The Complex Impact of Climate Change in West Africa

Instead of turning his camera towards the obvious consequences of climate change in West Africa, J.B. Russell focused on its effect on economic development and everyday life.

Instead of turning his camera towards the obvious consequences of climate change in West Africa, J.B. Russell focused on its effect on economic development and everyday life.

“West Africa has been affected in significant and concrete ways by climate change and little is reported about it in the media”, explains J.B. Russell, who has been travelling on and off to Guinea Bissau and the Southern province of Casamance, Senegal. A region with a high density of mangrove forest, it hosts people whose cosmogony and lifestyle are based on its existence. This precious ecosystem is moreover claimed by scientists to be an excellent carbon sink, essential in the fight against global warming.

Climate change has brought to the region long periods of drought as well as strong storms. Accumulated, the two phenomena have turned the fresh water of the mangrove estuaries increasingly salty, putting their survival at great risk. Russell's photos feature fields of dying mangroves seemingly calcined, in the background of an empty fishing net.

The extinction of mangroves indeed brings multiple problems. “There is a domino effect in terms of environmental impact, such as the decline of the fish stock that reproduces itself there. This is tremendously affecting people’s lives as they mainly rely on fishing”, Russell explains. It goes the same for rice fields that are either destroyed by storms or weakened by a salty ground.

What is remarkable in the region though is the awareness of the situation, and the impulse it arouses in locals to seek solutions. “Diola people are quite a unique culture in the region. They are profoundly linked to nature and they are aware of the urgency to protect it. They are conscious of the changes that have been happening in the past 10 years – some human made, some caused by climate change – and are making efforts to find solutions and to preserve the environment”, Russell adds.

This is the case of women who scrape the dirt crust of rice fields, take it to the river's edge and do solar salt production, which is both easier and energy efficient. Another example is that of Bassirou Sambou who, with his friend Salatou Sambou, carried on a program of mangrove reforestation and managed to have the entire area declared an Area of Aboriginal and Community Heritage. “That means that they decide when and where people can fish, harvest oysters, cut mangroves, etc., according to their own tradition and experience”, Russell explains. This offers a glimpse at what we can do to fight climate change.

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J.B. Russell is a Paris-based documentary photographer and videographer. He has worked extensively throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America focusing on current events, the human consequences of conflict, human rights and development issues. Follow him on PHmuseum and Instagram.

Laurence Cornet is a writer and curator based in Brooklyn focusing on cultural and environmental issues.

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Getting Closer presents photographic works, mainly in a documentary vein, that speak about the causes and consequences of environmental degradation.

The Complex Impact of Climate Change in West Africa
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© J.B. Russell, from the series Forgotten Enclaves: Casamance & Guinea Bissau. In a landscape of devastated mangroves along the banks of the Soungrougrou River in the Casamance region of Senegal, a fisherman pulls in a largely empty net. Marsassoum, Senegal.

The Complex Impact of Climate Change in West Africa
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© J.B. Russell, from the series Forgotten Enclaves: Casamance & Guinea Bissau. Fish drying on wooden racks along the beaches of Casamance. Thousands of tons of fish are smoked, salted, dried and exported throughout West Africa from the region, playing a crucial role in the local economy. Kafountine, Senegal.

The Complex Impact of Climate Change in West Africa
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© J.B. Russell, from the series Forgotten Enclaves: Casamance & Guinea Bissau. Bassirou Sambou submerged in an estuary that runs through the mangroves near his community in the Casamace region of southern Senegal. Mangagoulack, Casamance, Senegal.

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