Saloum Delta National Park, or Parc National du Delta du Saloum in Senegal, is a national park covering 760 square kilometers (190,000 acres). It was created in 1976 and is located in the Saloum Delta where the Saloum River meets the North Atlantic.

The park is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a Ramsar Convention site. It is within a 1,800 km (440,000-acre) biosphere reserve. Water covers 610 km (150,000 acres) of the park, intertidal mangroves and saltwater plants cover 70 km (17,000 acres), and savannah and forest cover 80 km (20,000 acres). The park is part of the East Atlantic Flyway. Birds that breed or winter in the area include royal tern, greater flamingo, Eurasian spoonbill, curlew sandpiper, ruddy turnstone, and little stint.

This region shows a connection between natural biodiversity and human development, which still exists but is fragile. Sustainable shellfish farming is well developed here and provides an important source of food and export income for the local community and Senegal.

The Saloum Delta is about 100 km (62 miles) south of Dakar, the capital of Senegal.

Climate change

In 2022, the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report listed Saloum Delta National Park as one of Africa's natural heritage sites that could be at risk from flooding and coastal erosion by the end of this century. This risk would occur only if climate change follows a scenario called RCP 8.5, which involves very high and increasing greenhouse gas emissions leading to more than 4°C of warming. However, this scenario is no longer considered very likely. Other, more likely scenarios predict lower warming and less sea level rise. Under all scenarios, sea levels will continue to rise for about 10,000 years. Even if warming is limited to 1.5°C, global sea levels are expected to rise more than 2–3 meters (7–10 feet) after 2000 years. This rise would be much higher than the sea level increase predicted by 2100 under RCP 8.5 (~0.75 meters (2 feet) with a range of 0.5–1 meter (2–3 feet)) and would happen before the year 4000.