Guereo, Senegal

A place at the end of the road

Guereo lies between Popenguine and Somone, some 70 kilometres south of Dakar. To the south it is bounded by the lagoon at the mouth of the Somone river, to the north by the cliff of Cap de Naze. So there is no coastal road: Guereo sits at a dead end, 14 kilometres from Sindia and the N1 national road, and until a few years ago the last seven kilometres were not even tarred. For the people here that is hard work; for nature it is a blessing.

Told by Ingrid Robbe, chair of the association

2 February 2015Guereo between bushland and sea, with Cap de Naze on the horizon to the right.

View across dry bushland to the houses of Guereo, the sea beyond and the hill of Cap de Naze on the right. — 2 February 2015Guereo between bushland and sea, with Cap de Naze on the horizon to the right.

Where it is

Guereo lies on the Petite Côte, the coast south of Dakar. Some of the lagoon’s birds come from the Münsterland in north-west Germany, an hour and a half by car from Krefeld.

The Petite Côte between Dakar and Mbour. Guéréo lies between the Somone lagoon and Cap de Naze; there is no coastal road.

Some 4,700 kilometres as the crow flies: many birds that breed in the Münsterland winter on the coast of Senegal, in the Somone lagoon as well as in Djoudj and the Sine-Saloum delta.

Maps: our own drawing. Coast: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Overview: Natural Earth.

What you see and hear here

When I first came to Guereo twenty years ago, it was, without exaggeration, a natural paradise. I have seen with my own eyes several kinds of monkey, genets, monitor lizards, snakes, scorpions, jackals and an incredible variety of birds.

The landscape changes within a short distance: dunes near the coast, laterite soils on the hills, deep, arable soils on the alluvial land and at the foot of the hills. Old fields, hedged since time immemorial, border the bush of the dry savannah.

What still moves me most is the quiet. All you hear are natural sounds: the sea, the hooves of horse-drawn carts, the braying of donkeys, herds of goats and zebu cattle, and birdsong that sounds quite different from ours in Europe. For me this place has a healing power.

The cliff of Cap de Naze, which bounds Guereo to the north.

A steep cliff of red and pale rock layers above a wide sandy beach; on the right, the surf runs up the sand. — The cliff of Cap de Naze, which bounds Guereo to the north.

17 January 2023By the sea. A pirogue with fishermen heads out.

A sandy beach with tyre tracks; out at sea a pirogue with fishermen under a wide sky with thin clouds. — 17 January 2023By the sea. A pirogue with fishermen heads out.

15 February 2023Two jackals. They are among the animals that still find room here.

Two jackals crossing a wide reddish plain, with a strip of dense vegetation behind. — 15 February 2023Two jackals. They are among the animals that still find room here.

What threatens the place

Much of this remains. But for five to ten years it has been dwindling. The building boom that has swept the whole country eats up land, destroys valuable habitats and cuts the links between them. Every plot is surrounded by a wall 1.80 metres high, with no gap for small animals, and so takes up more habitat than a house alone would. Good farmland is being lost too, land on which millet used to grow and feed people.

There is no spatial planning that weighs building land against valuable farmland and habitats worth protecting.

In recent years light has been added to this. It is good that the village has street lights for the first time. But LED technology now also lights up the many newly built plots outside the village, mostly with extremely bright, cold white light that dazzles hundreds of metres away, right in the middle of nature and bird reserves. Yellow light, pointed downwards and at moderate strength, would be enough to reduce the problem.

31 January 2023Eight years later, again with Cap de Naze on the horizon. In the foreground, what is going up everywhere: new walls.

View from a rooftop over new concrete-block walls towards trees, houses and Cap de Naze. — 31 January 2023Eight years later, again with Cap de Naze on the horizon. In the foreground, what is going up everywhere: new walls.

25 February 2023Walled-in plots in the bush. Small animals can no longer get through.

Long concrete-block walls enclose empty plots in the bush; children ride bicycles along a sandy track. — 25 February 2023Walled-in plots in the bush. Small animals can no longer get through.

An open area covered in rubbish. Waste disposal is one of the country’s big problems.

A wide, flat area full of plastic and rubbish under a blue sky, with bushes and rooftops in the background. — An open area covered in rubbish. Waste disposal is one of the country’s big problems.

How I came to Guereo

I owe my second home in Guereo to my friendship with Bineta Lô. Like me, she studied in Cologne and worked for many years as a diplomat in Bonn and Paris. Later she returned to Senegal and lived in Dakar and at her country house in Guereo. Her warmth and her work, in the village and far beyond, made her one of the most revered women for countless people.

For over three decades Bineta introduced me to the country and its people, its customs and traditions. For twenty years we have had a home in Guereo.

I am a geographer and soil scientist, and here, in my second home, I wanted to contribute something meaningful for the common good. In 2015 the time came. Our association, active in ecological environmental planning since 1987, was going through a change of generations. My proposal to add sustainable development to our aims and to start working in Senegal was supported, and the statutes were amended accordingly.

Bineta Lô. For over three decades she introduced me to the country and its people. She died at the end of 2024.

Portrait of Bineta Lô: a smiling woman with dark curls and earrings, wearing a patterned top. — Bineta Lô. For over three decades she introduced me to the country and its people. She died at the end of 2024.

25 February 2017On the way home with the first moringa harvest. Among them: Bineta Lô.

Five women in colourful dresses walk along a sandy path, two carrying bowls of leaves on their heads. — 25 February 2017On the way home with the first moringa harvest. Among them: Bineta Lô.

The early years: moringa

Between 2016 and 2018 we planted first 300 and then another 200 moringa trees with women from the village. The leaves were to be made into powder, mainly for local use. A smaller amount was meant for Germany, where we handed it out at markets and events in return for a donation to the association, and so to the women in Senegal as well.

That meant going through customs and food testing at accredited laboratories. We managed it: in 2017 the first shipment was analysed and packed in bags.

25 February 2017The first harvest being sorted and washed, in the shade, by hand.

Women sit in the shade of a tree among colourful bowls of moringa branches, sorting the leaves. — 25 February 2017The first harvest being sorted and washed, in the shade, by hand.

1 March 2017The first shipment: moringa leaves, laboratory-tested and packed in bags.

A woven basket full of clear bags of dried green moringa leaves. — 1 March 2017The first shipment: moringa leaves, laboratory-tested and packed in bags.

The years when nothing moved

Between 2019 and 2023 we were brought to a halt: first by the illness of the key people involved, then by the Covid pandemic. At the end of 2024 Bineta Lô died. With her we lost the crucial support on the ground, above all with the local language and the important contacts. The whole project hung in the balance.

That it carried on is down to two things. I was able to build ties with influential organisations on the ground. And I found out how much I had become part of the village community. Today there is once again a women’s group farming organically with us.

A new beginning

At a gala of the organisation Nebeday at the residence of the French ambassador, I met its president, Jean Goepp. He told me that Nebeday was setting up a small processing plant only seven kilometres from Guereo, where mostly women process moringa and other produce. It was a perfect fit: we wanted to grow, and Nebeday was looking for growers nearby. Today our eco-farm grows for this plant.

Since 2025 I have been a member of the Guereo group of NCD, a Senegalese nature conservation organisation comparable to Germany’s NABU. Most of the women who work with us come from this group.

In early 2026, eight years after the first, I arranged a second meeting at the German Embassy in Dakar, with the head of economic and development affairs and one representative each from NCD and Nebeday. Besides the eco-farm, we presented the plan to convert the boats on the lagoon to electric power. The embassy considered it promising; we are now applying there for micro-project funding.

A meeting of the NCD working group in Guereo; on the right, in the blue shirt, its leader Modou Ndione.

A group sits at a long, brightly painted table under a shade roof with notebooks in front of them: Ingrid Robbe on the left, women in colourful dresses and headscarves beside her, a young man in a blue shirt on the right. — A meeting of the NCD working group in Guereo; on the right, in the blue shirt, its leader Modou Ndione.

Why we do this

We are not an “aid” organisation. We see ourselves as partners, and we help ourselves too.

By getting to know and understand each other, we build understanding between peoples, and from that understanding comes peace. By protecting nature in Guereo, we also protect the migratory birds of our own wetlands, such as the Zwillbrocker Venn or the Heubachwiesen in Germany’s Münsterland. And contributing to people’s livelihoods is a tiny step towards curbing emigration and reducing historical and present-day inequalities.

For me personally, it is my way of contributing something meaningful for the common good. I am grateful to be able to live in these two worlds.

Ingrid Robbe

Guereo in pictures

Everyday life, landscape and plants, photographed between 2015 and 2024. Click any picture to enlarge it and browse through the rest.

A person stands with a net in the shallow water of the lagoon; behind, a sandbank full of white birds, mostly pelicans, and mangroves.

Women crouch on the ground under parasols gutting fish, surrounded by bowls and buckets.

A market stall with large fish on a wooden bench, a trader behind it under a parasol.

A herd of goats, sheep and horses at a shallow waterhole, with herders among them.

Two horses drinking from a canister, with many goats on dry ground behind them.

A large, leafless baobab stands alone in dry savannah.

A wide sandy track with footprints, lined with flowering bougainvillea and shrubs.

A large bowl of yellow rice with meat, eggs and pepper rings, several hands reaching in.

A red, finely fringed hibiscus flower hanging from a green branch.

A heavy iron with a wooden handle, glowing charcoal inside.

A white and purple flower of Strophanthus gratus on a thin branch.

Long brown seed pods hanging in a dry shrub.

A flower with long white and pink stamens on a branch with grey-green leaves and small green buds.

Blackened, burnt ground with charred tufts of grass; behind it a wall with decorative panels, a power pole and the houses of the village.

View over green trees with white blossom towards a flat strip of lagoon and mangroves on the horizon, under an evening sky.

A sandy beach at the river mouth: thatched shelters over loungers and dark rocks in the water on the right, low buildings on the far bank to the left, and the surf beyond.