This ethnobotanical research is part of an interdisciplinary approach aimed at documenting the traditional knowledge of the Bedik people, a community living in southeastern Senegal. It is integrated into the SINERGIA – "Foodways in West Africa" project, which seeks to analyze the interactions between biodiversity, food practices, and cultural dynamics through a comprehensive approach combining archaeobotany, ethnobotany, and historical analysis.

This study is based on an inventory of useful plants (both native and introduced) and the analysis of their roles within food, medicinal, artisanal, and cultural systems. Two field missions conducted in 2023 enabled the collection of botanical samples, the establishment of an herbarium deposited at the herbaria of Dakar (UCAD) and Geneva (G), as well as the gathering of ethnobotanical information from local

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populations. The results highlight a rich plant diversity, spanning more than thirty botanical families, with certain species playing a crucial role in subsistence strategies and traditional pharmacopoeia.

By comparing the collected data with previous ethnobotanical studies and key research on useful plants in West Africa, this study sheds light on both continuities and evolutions in plant usage within the Bedik community. It also emphasizes the threats to this traditional knowledge due to socio-economic and environmental transformations affecting the region.

In conclusion, this study proposes new ways for the conservation and valorization of ethnobotanical knowledge within a framework of sustainability and intergenerational transmission, while contributing to a better understanding of human-plant interactions in the Sahelian context.