Located in the westernmost part of the African continent with a wide opening to the Atlantic Ocean, Senegal has a coastline of nearly 700 km, sometimes marked by estuaries (Saloum Delta, Casamance, Senegal, Alahein) (see Appendix 1), which favors the development of rich mangrove ecosystems and therefore a varied exploitation of shellfish resources. The country is particularly rich in fish species with its 700 km of coastline subject to upwellings and its 23,000 km2 wide continental shelf (Iossa et al., 2008).
In Senegal, shellfish harvesting, and farming, plays an important role in the fisheries sector. In general, shellfish harvesting, and farming, helps thousands of women to meet their children's schooling needs, their health and contribute to the family's daily expenses. Important efforts are also made for the conservation of shellfish resources and the mangrove ecosystem in general. The implementation of traditional systems to ensure sustainable conservation of the resources is practically applied in all the exploitation areas. These traditional conservation systems are mainly reinforced by the good community organization of the women who are the main actors in this sector. These are economic interest groups (EIGs), associations for the sustainable exploitation of resources, and federations or local unions of EIGs, to facilitate conservation and the sharing of good practices in the management of fisheries resources.
