The Landscape of the Year Senegal/The Gambia is the first Landscape of the Year on the African continent and thus assumes a special position. As a pilot project of the Naturefriends movement, it aims to illustrate how international solidarity can be put into practice in specific activities in the region and thus be sustainably established. 

Rainer Kulla, Naturefriends Hamburg (Germany), has design a photo exhibition about the Tour d´Horizon – the Naturefriends´ tour to the first Landscape of the Year in Africa in January 2018. The focus of the exhibition lies on the people, locations and cultures of the Landscape of the Year.

A little more than a year ago, on January 13th, 2018, more than 800 people celebrated the opening of the first African Landscape of the Year in the Senegalese village Koumbidja Socé close to the Gambian border. A memorial stone and hundreds of fruit trees, which were planted after the festivities by African and European Naturefriends together with the local communities, remind us of that big day which marked the beginning of many activities to follow.

On the occasion of the inauguration of the first African Landscape of the Year in January 2018, Naturefriends International together with Naturefriends in the region and their partners organised a two-week model journey through Senegal and The Gambia. The journey's focus was on encountering the local population and learning about the regional traditions and cultural characteristics.

For more than two years, Naturefriends‘ activities have revolved around the Landscape of the Year Upper Rhine Valley. Over 500 participants took part in the closing event in Karlsruhe to celebrate the initiative’s success.