Résumé
Faced with the challenge of preserving fish stocks, threatened by global warming and overexploitation due to population growth, aquaculture is a means of meeting the demand for aquatic animal proteins. Although Africa is now the world's second most populous continent after Asia, it accounts for just 2.7% of global aquaculture production. This situation has given rise to considerable reflection aimed at promoting the development of African aquaculture, and oyster farming in particular. The main objective of this study was to gain a better understanding of the environmental constraints of oyster farming in Senegal, in order to identify the necessary foundations for the emergence of the sector. To achieve this, a questionnaire and an interview guide were used to gather the necessary information from one hundred (100) oyster producers, selected using the snowball sampling method, in the Saloum Delta, Casamance and Petite Côte. Meetings with resource persons and field visits were also organized to obtain an overview of the oyster farming industry. The results showed that oyster farmers' level of education is fairly low, and that women account for over 90% of those surveyed. It should be noted that the oyster farmers are all members of oyster farming groups responsible for supplying oyster farming equipment, training in oyster farming and marketing oysters. The choice of one of the three existing farming methods (suspension, table and estrien) was guided by the techniques acquired, to the detriment of the environment. The results also showed that among the environmental factors hindering oyster farming, bio-aggressors are the most influential, and their management remains problematic in all our study areas.