Agriculture and Mining Cohabitation in the Guinean Coastal Zone: Case of the Prefecture of Boffa

The Guinean coastal zone, the country's leading economic zone, has an agricultural land potential of 1.3 million hectares, of which 380,000 hectares are cultivated each year [1]. It is home to 38% of the population and contributes 24% to national rice production [2]. Boffa, object of this study, was chosen because of the presence of large rice-growing plains (Mankountan 9450ha, Monchon 9000ha) [3]. On the other hand, it is a brand-new bauxite producer, with four companies located in five of the seven rural municipalities of the Prefecture: Bel Air Mining in Doupourou and Tougnifily and which has been producing since 2018, Chalco which is building its operating site in Tamita, SPIC (ex-CPI) prospecting in Doupourou and Coliah, and Eurasian Resources which envisages a port outlet between Tamita and Liso [4]. The multiple advantages linked to the creation of jobs for certain young people or the collection of tax revenue for the municipality, are opposed to negative impacts such as the multiplication of land disputes, the reduction of rice-growing areas and vegetation zones. Faced with this duality, it is assumed that mining development will bear a heavy toll on agricultural areas in particular and on the entire coast in general. The question arises as to what are the conditions of cohabitation of agriculture and mining in Boffa? This work aims to determine the conditions of coexistence between the mining industry and agriculture for sustainable local development. To achieve this, it seems important to us to use remote sensing and survey data to examine the possibilities of a sustainable cohabitation between these two activities in the coastal area of Boffa. Consequently, the mining industry monopolizes land that it converts into waste rock, while agriculture requires rich soils . On the other hand, the development of mining in the area has a strong impact on the availability of agricultural land. Port infrastructures (three mining ports in Douprou including Bel Air Mining, SPIC, ALUFER and four other mining ports along the Fatala River in the Sub-Prefecture of Tamita (CHALCO, GPT, EURASIAN, KIMBO), are currently impacting the environment in the region.[5]

Taking into account the fragility of the coastal zone, the multiplicity of mining players and its infrastructures, sustainable local development solutions based on a new territorial organization are proposed: spatial restructuring of villages, subdivision of available spaces, setting up a Land Use and Allocation Plan to improve the protection of agricultural and natural spaces and facilitate the coexistence of different activities.