Thiès hosted a regional workshop dedicated to updating Senegal's forest policy document and developing the Ten-Year Forest Development Plan 2026-2035. The opening ceremony was chaired by the Deputy Governor of Thiès, Ababacar Sadikh Ninag, who emphasized the strategic importance of forest resources in the implementation of Senegal's Vision 2050.

In his address, he emphasized that Senegal's forest resources, estimated at approximately 9.3 million hectares, constitute an essential natural heritage for preserving biodiversity, protecting soils and water resources, and mitigating the effects of climate change. They also play a major role in economic development and improving living conditions for the population through the production of timber, fuelwood, and non-timber forest products.

However, the administrative authority warned of the many threats to forest ecosystems, including deforestation, land degradation, land pressure, bushfires and the increasing effects of climate change.

According to him, the development of the Ten-Year Forest Development Plan 2026-2035 is a crucial step in providing Senegal with a modern, coherent strategic framework adapted to new environmental, economic and social challenges.

The regional workshop aims to gather contributions from various territorial actors in order to establish a shared diagnosis of the forest situation, to assess the achievements and challenges of forest governance, but also to identify priorities in terms of production, conservation, restoration of ecosystems and sustainable financing of the sector.

Ababacar Sadikh Ninag welcomed the participatory approach adopted, emphasizing the need to involve administrative authorities, local communities, community organizations, civil society, the private sector, and technical services. He invited all participants to actively contribute to the work by sharing their experiences and formulating innovative proposals for the future of the sector.

Believing that the preservation of forests is an environmental, economic and social issue, he called for collective mobilization to build a forest policy capable of reconciling sustainable exploitation of natural resources, protection of ecosystems and improvement of the living conditions of populations.

At the end of his speech, the deputy governor congratulated the Ministry of the Environment and Ecological Transition, the Directorate of Water, Forests, Hunting and Soil Conservation, as well as all the partners involved in organizing this meeting, before officially declaring the regional workshop open.