We examine the role of phenomenological environmental memories to understand environmental changes and favor conservation in Dakar, Senegal, a context of great environmental change and historical traditions of oral memory transmission, where we conducted 42 semi-structured interviews in nine neighborhoods. Our results indicate that experienced environmental memories capture past interactions with the environment, perceived as a place of life, and past representations of this environment, whereas transmitted environmental memory captures information about past environmental conditions, past uses and practices, as well as myths and storytelling. Our informants consider both these forms of memory to be under threat as social relations and environmental conditions change. Furthermore, our conceptual analysis reveals transformations in relationships with the environment. Dakar residents are ambivalent about these changes, wanting improvements in former economic, environmental, and social conditions, but resisting changes to the status quo. We argue that this ambivalence stems from economic and geographic constraints, which are nuanced by perceived interests in the environment as well as a desire to reappropriate it. Our findings are consistent with the literature, except for the role of the media in memory, which is more influential in Western contexts.