The Senegal River flows through Sahelian landscapes of Senegal, Mali, and Mauritania. Here, it creates a unique and complex environment largely directed by what happens on the floodplain.  Forest remnants are restricted to shallow depressions and levees along the river. Many are designated forest reserves.

Local peoples cleared most of floodplain for traditional subsistence agriculture and for large irrigation projects. Some farmers practice flood recessional agriculture on the heavy alluvial soils found on the banks of the river’s many channels.

The river and the adjacent valley have sustained its inhabitants variably through the centuries in the cruel and highly changeable climatic conditions. The customary livelihood methods and ways of using the river in repeated matters have been the only possible way until the beginning of contemporary agriculture in 1950s to the valley.