficking . 2023. 28p.  

By Orrin H. Pilkey , Norma J. Longo , William J. Neal , Nelson G. Rangel-Buitrago , & 2 more

In a time of accelerating sea level rise and increasingly intensifying storms, the world’s sandy beaches and dunes have never been more crucial to protecting coastal environments. Yet, in order to meet the demands of large-scale construction projects, sand mining is stripping beaches and dunes, destroying environments, and exploiting labor in the process. The authors of Vanishing Sands track the devastating impact of legal and illegal sand mining over the past twenty years, ranging from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean to South America and the eastern United States. They show how sand mining has reached crisis levels: beach, dune, and river ecosystems are in danger of being lost forever, while organized crime groups use deadly force to protect their illegal mining operations. Calling for immediate and widespread resistance to sand mining, the authors demonstrate that its cessation is paramount for saving not only beaches, dunes, and associated environments but also lives and tourism economies everywhere.

Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2023. 265p.