[1] In a paper presented in New Delhi in 1968, at the triennial meeting of the General Assembly of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), Dioum made the much anthologised statement: "In the end we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.
[3] He later studied at a regional primary school in Linguère, then at the École Blanchot in Saint-Louis and the Lycée Van Vollenhoven in Dakar.
[3] In 1967, Dioum became Director General of Water and Forestry in Senegal, a post he held until 1973.
From 1974 to 1980 he served as chief executive officer of the Société Nationale de Fourrage (SONAFOR).
Since 1991 he has acted as Coordinator General for the Conference of West and Central African Ministers of Agriculture, which he helped to organise while working in the Senegalese ministry.