
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, August 23, 1994                   TAG: 9408250037
SECTION: WELCOME STUDENTS                    PAGE: 12   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

TECH LEADS PROJECT TO HELP SENEGAL HANDLE RESOURCES

Virginia Tech is the lead institution among a group of universities and environmental organizations led by the South-East Consortium for International Development that has received a nearly $21 million grant to help communities in the western African nation of Senegal better manage their natural resources. The money is from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The grant marks the fourth multimillion-dollar project secured in the past year by Tech's Office of International Research and Development, a unit of the University Outreach and International Programs division.

S.K. DeDatta, director of the office, and Harry Wheeler, acting executive director of the consortium, are co-directors for the project, which continues through the fall of 2001. Jim Fickes, an adjunct faculty member on Virginia Tech's College of Forestry and Wildlife Resources will implement the project over its seven-year lifespan.

DeDatta said most of Senegal's population depends on agriculture, but the availability and quality of that nation's natural resources - soil, water, nutrients and tree cover - continue to decline. As the land is less and less able to sustain farming, the population's primary livelihood is threatened, he explained.

DeDatta said increasing population pressures, drastic climate deterioration, desert encroachment and poor rainfall are the principal causes for the depletion of natural resources in Senegal.

Four major project components are policy identification and analysis, human resources development, land use planning and natural resources management monitoring.

One third of the grant money is earmarked to establish up to 50 model rural communities to demonstrate the viability of a natural resources management system that's based on early, continued community involvement.

"These model communities will show not only the sustainability of such a system but will also demonstrate the project's ability to reverse Senegal's resource degradation process while helping to protect existing resources," DeDatta said.

Part of the project will build on advancements made by the Senegal Reforestation Project, another Tech-led effort.

Partners with Virginia Tech in the consortium project are Winrock International, Action Consulting Association in Senegal, RONCO Consulting Corporation and SHELADIA Associates. Several other universities in the southeastern U.S. that are consortium members will provide short-term consultants.

Although the project officially begins Oct. 1, initial planning starts immediately, DeDatta said.

-New River Valley bureau

by CNB