African Re-greening Initiatives

Update no. 2: Impressions of Niger in January 2012

2012-01-25T15:37:00.022+01:00

This picture was made on January 19, 2012 in the Adouna valley (Tahoua Region, Niger). The valley is about 40 km long and has a Faidherbia albida dominated parkland on about 40,000 ha. In some places the parkland is very dense and it has a good mixture of trees in all age classes. The crop residues shows that all the land between the trees is cultivated. Groundwater in this valley is fairly low and soils are quite fertile. This partially explains why this parkland is in such a good shape. Several long low dams have been built across the valley floor, which force runoff to infiltrate. Higher groundwater levels have allowed the expansion of irrigation. If the irrigated area is 1500 ha and the average yield of onions is 20 ton/ha, then this valley alone already produces 30,000 tons of vegetables.

One of the first major events in 2012 would have been a study visit by a delegation from Nigeria to Southern Niger. This delegation would draw lessons from re-greening in Southern Niger for agroforestry policy and practice in Nigeria. The Heinrich Böll Foundation in Abuja had composed an extraordinary delegation of about 30 participants representing policymakers from all 12 states bordering Niger, researchers, NGOs, staff of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. Unfortunately the visit had to be postponed at the last minute due to the general strike in Niger, which led to the closure of banks, gas stations and the border between Nigeria and Niger. Together, we will start looking for a new date.

The visit was postponed just upon our arrival in Niger, so it was decided to anyway make a field visit to the Dosso, Maradi, Zinder and Tahoua Regions.

Let me share with you some pictures and impressions.
The purpose of the visit to the area around Dogon Kiria (Dosso region) was to look at re-greening activities just started in this “commune” under a project managed by Both Ends and funded by the Netherlands-based Turing Foundation. A major indicator of farmer-managed re-greening is that suddenly one can see everywhere in the fields young trees that have been pruned. The area where this is happening has about 350 mm rainfall and is at the edge of where cultivation is possible. The young pruned trees show that the process has begun.

A visit to parts of the Maradi and Zinder regions is always a source of inspiration. It is where farmers have built new agroforestry parklands on 5 million ha. Let me tell you about some new impressions.

Inter-village institution building for land rehabilitation and re-greening
Not far from the small town of Illéla (Maradi Region) water harvesting techniques (half moons) are used to successfully rehabilitate barren degraded land. This is not new in itself, but what is new is that this is done jointly by a number of villages and they have set rules for the protection and management of the trees planted in the half moons and those that emerged spontaneously (see picture 2). Villagers use bicycles to police the rehabilitated area and they have developed sanctions for those who don’t respect the rules. This activity was initiated by the IFAD-funded PPILDA project. It would be very useful to analyze and document this experience as it is one of the few examples of successful inter-village institution building for land rehabilitation and re-greening.

Introducing farmer-managed re-greening in primary schools

As Abasse Tougiani explained, it is important to involve school children in re-greening and the children of the school shown in picture 3 know about the role of trees in reversing land degradation and they have been trained to prune trees. These kids will soon receive a delegation of school children from another village and they will inform and train them in re-greening. This was the first time that I’ve seen farmer-managed re-greening introduced into the curriculum of a primary school. Looking at the enthusiasm of the children, it is obvious they have become champions.

Barren degraded land rehabilitated collectively by a group of villages in the Illéla department.

Large-scale regeneration of baobabs in the Mirriah department (Zinder Region)
Although Southern Zinder is dominated by young agroforestry parkland, there are also significant areas where other trees dominate. Around the small town of Mirriah one finds vast areas with baobabs in all age classes. Picture 4 shows a dense stand of fairly old trees, which produce valuable leaves and fruit. The owners of the trees often sell the leaves on the tree to young men, who harvest them, put them in bags and sell the leaves in regional markets. It is said that baobabs in the Sahel barely regenerate, but they do so at significant scale in the Mirriah department, but also in the Yatenga region of Burkina Faso.

School children have become champions of re-greening

An impressive stand of baobabs close to Mirriah

New agroforestry parklands and locally rising groundwater levels in the village of Batodi (Tahoua Region)
After having travelled through the 42 km long Adouna valley, we decided to make a quick visit to the village of Batodi, which I had visited several times between 1989 and 1994, then again in 2004 and for the last time in 2006. In 1990 this village was surrounded by a vast expanse of barren degraded land and with the support of an IFAD-funded soil and water conservation project villagers had timidly begun to rehabilitate barren degraded land using “zaï”. Sitting down with villagers in 1991, I joked:
“ can I buy some degraded land to rehabilitate it with zaï”. Their reaction was…”no you can’t ..if someone sells land we’ll buy it ourselves”. This I how I coincidentally stumbled across the fact that a land market had emerged and that people were buying and selling degraded land using simple water harvesting techniques to rehabilitate it.

When I got back to Batodi in November 2004 after not having visited the village for a decade, the first thing they said was…” the water level in our wells is now only at 4 m depth, and it was at about - 18 m when you were here last time”. The higher level of water in the wells allowed women start a vegetable garden. As 2004 was a drought year (less than 200 mm rainfall in this area), the vegetable garden was vital to women. They sold the vegetables on the market and their families consumed what they could not sell. The number of vegetable gardens in this village had increased from 2 in 2004 to 10 in 2012. Picture 5 shows one of these vegetable gardens.

Onion is the most popular vegetable grown in the village of Batodi, like in many other places in Niger.

The question arises as to how this increase in groundwater levels can be explained? We looked at two wells at the end of the day and water was at 4 – 6 m deep and it is apparently at about 3 – 4 m early in the morning before they begin irrigating. Is it increased rainfall? Interestingly, 2004 was a drought year and so was 2011. This makes it unlikely that increased rainfall has caused local groundwater level to rise. If increased rainfall would be the major causal factor, then also other villages would experience a rise in groundwater levels and that is not the case. A much more likely explanation is that the systematic rehabilitation of degraded land using water harvesting techniques, which forces rainfall and runoff to infiltrate has led to a local recharge of groundwater.

The agroforestry parkland in Batodi is young and in parts dominated by Piliostigma reticulatum, which provides fodder for livestock. The picture shows a field that was completely barren 20 years ago. The densities are variable, for instance, tree densities in the background are much higher.. Farmers made it clear to us… higher densities are good for the crops.

Agroforestry parkland and food security
2012 will be a very difficult year in various parts of the Sahel. The food deficit of Niger is estimated to be more than 500,000 tons. Within a few weeks, the results of a study will be available, which explores the relationship between farmer-managed natural regeneration in Southern Zinder and household food security. If all goes according to plan, the next ARI update will report the major findings of this study.
The next ARI update will be written as soon as the results of the above-mentioned study will be available.

You can find more information about ARI and related projects on the Web Alliance for Re-greening in Africa.

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2011 AND PERSPECTIVES FOR 2012 - ARI update 1

2012-01-12T22:31:00.008+01:00

The Badaguichiri valley in Niger was in the 1980s and 1990s scarred by a big gully,
which rapidly drained most rainfall and runoff. Since the building of long and low dams across the valley floor and the introduction of simple water harvesting techniques on the surrounding plateaus, the situation has improved significantly. This picture shows a well developed agroforestry landscape. The faidherbida albida trees look greyish as they don’t have leaves in the rainy season. Sorghum and millet benefit from the nitrogen fixation by faidherbida albida.

HIGHLIGHTS OF 2011: A SELECTION

1. African Re-greening Initiatives (ARI) wants to build on and expand the scale of existing successes in farmer-managed re-greening in drylands. The message that the protection and management of trees and bushes, which emerge spontaneously, is a low cost and efficient form of agricultural intensification, is increasingly getting across.

2. A visit to the Seno Plains in Mali confirmed that farmers protect and manage trees which emerge on their farms. They do so at a large scale and most trees are young. Gray Tappan of the US Geological Survey was asked to look into the scale of these new agroforestry parklands. His analysis of high resolution satellite images revealed medium to high on-farm tree densities on 450,000 ha, which is much more than anyone imagined. Until Gray Tappan established the scale, it was assumed that about 18,000 ha had been re-greened.

The young agroforestry parkland on Mali’s Seno Plains. This picture was taken end March 2011, which is way into the dry season. Nevertheless, vast quantities of crop residues were still stored on the fields.

3. The re-greening partners in Burkina Faso (Reseau MARP and its partners) and in Mali (SahelECO) and its partners are building a movement around farmer-managed re-greening and they undertake a wide range of activities, including the organisation of farmer-to-farmer visits, visits for national and regional policymakers as well as technicians. They get documentaries on national TV, but also show these in village meetings. They organize groups that discuss agroforestry policy and legislation.

4. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) approved a two year grant for “Supporting Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration in the Sahel”. This will allow us to develop a national policy dialogue around farmer-managed re-greening in Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Besides the policy dialogue, two more activities are included under this grant. The first is a study on the socioeconomic impacts of agroforestry systems in the Sahel, which is implemented by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). The second is the production of 12 mini-documentaries about successful adaptation to climate change in Afrca’s drylands. These documentaries will be ready by mid-2012.

5. In November a start was made with the formulation of a national re-greening strategy and action plan for Niger. This process will be finalized early in 2012. This activity is funded under the IFAD project mentioned under 4.

Southern Zinder (Niger) has many small depressions surrounded by sandy dunes (wetlands in drylands). Farmers grow a large variety of crops and trees in these depressions, which include sugar cane, rice, date palms, vegetables, fruit trees (papaya and mango). On the surrounding sand dunes, the number of Faidherbia albida is increasing.

6. The Web Alliance for Re-greening in the Sahel (www.W4RA.org) is increasingly operational. In November, the first version of a newly developed voice-based Radio Marché system was tested in Mali. Radio Marché will be used by SahelEco and by two community radio stations in Segou and Tominian.Radio Marché has been developed in close collaboration with the end-users, who actively contribute in its development. It is based on mobile voice and web technologies. It has been designed to automatically generate voice communiqués of market information, which can be broadcasted on the radio.

7. More good news from the web alliance. In November the W4RA was informed that it had won the International Press Institute contest. The proposal, to deploy innovative voice services for the empowerment of radio journalists in Mali, who work for community radio stations promoting Re-greening Initiatives in the Sahel, has been selected amongst 376 proposals. From the 376 proposals submitted, only 3 received a grant. The project will run during 12 months, starting in 2012.

8. In September, Chris Reij visited Nairobi to explore the possibilities for a re-greening initiative in Kenya and to build stronger links with the World Agroforestry Centre (see ARI update 2011 no.6). There’s an exceptional opportunity for promoting farmer-managed re-greening in Kenya as it is the only country in Africa, which has included I its constitution that all farmers should have 10% of their land under trees. Protecting and managing spontaneous regeneration on-farm and off-farm is an interesting option for Kenya’s drylands.

9. The working links with the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) are increasingly stronger. Invaluable support was provided during the September visit to Nairobi and close contacts are maintained with Dennis Garrity, until recently DG of ICRAF and the driving force behind its Evergreen Agriculture Initiative.

10. Tony Rinaudo of World Vision Australia is another driving force behind re-greening. In June Tony Rinaudo, Gray Tappan and Chris Reij visited the Kaffrine area in Senegal where World Vision Senegal is promoting farmer-managed re-greening. Several farmers from the Kaffrine area visited Niger 4 years ago and upon return they began protecting and managing spontaneous regeneration. Re-greening now takes place on about 40,000 ha and intensification in existing areas and expansion to others is certain.

11. In 2011, Tony Rinaudo also successfully trained farmers in such diverse countries as (Northern) Ghana, Tigray (Ethiopia), East Timor and East Sumba (Indonesia). In Tigray the regional government is now institutionalizing farmer-managed re-greening. Tony will be asked to produce a next ARI update as soon as he has time in his busy schedule. The message is spreading to other parts of the world.

12. In September, Chris Reij made a presentation at the World Resources Institute in Washington (www.wri.org) World Resources Institute (WRI) is one of the driving forces behind a new Global Partnership for Forest Landscape Restoration. This partnership wants to restore 150 million ha of degraded forests till 2020. That’s a bold target, which requires bold action. A link will be built between this partnership and African Re-greening Initiatives.

13. The documentary “ The man who stopped the desert” made by Mark Dodd about the life, innovations and impact of Yacouba Sawadogo, farmer innovator in Burkina Faso, won 7 awards in 2011 (www.1080films.co.uk). On December 12, Yacouba received a national decoration (Chevalier de l’Ordre de Mérite Nationale).

14. LucGnacadja, the Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, invited Yacouba Sawadogo and Mathieu Ouedraogo to join a special day at the Caux Forum on Human Security in Switzerland, which was dedicated to discussing the restoration of the Earth’s degraded lands (www.cauxforum.net). About 250 participants from 50 countries watched the documentary, which triggered many positive reactions.

15. Yacouba Sawadogo hit the spotlight in 2011 as he was also invited to speak in October at a special session of the Conference of Parties of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification held in Changwon (South Korea). During the opening session of this Conference of Parties, UN Secretary General Ban Ki moon specifically mentioned Yacouba and his work.

16. The media continued to pay attention to farmer managed re-greening. Articles were published, amongst others, in: The New Yorker (Dec. 19&26), Le Monde Diplomatique (November), The Nation (November) Our Planet, which is UNEP’s flagship publication (September), Ökotest (December) as well as a special issue Environment and Energy published in August, Bild der Wissenschaft (August), Welt am Sonntag (March 27), Suddeutsche Zeitung (October 31) and Daily Telegraph (July 15). This media exposure acts as counterweight against the usual doom and gloom stories published about drylands.

17. The re-greening movement is building and the number of champions is increasing. Just to give some examples. In September, Roland Bunch (www.rolandbunch.com), who authored the famous book “Two Ears of Corn: a guide to people-centered agricultural improvement” mentioned his support for re-greening and a willingness to get involved. In the same month Groundswell in Ghana (www.groundswellinternational.org) expressed its interest in developing re-greening in Northern Ghana and they will mobilize their own funding.

Perspectives for 2012

1. Key in 2012 will be…let’s catalyze more on the ground action…and let’s develop dialogues with national and international policymakers around re-greening. The financial support by FINHUMF and the IFAD grant for 4 countries in the Sahel will help us to continue pushing forward.

2. A national re-greening workshop will be organized in Ethiopia early in 2012 about re-greening successes in this country. The Government of Ethiopia intends to reforest 15 million hectares and to plant 100 million fertilizer trees (Faidherbia albida). The objective of the workshop will be to try to feed some lessons into national policy and practice. The workshop will be co-organized by the Horn of Africa Regional Environment Centre, FAO and FarmAfrica.

3. A regional workshop on re-greening will be organized by World Vision early April in Nairobi. Tony Rinaudo will spend 3 months in this region to visit partner and provide training.

4. The national re-greening strategy and action plan for Niger will be assessed in a national workshop early this year. There is no reason why this national strategy should not become operational in 2012.

5. Closer links will be forged not only with World Resources Institute and the Global Partnership for Forest Landscape Restoration, which I now tend to call more simply…Global Re-greening Initiative, but also with Evergreen Agriculture, World Vision Australia and with other re-greening initiatives.

Finally I would like to thank all of you who have directly or indirectly provided support to re-greening under ARI. I wish you a healthy and inspirational 2012. Let’s together try to make the world a bit greener to improve food security, adapt to climate change, reduce rural poverty, alleviate the burden of women and girls have who collect firewood, increase the fodder available to livestock, maintain or improve soil fertility, increase biodiversity, restore ecosystem services. Resource users can do it themselves, but sometimes they need a bit of external support…not necessarily money, but new ideas and new experience. There is no other intervention that produces so many benefits at such low costs. Let us catalyze more action. Your involvement in this process is vital.

Chris Reij
January 6, 2012

News from the United Nations Conference to Combat Desertification in South Korea

2011-10-20T16:47:00.003+02:00

Looking to the Sahel for Lessons in Pushing Back Deserts

Article by Stephen Leahy

CHANGWON, South Korea, Oct 17, 2011 (IPS) - Nearly all our food comes from the Earth's limited food- producing lands, but those lands continue to be degraded, guaranteeing far higher food prices and less food in the future, experts warn.

But degradation and desertification can be halted and reversed, as evidenced by once barren parts of Africa's dry Sahel Region that are now green and thriving thanks to local efforts.

ARI update 7: October 2011

2011-10-07T12:13:00.003+02:00

Wangari Maathai (April 1, 1940 – September 25, 2011)

Wangari Maathai
From September 5 – 16 I was in Nairobi to meet with the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), the Green Belt Movement and many other organisations. Almost everyday I travelled to and from my hotel to ICRAF…and every time I looked at a piece of beautiful and diverse forest in the city. The driver explained that it is the Karura Forest and he said..”it’s still there because of Wangari Maathai…in the 1990s the forest was given to developers who wanted to build big houses, but Wangari Maathai resisted this development”. On my way to the Kenyan Forest Research Institute, a driver made a similar remark about another forest.

Later I understood that resisting the developers meant that she was beaten up badly and even had to be hospitalized, but as soon as she got out of the hospital, the first thing she did was to go back to the forest to continue action….that’s courage…and she, and those who supported her,…won the battle.

She will always be remembered because she created the famous Greenbelt Movement, which planted tens of millions of trees in Kenya’s Highlands and she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, because of her relentless work not only for the environment, but also for democracy, peace, women’s rights and empowerment of the poor.

On September 23 I had the privilege to be in a meeting with Prof. Karanja Njoroge, the Executive Director of the Green Belt Movement, during which he unveiled a plan for creating a Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies at the University of Nairobi. I assume that funding will be mobilized to create this institute in memory of Wangari Maathai. One thing is certain…with or without this institute, she will continue to live in the hearts and minds of many people in and outside Africa for who she was, for what she did and for the difference she made.

Exploring a re-greening initiative in Kenya

Many parts of Kenya’s highlands have high on-farm tree densities and Grevillea robusta is a common species. Kenya is the only country in the world that has a Constitution which requires farmers to have 10% of their land under trees. Kenya has its successful Green Belt Movement…so why go to Kenya to explore a re-greening initiative?

The answer to this question is that almost all re-greening in Kenya is concentrated on planting of trees in the Highlands of Kenya and much less on Kenya’s drylands (about 80% of the country). Very little attention is paid to the potential of promoting on-farm and off-farm re-greening through the protection and management of natural regeneration.

This visit could not have come at a better moment as the Ministries of Agriculture and of Environment have started reflections about how to implement the 10% rule.

Dennis Garrity, DG of ICRAF till September 16, and his staff, provided all possible support to make this visit a success. Without their support much less would have been achieved. Meetings were held amongst others with:

- Prof. Margaret Kamar (Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology)
- Dr. Linah Jebii kilimo (Assistant Minister for Co-operative Development and Marketing)
- Dr. Wilson A. Songa (Agriculture Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture)
- Eng. J.A. M. Nkanya (Agricultural Engineering Service, Ministry of Agriculture)
- Mr. Wafula Mutoro (Head of Soil Conservation and Fertility Branch, Min. of Agriculture)
- Mrs. Janet A. Oyuke (Head Agroforestry, Ministry of Agriculture)
- Dr. Ben Chikamai (Director Kenya Forestry Research Insititute)
- Dr. Phanuel Oballa (Asst. Director Kenya Forest Research Institute)
- Prof. Karanja Njoroge (Executive Director Green Belt Movement)
- Mr. Mounkaila Goumandakoye (Director Africa UNEP)
- Dr. Mahamane Larwanou (African Forest Forum)
- Dr. Bashir Jama (Director Soil Health Program, AGRA)
- Mr. Lawrence Kiguro (Associate Director World Vision Kenya)
- Mr. Henrik Brudin (Regional Director SCC-Vi Eastern Africa)
- Mr. George Onyango (Deputy Regional Director SCC- Vi Eastern Africa)

All showed a keen interest in natural regeneration to build new agroforestry systems and to restore degraded natural forests. The impact of this visit is probably that farmer-managed natural regeneration will be on the table as an option for Kenya’s Arid and Semi-Arid Lands.

The next step will be a regional meeting in Kenya on re-greening, which will be organized by World Vision. Tony Rinaudo of World Vision Australia plans to be in the region from March – May 2012. His visit will include practical training in farmer-managed natural regeneration. All persons met during this visit in first half of September will receive the ARI updates and will be informed about the regional conference in March 2012.

In the week of September 12 – 16, ICRAF had its Science Week, which meant that most ICRAF researchers were in Nairobi. This provided an extraordinary opportunity for discussion with researchers in-between meetings in town. It was possible to meet regularly with Dennis Garrity, who after having done two terms as DG of ICRAF will now become responsible for ICRAF’s Evergreen Agriculture Initiative, Phil Dobie (policy advisor), Moctar Touré (senior fellow), Ermias Betemariam (landscape ecologist), and many others.

The re-greening movement is expanding
Met in Nairobi with Roland Bunch, the author of “Two Ears of Corn” (www.rolandbunch.com). Roland worked for many years on cover crops in central America and is now very worried about declining soil fertility in many parts of Africa. Roland recently visited the on-farm re-greening in Mali’s Seno Plains and wants to join the ARI movement, which is very good news, because he brings with him vast experience and a big network.

At the same time a message arrived from CIKOD-Groundswell in Northern Ghana (www.groundswellinternational.org) with the request…can we join the re-greening movement? We want to promote re-greening in Northern Ghana and will try to mobilize our own funding. My reaction…yes, of course…you make my day. More about this in the next update.

Networking about farmer-managed re-greening in Washington (September 20 – 23).

Presentation at the World Resources Institute on September 21 about “Expanding re-greening successes in Africa’s drylands to increase food security and reduce poverty”

Multiple meetings at World Resources Institute with Bob Winterbottom (Director Ecosystem Services), Edward Cameron (Director International Climate Initiative), Nigel Sizer (Director Global Forest Initiative), Lars Laestadius (Senior Associate) and Manish Bapna (Interim President).

Presentation at World Bank TerrAfrica of “The man who stopped the desert” followed by discussion. About 30 persons attended, including Mary Barton-Dock, Director Environment, Martin Bwalya, Head of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and Paola Agostini of TerrAfrica and Regional GEF coordinaotor. The documentary was followed by a lively exchange about the role of farmer innovation and about farmer-managed re-greening.

Mary Barton-Dock subsequently stated the following:

This film is a wonderful piece of storytelling that recounts many critical lessons in the pursuit of economic and environmental sustainability in the Sahel. Yacouba's thriving farm and forest -- and the land rehabilitated by others he inspired -- show that individual champions and local communities can achieve much. But the film also shows that these remarkable achievements need to be underpinned by a strong policy and institutional environment, such as enforceable local resource rights and government accountability.

A follow-up presentation/meeting will be scheduled early in 2012.

Presentation at US Agency for International Development about “How can USAID help feed the future”. This presentation, which was organized by natural resource management specialists Chris Kosnik and Mike McGahuey, was also attended by 3 staff of the Food Security Bureau. It was followed by a meeting with Christian Holmes, USAID’s Global Water Coordinator, who suggested at the end of the meeting that he would like to visit the farmer-managed re-greening /new agroforestry parklands in the Sahel and he felt that was presented should be brought to the attention of the USAID Administrator.

A meeting at the Global Environment Facility with senior environmental specialist Mohamed Bakarr to discuss where re-greening/agroforestry can be presented in the upcoming Conference of Parties of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification in October in South Korea.

During the different presentations in Washington, it was emphasized that resource users protect and manage natural regeneration for many reasons. One is that it helps them build more productive and more drought resilient farming systems. To farmers it is the lowest cost way of intensifying agriculture. One of the main benefits to women is that it reduces the time required for collection of firewood as they can now prune on-farm trees rather than walk many miles to search for some shrubs.

“The man who stopped the desert”

Since the beginning of 2011 this documentary about the life, innovations and impacts of farmer innovator Yacouba Sawadogo has won 4 awards:

February 2011 Special Jury Award at International Forest Film Festival (USA)
May 2011 8th Award at International Audiovisual Festival of Biodiversity (Rome)
August 2011 Best sustainability message at 10th Japan Wildlife Film Festival
September 2011 Sapphire award Montana Cine International Film Festival
and in April/May the film has been shown 4 times at France 5.

Mark Dodd (www.1080films.co.uk), who made the documentary, is now developing a scenario for a more general documentary about the multiple impacts of re-greening/agroforestry.

Web Alliance for Re-greening Africa (W4RA)

The 4 minute clip below explains the tools that the Web Alliance for Re-greening Africa is now developing to increase access of resource users to relevant information about re-greening and its impacts. It is essentially about linking mobile phones and rural radios. The tool has already been tested in Mali and a wider roll out will be tried in Mali in November. If it works then it can be used at a much larger scale to spread info about farmer-managed natural regeneration as well as on the natural regeneration of degraded forests.

W4RA film

Given the ambitious re-greening/forest landscape restoration initiatives now emerging, the strategic importance of this work by the Network Institute of VU University Amsterdam and the Web Foundation of Sir Tim Berners-Lee is increasing.

Media attention for re-greening

An article in the September issue of UNEP’s flagship publication….One Planet. This issue of One Planet was published just before a special session on September 20 of the UN General Assembly about desertification.

The German science magazine “Bild der Wissenschaft” published an article in its August issue.

It should also be mentioned here that all African Ministers of Agriculture met in South Africa in the week of September 12….about Climate Smart Agriculture. The document specifically prepared for this meeting contains a case study about re-greening in Niger and its cover page shows a Faidherbia albida parkland in Tanzania with a beautiful stand of crops under the trees. The message is increasingly getting across that agroforestry is a vital pillar in improving food security, increasing drought resilience of production systems and reducing rural poverty.

Tony Rinaudo of World Vision Australia and his partners

Tony is relentlessly promoting farmer managed natural regeneration and he is organizing training workshops from Ethiopia to Ghana and from Sumba (Indonesia) and East Timor to Senegal. More attention will be paid to his work in the next updates. Below some pictures of a training workshop in Tigray (Ethiopia) earlier this year, which included practical as well as theoretical training.

Advocacy and networking on regreening

2011-07-28T13:58:00.008+02:00

On the right Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification and on the left Yacouba Sawadogo, farmer innovator from Burkina Faso, who is the key person in the documentary “The man who stopped the desert”. They met in Caux (Switzerland) on July 15 during a full day special event on “restoring Earth’s degraded land reversing man-made deserts, reviving agricultural land”

Special event at the 4th Caux Forum on Human Security in Switzerland.
On July 15 about 250 participants from 50 countries attended a full day special event during the Caux Forum on Human Security in Switzerland. Clare Short, former UK Secretary of State for International Cooperation introduced the day and Luc Gnacadja, Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification made a challenging presentation about reversing man-made deserts using as title: “Soil, so much depends on so little”. The presentation can be found at www.unccd.int under a section about the Caux Forum.

Since 1980 Yacouba Sawadogo improved traditional planting pits or zaï, a technique that has since then been used to rehabilitate tens of thousands of hectares of strongly degraded land in the Sahel. He is the key person in the multiple award winning documentary “The man who stopped the desert”. The French and the English version of this documentary were shown simultaneously and deeply impressed and moved all participants.

The question and answer session at the Caux Forum after the documentary was shown. On the left Yacouba Sawadogo and on the right Mathieu Ouedraogo, coordinator of the re-greening initiative in Burkina Faso.

Among the participants were not only farmers, development specialists, human rights lawyers and activists, energy specialists, documentary makers, diplomats and politicians, but also two distinguished journalists: Mr. Prem Shankar Jha from India and Mr. Geoffrey Lean from the United Kingdom. Mr. Jha is a prolific author and continues to publish frequently in the Hindustan Times and other journals. Mr. Geoffrey Lean is the UK’s most senior environmental journalist. During the Caux Forum he produced an article, which was published in the business section of the Daily Telegraph on Saturday 16 July entitled: “The earth can’t afford to lose any more ground”. This article mentions re-greening in Niger.

On the left Mrs. Chau Duncan, Australia’s Trade Commissioner for Clean Energy and Environment. In the middle Mr. Prem Shankar Jha and on the right Mr. Geoffrey Lean.

During an informal meeting of a small group of environmental specialists, Mr. Jha described how millions of hectares of degraded areas in India still have underground root systems which offer possibilities for natural regeneration. His analysis showed striking similarities with the analysis by Tony Rinaudo of World Vision Australia for parts of Niger where underground root systems were an important source of re-greening.

Participation in this special event generated many new contacts as well as invitations to expand ARI to Tchad, Rwanda, Uganda and other countries. As a starter all new contacts will receive the ARI updates.

Advocacy in Mali
From 19 – 22 June, a small delegation of representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture, farmer organisations and NGOs, led by the Vice President of the “Haut Conseil des Collectivités Locales” visited six field sites to get first hand information from farmers about their experience with the protection and management of natural regeneration. They were impressed by the transformation that has occurred and by the multiple impacts generated by the increasing number of on-farm trees. The delegation was accompanied by radio, TV and press.

The Vice-President of Mali’s « Haut Conseil des Collectivités Locales « presents a gift to Mr. Zié Diakité, a farmer from the village of Diénina, who distinguished himself in the 2010 agroforestry competition. On the right, Mr. Mamadou Diakite of SahelECO and in the middle (with camera) Mr. Mamadou Lamine Coulibaly of the national coordinating body of Mali’s farmer organisations (CNOP)

Ethiopia
Interesting news from Ethiopia is that Prime Minister Meles Zenawi seems to have stated recently that the re-greening of Ethiopia will form one of the three key pillars for Ethiopia to achieve a Green Economy. PM Meles Zenawi represented Africa during the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. It is highly significant that he specifically mentions re-greening as a key pillar. We hope to provide more details in one of the next updates.

Building drought resilient production systems in the Horn of Africa: a key challenge

All media are now reporting on an almost daily basis about the drought and famine in Somalia and parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda. The articles highlight human suffering on an increasing scale. The costs of food aid are estimated to be more than one billion euro. Slowly but surely awareness is emerging that it may cost less to develop more drought resilient production systems at scale than to cope with famine and its impacts.

The Government of Kenya is taking steps to implement a policy that requires all farmers in Kenya to grow trees on ten percent of their cultivated land, which may be easier in Kenya’s highlands than in its drylands. A major challenge will be to improve range management to make livestock systems more drought resilient and to reduce conflicts between herders as well as between herders and farmers.

The IFAD-funded project on “Support to Re-greening in the Sahel”
As mentioned in the previous update, the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) organized a workshop in Bamako early June about the methodology of a study on the economics of agroforestry in the Sahel. Filming 12 cases of successes in adaptation to climate change has begun and contracts are established with partners in four Sahel countries: Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, who will be responsible for developing national policy dialogues around re-greening.

Web Alliance for Re-greening Africa (W4RA)
Here you can find a 6 minute clip posted on July 8 on Youtube, which explains the work of the Web Alliance for Re-greening Africa.

Some next steps
1. A visit to Kenya is planned for early September to present the IFAD-funded project “Support to Re-greening in the Sahel” and to explore possibilities for developing a re-greening initiative in Kenya.

2. As soon as possible, but certainly before the end of 2011, a discussion note will be produced about the development of national strategies for re-greening. The target group for this note will be national and international policymakers. It should give them a set of practical steps to quickly expand the scale of re-greening in drylands and sub-humid regions, which will help build more productive and drought-resilient farming systems.

The next update will appear by the end of September … unless there is a reason to share information earlier.

ARI Update 5 June 2011

2011-06-27T09:49:00.010+02:00

Farmer-Managed Re-greening in Kaffrine (Senegal) began in 2008

This field is adjacent to the one above; most cultivated land in the Saloum region of Senegal is barren or has low on-farm tree densities (see point 2)

1. World Desertification Day (June 17)
On the occasion of World Desertification Day (June 17), the Secretary General of the United Nations formulated a message, which contained the following paragraph:

“The management, conservation and sustainable development of dry forests are central to combating desertification. The ongoing greening of the Sahel and other success stories around the world show that degraded lands can be reclaimed by agroforestry and other sustainable practices. We need to scale up these interventions and disseminate their results widely”.

This is exactly what African Re-greening Initiatives tries to do and the message of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon encourages all involved to persevere and expand activities.

2. Farmer-managed re-greening in the Kaffrine area (Senegal)
The Kaffrine area is part of Senegal’s Saloum region (Southeast of Dakar), which has low on-farm tree densities. This is the heritage of policies in the 1960s and 1970s to expand mechanized cultivation in Senegal’s peanut basin. The removal of trees and their stumps was subsidized in those days in order to create large treeless fields. In combination with cutting trees for charcoal production, this caused a large-scale degradation of vegetation. World Vision Senegal began doing so in 2008. The number of species protected and managed by farmers is limited. The main species concern Piliostigma reticulatum (for fodder and improvement of soil fertility) and Guiera senegalensis (firewood and fodder).

Every year World Vision Senegal sends a delegation of 22 farmers and staff to Niger to look at and learn from farmer-managed natural regeneration in that country. During the field visit it became quite obvious that farmers who participated in those study visits behave differently. They don’t burn Guiera senegalensis to enrich the soils, but they prune it and use the leaves as mulch, which attracts termites and improves soil structure (see picture below).

The scale of on-farm natural regeneration, which is still in its early stages, now concerns about 30,000 ha, but this includes some areas where densities are still low. However, some key conditions are united for rapid expansion of agroforestry in this region. These include high population densities, sandy soils, low on-farm tree densities and fairly good rainfall (about 700 mm) compared to areas in Niger and Mali where farmer-managed re-greening has already taken place on a large scale (about 500 mm).

The indications are that in 2010, cereal yields were significantly higher on cultivated land with young agroforestry systems than on fields without. This needs to be confirmed by longer-term monitioring.

3. Agroforestry systems in Europe
It can be argued that agroforestry represents the agriculture of the future as it produces “multiple wins”: enhancing food security, adapting to climate change, improving drought resilience, sequestering carbon, increasing biodiversity, etc.

It is interesting to note that agoforestry systems are also found in Europe. For instance in Spain and Portugal millions of hectares are covered by centuries old agroforestry systems, which continue to be maintained. They are largely based on two species of oak, including cork oak, but also on olive trees. Tree densities are often 40 trees per ha or more and under these trees farmers grow cereals or fodder grass. Extensive livestock grazing, which produces high quality meat, is part of this production system. The two photos below show a valley and hills in Spain’s Extremadura region with dense agroforestry and cattle grazing under the trees,where they benefit from fodder and from shade in this warm climate.

4. World Agroforestry Center workshop in Bamako
From June 6 – 8, the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) organized a workshop in Bamako about the research methodologies that will be used to study the socioeconomic impacts as well as the costs and benefits of agroforestry systems in the Sahel. This is one of the three components of an IFAD grant to support re-greening in the Sahel. The workshop also identified research partners and made a first selection of potential research sites.

5. First Africa Drylands Week in Dakar
From June 13 – 17, the first Africa Drylands Week was held in Dakar. This Drylands Week (about 150 participants) was organized by a wide range of organizations: FAO,the Great Green Wall, the Earth Institute of Columbia University, etc. Many presentations were made on a wide range of themes relevant to dryland development. One aspect that transpired during the presentations and discussions is that the interest in farmer-managed re-greening and evergreen agriculture is increasing strongly. This is partly due to the fact that conventional tree planting has often produced disappointing results. A next update will provide a link to the report as soon as it becomes available.

6. Preparation of field visit by a delegation from Nigeria to Niger
During the workshop on agroforestry in Niger held in January 2011, the idea emerged to organize a field visit by a delegation from (Northern) Nigeria, which has in quite a few places low on-farm tree densities, to the new dense agroforestry parkland of Southern Niger. The partners in Niger are willing to organize a workshop and a field visit. Dr. Chinwe Ifejika Speranza, a Nigerian climate scientist, is a driving force behind this initiative. She has contacted the Heinrich Böll Stftung in Germany, which is willing to fund the cost of the Nigerian delegation. This workshop is likely to take place at the end of 2011.

Our hope is that it will lead to a re-greening initiative in parts of Northern Nigeria, which is urgent for many reasons.

7. Advocacy
Many opportunities emerged during the last two months to present farmer-managed re-greening in Africa’s drylands and its multiple impacts. These included presentations at the First Africa Drylands Workshop (June 13), at USAID Dakar (June 16) on “how can USAID contribute to feed the future in Africa’s drylands?, at the occasion of a workshop of the Dutch Knowledge Network “ Sustainability, Climate and Energy” (June 23) on Adaptation to Climate Change in Africa’s Drylands: from research to action; at the Sustainable Foods Summit in Amsterdam (June 23) on Sustainable Innovations and Climate Change in Africa’s Drylands.

8. Expansion of African Re-greening Initiatives: how can you contribute?Both in Burkina Faso and in Mali, the re-greening partners are receiving requests to expand their activities to other regions or provinces. At present the partners in Burkina Faso are working in 6 provinces and their plans are to expand to 10 provinces. The partners in Mali receive similar requests for expansion. They just organized a so-called caravane with national decision makers to the large-scale re-greening in the Seno Plains.

The partners in Niger have just organized study visits for farmers in the Dogon Doutchi region to Maradi.

Besides expansion within the existing countries, possibilities to expand ARI to Kenya will be explored. More about this as well as about Niger and Ethiopia in the next update.

9. Web Alliance for Re-greening in Africa (W4RA)
W4RA is developing and testing its tools. Below you’ll find the link to a short trailer about their field visit in January 2011.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX5nc_Wf6GA

10.Final remark
This update began with a quote from Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and it ends with a quote from a woman farmer in Senegal, which was on June 21 shared by Tony Rinaudo:

Female lead farmer from Kaffrine (Senegal) who went to Niger Thousands of projects have come through here but this SFLEI ( Senegal Food and Livelihood Enhancement Initiative) there is no comparison, if we are the judges. We have nothing but our environment. Since we started working with Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration we have already started seeing the benefits that we have not seen with any other project. The type of benefits we see pushes me sometimes to leave my home and just walk through my field to appreciate the trees and environment. When things get to where they need to be, we will see more yields and the path will be clear.

The next update will be produced around end July.

Update nr. 4

2011-05-09T12:42:00.015+02:00

This update begins with a story about the scale of re-greening on Mali’s Seno Plains between the escarpment of the Dogon Plateau and the border with Burkina Faso. This picture shows high tree densities and older trees close to the escarpment. When we look beyond a band with low tree density, a sea of trees can be seen in the distance stretching across the plains. Gray Tappan of USGS-EROS has now uncovered the scale of re-greening.

How did this agroforestry parkland emerge?Just a few remarks and observations:

a. SahelECO and its predecessor SOS Sahel UK have promoted farmer-managed re-greening since the middle of the 1990s.

b. The radio station of Bankass was used to spread the information about the new forestry law of 1995.

c. An increase in rainfall since the middle of the 1990s probably supported the process of regeneration, but as we know from Niger….human management is a more decisive factor in re-greening than rainfall. The process of re-greening in Niger began a decade before the increase in average rainfall and Northern Nigeria has much lower tree densities than Southern Niger despite higher rainfall.

d. Traditional institutions responsible for the management of trees (Barahogon and others) have been successfully revived in this region.

e. SahelECO staff report that about 5% of the trees on the Seno Plains are older than 15 – 20 years and the large bulk of trees is younger.

Source: Gray Tapan USGS-EROS

f. Gray Tappan notes that (1) one finds low densities of on-farm trees on another 175,000 ha; (2) the Seno Plains had high tree densities in the 1960s….they probably dwindled in the 1960s and 1970s and this U curve now shows an upward trend; (3) on the Plateau Dogon itself…interesting examples of high tree densities are found….but this was not part of the analysis.

On the Dogon Plateau one finds cultivated fields with high densities of young Combretum not included in the data for the Seno Plains. It is not only good firewood, but women also gather the leaves and use it as manure in irrigated gardens.

Conclusion: a major agro-environmental transformation has occurred during the last 15 – 20 years on the Seno Plains…its scale was unknown until now….Gray Tappan used high resolution satellite images to uncover the scale…more research needs to be done about the history, evolution and dynamics of this young agroforestry parkland. SahelECO and its partners continue to promote farmer-managed re-greening in this region and elsewhere in Mali. Where a set of conditions are united…it is possible to induce farmers to invest in on-farm trees and transform landscapes and production systems at scale.

There is more good news to report.

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
The IFAD project about “support to re-greening in the Sahel” has now been signed by IFAD and by VU University Amsterdam and activities will now be started up (see ARI update 2011 no. ).

World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)
Dr. Dennis Garrity, DG of the World Agroforestry Centre, visited Amsterdam on May 1 and 2. Points on the agenda included: closer cooperation between ICRAF’s Evergreen Agriculture Initiative and African Re-greening Initiatives, which s likely to take shape in 2011; building a movement around Evergreen Agriculture and Farmer-Managed Re-greening; joint advocacy and research on impacts of re-greening.

One of the immediate impacts of the visit by Dennis Garrity is that the Centre for World Food Studies of VU University Amsterdam will develop a research proposal on “ the impact of re-greening in Niger on food security” and the department of hydrology will develop a research proposal on “the impact of re-greening on surface and groundwater hydrology”.

Dennis Garrity also mentioned that Evergreen Agriculture rapdly gets a higher profile in India. Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, the highly-respected father of the Green Revolution in India, published a book in 2010 “ From Green to Evergreen Revolution”. This book was officially launched by India’s PM. Under a new Evergreen Agriculture Initiative India plans to plant large numbers of “fertilizer trees”. More about this in future updates. It is quite likely that the protection and management of natural regeneration also has a potential for India.

Ethiopia
The Environmental Protection Agency seems interested in funding a project to protect and expand “church forests” or “belief system forests”, which are centuries old remnants of forests. They show what is called the climax vegetation. These small forests, which have a high biodiversity, risk to disappear due to gradual encroachment by farmers. The amount of funding is not yet known.

Media attention
The Voice of America recently had an excellent story about farmer-managed re-greening, which integrates different messages.

Upcoming events
From 6 – 8 June a workshop will be held in Bamako to discuss the methodology for the ICRAF study about the socioeconomic impact in the Sahel.

From 10 – 16 June, the First African Drylands Week will be held in Dakar. It is a contribution to the International Year of the Forests. One of its objectives is to exploit the knowledge developed in 3 decades of combating desertification and implementing sustainable land management to adapt to climate change and ensure sustainable development.

On April 23, the French TV station France 5 showed a 50 minute french version of the documentary “The man who stopped the desert”. It will be shown again on May 9.

Update April 2011

2011-04-15T11:44:00.009+02:00

The first picture shows an example of large-scale mechanized commercial
agriculture in Hawassa in Ethiopia’s Rift valley. In the distance on the right
hand side of the picture a tractor is ploughing the bare land. Two hours later
strong gusts of wind blew tons of topsoil from this ploughed field over lake
Hawassa (February 24, 2011). The owner of the land will have to apply
tons of fertilizers to compensate for the loss of fertile topsoil. No on-farm trees
to protect the land against wind and sun. It’s a clear example of unsustainable
agriculture.

RE-GREENING AND AFRICAN FOOD SECURITY
During my visit to Mali in the first week of April, I was told that the demographic growth rates for Mali had been revised upwards on the basis of a recent study. The assumption was that the growth rate was 2.2%, but the study showed that it is 3.6%. This means that Mali’s population will double in 20 years. Niger has a similar growth rate. The fact is that the population of many African countries will double in the next 20 to 25 years.

At the same time rainfall is becoming more irregular and soil fertility is depleting in many areas because traditional soil fertility restoration techniques (fallow) can no longer be used. Fertilizer prices are soaring, world market prices for cereals are increasing, food security stocks are declining. The macro picture for the next 20 years is quite gloomy. It’s obvious that major action is urgently required to sustainably intensify African agriculture .

Experience shows that farmers who have increased the number of on-farm (and sometimes off-farm) trees have not only improved household food security, but also adapted to climate change, maintained or improved soil fertility through nitrogen fixation and increased soil organic matter content, sequestered carbon in trees and soils, not only produced more food, but also more fodder and fuel . Agroforestry is not a silver bullet, other action is also required , but it is to all farmers the lowest cost pathway to sustainably intensify agriculture and the recurrent costs to governments and donor agencies are zero.

Experience in Niger shows that it is possible to build new agroforestry systems at scale. The 5 million ha of re-greened land produces more food, fodder, fuel and many other benefits. It is estimated that the impacts of re-greening feeds an additional 2.5 million people .

Many smaller and bigger examples in agriculture and in agroforestry in and outside the Sahel show that it is possible to expand the scale of existing successes . African Re-greening Initiatives has developed a strategy for building on existing successes, which it is trying to implement. The first indications are promising.

Although the macro picture is gloomy and we seem to be heading into what Roland Bunch calls “a perfect storm” , it is not a fatality, but we can’t afford to delay substantive action, because climate change is already aggravating the problem .

Re-greening in Burkina Faso
During its first year the re-greening initiative involved 106 villages in 6 provinces. What we see happening in the second year is a ripple effect. Neighbouring villages request to be also involved. For instance, in Gnagna Province 6 villages have joined and in Sanmatenga province the number of villages increased from 12 to 22. The total number of villages involved now stands at 125. In addition to this there is growing pressure to expand to other provinces. After the official launch of the re-greening initiative on January 25, 2011, two provinces have officially requested to also be included.

During meetings end March with key partners (Reseau MARP, Tree Aid, World Neighbours and representatives from local NGOs who operate as extension agents for re-greening at provincial level), it was decided to:

1. now start a process of monitoring and evaluation and develop tools for self-monitoring and self-evaluation by resource users and a small team has already been created to undertake this work;

2. intensify exchange and study visits by farmers and herders before the rainy season.

The exchange and study visits will concentrate on villages within the same “commune” in order to maximize the number of participants and reduce costs. Nevertheless, it was deemed important urgent to organize a visit by farmers and herders from Soum province (the region around Dori) to the Seno plains in Mali where significant re-greening has occurred…and farmers from the Seno Plains could be invited to train farmers and herders in Soum province.

The launch of “The man who stopped the desert” in Burkina Faso.

On March 27 the documentary about the life and work of Yacouba Savadogo was shown in his village. About 500 villagers joined the event. The next evening it was shown in the open air cinema of Ouahigouya, the regional capital. Even more people attended that event. After the showing Yacouba was almost overrun by those who wanted to congratulate him.

The link below is a 10 minute film which shows the events in the village and in the cinema.

http://www.1080films.co.uk/yacoubamovie/

Re-greening in Mali
During a short visit to the Seno Plains around Bankass on March 29 my impression was that the scale of on-farm re-greening in this region is under-estimated. The numbers used tend be around 15,000 ha, but it is obviously much more. Gray Tappan of the US Geological Survey is now using satellite images to get to grips with the scale. The first results will be known within a few weeks. The pictures on the next page give some impression about the diversity of situations in the area around Bankass.

This field close to Endé has a young high-density stand of Combretum Glutinosum, which provides high quality firewood. Densities are up to 270 trees/ha. Farmers prune the trees in June in such a way that competition with crops is minimized. The trees also produce several tons of litter/ha as can be seen on this picture. The picture below shows a stand of high-density young Faidherbia albida.

Like in Burkina Faso, a ripple effect is taking place. In all areas that the re-greening initiative is working, new villages want to join. The initiative is now active in the regions of Mopti, Tominian and Segou and will soon expand to Koulikoro. In the Mopti region 300 farmers participated in a re-greening competition and the fields of all these farmers were visited and demarcated by a committee of composed of representatives of the technical services (agriculture, forestry…..).

From the point of view of the promotion of farmer-managed re-greening, several positive, but also one negative development can be reported in Mali. The negative development is that Mali adopted a new forestry law in 2010, which does not mention agroforestry systems and natural regeneration. The new law is about repression and not about education. It is about deterring farmers to invest in on-farm trees rather than about inducing them to invest. The authorities recently decided to temporarily put the law on hold….as some protests against it turned violent. It is not unlikely that the new law will be adapted.

A very positive development is that the new Strategic Investment Plan for Sustainable Land Management in Mali specifically mentions farmer-managed re-greening as a high priority. This certainly offers opportunities for developing a national strategy for re-greening and for increased investments in agroforestry.

Re-greening in Tigray (Ethiopia)

Tony Rinaudo and Rob Francis of World Vision Australia were in Tigray in March as a follow-up to a training workshop on farmer managed natural regeneration by Tony 8 months ago. Tony’s report mentions that the Bureau of Agriculture has decided to institutionalize famer-managed natural regeneration and integrate it into their normal programming. This is highly relevant as the Bureau is the driving force behind the large-scale re-greening in Tigray. This may ultimately lead to the sustainable management and exploitation of natural regeneration as well as planted trees in what is called enclosures (over one million hectares). If you want more info, please contact: tony.rinaudo@worldvision.com.au

The Web Alliance for Re-greening in Africa (W4RA)

See previous update. The website for African Re-greening Initiatives is still under construction. A number of colleagues of VU University, World Wide Web Foundation and SahelECO will present a paper at the Web Science Conference in Koblenz (Germany) in June.

Is (Web) Science Ready for Empowerment?
Issues of Scientific Method – Illustrated by a Demo Roadshow in West Africa
Hans Akkermans, Nana Baah Gyan, The Network Institute, VU University Amsterdam
Anna Bon, Wendelien Tuyp, CIS, VU University Amsterdam, Aman Grewal, Stéphane Boyera, World Wide Web Foundation, London/Toulouse, Mary Allen, SahelEco, Bamako, Mali
Extended Abstract Submission ACM Web Science Conference 2011, Koblenz, D, 14-17 June 2011
Abstract. The World Wide Web opens up many avenues for new research. Some of them (Web as observable phenomenon, Web as engineered technology) fall quite well within mainstream academic notions of research. This is much less so if we position the Web as an instrument for empowerment. Informed by our W4RA field research experiences in West Africa, we review issues of scientific research and methodology if it is to be relevant to issues of empowerment. Keywords: The pro-human Web, evolving technologies, knowledge production, Web futures

A HERO

Below you see the picture of Adama Kindo taken on March 28. He recently returned from Ivory Coast to the village of Bogoya (Burkina Faso). Adama lost an arm in a road accident in Ivory Coast, but using his left arm he just dug zaï on about a hectare and filled them with compost. Adama is determined to develop a diverse agroforestry system just as his cousin Ousséni Kindo has done since 1985 on an adjacent field of 4.5 ha. Ousséni Kindo and his family have been food secure since 1985.

Media attention

Below you’ll find a link to an article in major German newspaper “Welt am Sonntag”, which is about the Great Green Wall, but it also pays attention to farmer managed re-greening in Senegal and in Niger.

In about two months, the New Yorker ( a US weekly with 1.2 million subscribers) will have a substantial article about re-greening. We’ll come back to it when published.

Upcoming events

On May 2, Dr. Dennis Garrity, DG of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Nairobi, will visit Amsterdam. That will be a new opportunity to discuss how to build linkages between ICRAF’s Evergreen Agriculture initiative and African Re-greening Initiatives.

Next update
The next update will be produced around mid May.

For more information about ARI please contact:

Chris Reij
or Wendelien Tuyp (wam.tuyp@cis.vu.nl)

For more information about the Web Alliance for Re-greening in Africa (W4RA), please contact:
Anna Bon, ICT Consultant (a.bon@cis.vu.nl)

UPDATE 2011 no.2

2011-03-29T12:12:00.010+02:00

An agroforest of Moringa stenotepala close to Konso, Ethiopia (February 28, 2011)

This second update of African re-greening Initiatives in 2011 begins with a brief overview of some of the re-greening activities by World Vision Australia. It shows how farmer-managed natural regeneration (FMNR) is spreading to other countries and regions. Within World Vision Australia re-greening has at least two formidable champions: Tony Rinaudo (tony.rinaudo@worldvision.com.au) and Peter Weston (Peter.Weston@worldvision.com.au) In the mid-1980s Tony catalyzed the process of re-greening in Niger’s Maradi Region and he now travels to Ghana, Niger, Ethiopia, Cambodia and many other countries to train farmers and technicians in how to do it…If you want to know how farmer managed natural regeneration works in practice….then just google on “you tube Tony Rinaudo FMNR”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9DpptI4QGY
Peter Weston is program coordinator for Tchad, Senegal as well as for West Africa regional initiatives. He recently presented FMNR to an Australian Parliamentary Committee that advises and oversees Australia’s foreign policy.
This brief overview of World Vision’s re-greening activities is followed by information about several recent activities and developments.
Some examples of World Vision Australia supported re-greening
Senegal

World Vision Senegal is currently conducting two, well resourced sister-projects in 10 districts around Kaffrine region, which is in the Senegal’s densely populated peanut basin. These followed on from a number of small pilot projects that built a body of experience in engaging farmers in the adoption of new agroforestry techniques. The projects combine promotion of FMNR, jatropha hedges and fruit trees with short-term food production 'accompaniments' and food for work programs. As a result of the previous lessons learned, interest and adoption of farmer-managed natural regeneration in particular and field hedging is spreading rapidly throughout the region. Within two years farmers have protected and managed FMNR on about 25,000 ha and they have hedged 612 ha with jatropha. A great emphasis has been placed on facilitating discussions about environmental sustainability with wider community groups beyond the farmer household heads, and mediating land user rights within and between communities and the Forestry Service to eliminate tree poaching.

Niger
World Vision Niger is long acquainted with FMNR due to its working relationship with agricultural missionary organisation: Serving-In-Mission (SIM). This small project is one addition to a long history of NRM projects for World Vision Niger. This small project intends to work with 5 districts in Zinder and Tahoua regions. The current project that commenced activities late in 2009 intends to complement existing FMNR activities with other agroforestry activities, namely to support local demand for moringa oleifera and ziziphus mauritiana, and to promote SIM's technique of 'Farmer-Managed Agroforestry System' (FMAFS) that delimits farmer fields with acacia colei to act as wind barriers, to fix nitrogen and provide a protein food supplement. This project is drawing on media promotion via radio emissions and the participatory development of agroforesty manuals in French, Hausa and Kanuri.

Rows of fast growing Australian Acacia colei close to Maradi (Niger). November 8, 2010.

A separate World Vision research project in Niger recently studied the potential market demand and value chain linkages for acacia colei seeds. A.colei is extremely dryland tolerant and its seeds are high in protein and micronutrients. The project found that market demand is still localised around areas already having a history of growing and consuming the seeds. Potential exists for wider market acceptance but would primarily be via pre-processed foods such as weaning foods, snack foods and the like, rather than unprocessed seeds. Increased acacia colei production is desirable from both a soil restoration and human nutrition perspective. But further adoption is constrained by the lack of market promotion presently, despite many market opportunities being identified.

Chad
Recently, World Vision Chad completed a pilot project that attempted to establish model farmers in 12 districts experiencing deteriorating forest cover and soil quality across Southern Chad. The project promoted FMNR, SIM's Farmer-Managed Agroforestry System (FMAFS), as well as well-known dryland fruit trees such as mangoes. Whilst the project did gain some local practitioner advocates, it also found that spreading such a project across 12 districts with limited staffing and budget was overly optimistic, and unable to gain any real traction in most locations. Consequently, a recently commenced follow-on project is intensifying the initiative in just two locations: one near Guelendeng and one near Doba.

Ghana
In 2010 a farmer delegation from Ghana visited re-greening in Burkina Faso and Mali. Building on the lessons from the projects in francophone West Africa, World Vision Ghana has commenced a FMNR project in the Upper East Region of Northern Ghana. Though only recently commenced, early indications are that farmers and authorities are enthusiastic about applying the technique, and appreciate the opportunity it presents to recover some of their lost local tree species and soil deficits.

Mauritania
World Vision Mauritania has started a small project in two districts of Brakna region that aims to work with 100 households to promote NRM techniques into household farming systems. It aims to reduce their climatic vulnerability by halting agricultural land degradation and biodiversity loss, and ultimately, increase household nutrition and incomes. The main techniques being shared are FMNR, hedging fields, and multi-purpose perennials.

Mali
World Vision Mali has started a small project working with 20 village communities around Kolokani. The project is trialling the use of various multipurpose agroforestry species including acacia colei, moringa oleifera, jatropha curcus, ziziphus mauritiana and citrus. The project also promotes FMNR in crop fields, and intends to work with communities and the Water and Forestry Service to review laws and practices that restrict the application of agroforestry.

The focus of this brief overview is on what World Vision does across the Sahel to promote FMNR, but World Vision is also actively promoting re-greening in Ethiopia, Tanzania and several other countries. In Ethiopia the Humbo project is the first project in Ethiopia that is financed by the Carbon Development Mechanism. The Humbo project is about the promotion of natural regeneration of degraded forests (3,000 ha). If you google on Humbo Assisted Natural Regeneration you will find all info. World Vision partners from Tanzania visited Humbo, got inspired and began protecting natural regeneration of degraded forests on 18,000 ha.
More about World Vision’s activities in future updates.

Re-greening in Mali and Burkina FasoIn Mali many meetings were held locally by all partners at the end last year (in Djenné, Koro, Bandiagara, Mopti) to discuss the results of farmer competitions for best performance in the protection and management of natural regeneration and to plan activities for 2011. Farmers, NGO partners and elected officials participated in those meetings. Looking at the reports they all proposed expanding activities to other areas.
The partners in Burkina Faso met mid-March for stocktaking and planning. More details about the activities in both countries in the next update after my visit to both countries (March 26 – April 8).

Re-greening in NigerAs mentioned in the first update, an international workshop was organized in Niamey in January 2011. It was co-organized by the World Agroforestry Centre and African Forest Forum. A key objective was to develop a national strategy for re-greening in Niger. The 100+ participants had lively debates and those who visited re-greening in Maradi and Zinder before the workshop began, were impressed by the scale of re-greening. A report will soon be available.
One immediate spinoff of this workshop was that participants from Nigeria wanted to know more about Niger’s re-greening and it is likely that a delegation from Nigeria will visit Southern Niger in 2011 to draw lessons from Niger’s experience.

Re-greening in EthiopiaAs mentioned in update no. 1, the mobilisation of funding for the Ethiopia Re-greening Initiative is a key priority in 2011. A visit to Southern Ethiopia confirmed the importance of agroforestry. Just one example. Travelling the 90 km from Arba Minch to Konso, the importance of Moringa Stenotepala becomes evident and the closer one gets to densely populated Konso with its traditional terraces, the higher the densities of Moringa. Many families depend on this tree for their survival (household consumption and cash income from sale). The fresh leaves are sold in the market for about 4 Birr/kilo (0.18 euro/kilo). Developing a value chain around Moringa offers perspectives.

The Great Green Wall through the Sahara and the Sahel (GGW)During a meeting in Bonn in the second half of February donor agencies pledged 3 billion $ for the GGW. That’s a major achievement. However, it should be noticed that experience shows that there’s a discrepancy between pledges and disbursements. Farmer-managed re-greening is quickly becoming part of the GGW approach, which is a positive development.

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)See update 2011 no.1. IFAD’s legal department is expected to soon sign the project.

“The man who stopped the desert”The documentary won the special jury prize of the International Forest Film festival in the USA (www.1080films.co.uk). On March 28, Mark Dodd, who made the documentary about the life of Yacouba Sawadogo, his innovations and impact, will be shown in Ouahigouya (Burkina Faso) to all who participated in the making of the documentary as well as to city officials.

The Web Alliance for Re-greening in AfricaIn January/February, researchers from VU University Amsterdam, together with partners from World Wide Web Foundation and Sahel Eco – Mali, travelled sixteen days through the Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and North Ghana, exploring local information needs in remote rural areas. The outcomes will be used for development of innovative web services based on voice technologies.

Meetings were held with farmers and herders, local radio stations were visited and meetings were held with farmer organisations. Community radio and mobile telephone, apart from word of mouth, are the only sources of information in these remote villages, devoid of electricity, TV or Internet. Radio programs are created in local studios, and continuously broadcasted in various languages. Radio listeners often travel from a distant village, and bring a handwritten message to have it broadcasted for their friends and family. They are ready to pay the radio a fee of 500 francs CFA (less then one euro), a considerable amount in this region. Is the desire to Twitter a universal human trait?

Farmers, herders and radio staff shared their thoughts on innovative voice-based information services. It led to a vivid discussion and many original ideas emerged for voice-based services. One farmer suggested some sort of voice "yellow pages" service, which can provide contact details of an expert who will give him tips on how to grow shea trees.

Voice-based services may bring new opportunities for people to exchange information about re-greening activities, about prices on the local market, health or legal issues, music and entertainment, local news or anything one can imagine…!!

Next update

The next update will be produced around mid April.

For more information about ARI please contact:

Chris Reij
Center for Intenational Cooperation
VU University Amsterdam
Email: cp.reij@cis.vu.nl
Tel.: + 31 20 5989097
For more information about the Web Alliance for Re-greening in Africa (W4RA), please contact:
Anna Bon, ICT Consultant
VU University amsterdam
Centre for International Cooperation
De Boelelaan 1105
1081 HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands
t + 31 20 5989074
f + 31 20 5989095

Activity report nr. 3

2010-04-14T16:21:00.007+02:00

In 2010 food shortages will affect more than 3 million people in Niger (in particular in the Regions of Tahoua, Maradi, Zinder and Diffa). Reason: the 2009 rains arrived late, stopped early and were erratic. People and livestock will depend more heavily on trees and on food aid. A national re-greening program would help increase resilience to drought.

ARI is promoting farmer-managed natural regeneration to support farmers to adapt to climate change, improve household food security and reduce rural poverty. It wants to do so by scaling up existing smaller and bigger successes. It is increasingly urgent to do so, because many more land users in Africa’s drylands risk “falling off the edge” . Business as usual is no longer an option.

Some comforting news. Several studies indicate that investing in ecosystem restoration increases production and helps keep people on the land. The village of Ranawa on the northern part of the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso is an interesting example. Due to recurrent drought, land degradation and food shortages, it lost 25% of its population between 1975 and 1985. Since land rehabilitation activities (=ecosystem restoration) began in 1984/85, not a single family has left the village and several families returned from the southwest where they had tried to settle. Between 1985 and 1996 its population doubled. This may be an extreme case, but there is some evidence that the demographic dynamics of villages which invest in their natural resources are different from those in which little or no investments are made.

Some highlights since early March

1. Another visit to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

The main reason for re-visiting Rome on March 25 and 26, shortly after the panel at IFAD’s Governing Council, was to participate in a meeting about scaling up successes. At the same time the organizers at IFAD created opportunities for presenting results of the Sahel study as well as information about African Re-greening Initiatives and how we try to scale up existing successes.
I am working in development cooperation since 1977 and have made quite a few presentations at donor agencies…in particular in the last few years. Reactions to the re-greening initiative tend to be positive. Yet, the presentations at IFAD were a new experience, mainly because of the overwhelmingly positive reactions of participating staff members.

The IFAD West and Central Africa Division will have its annual retreat at the end of April. One of the agenda items will most likely be whether or not they will support re-greening activities in the Sahel. They may well do so, because IFAD already has a very successful re-greening project in Niger’s Aguie department and in Burkina Faso they have funded land rehabilitation for 20 years. They can build on experience obtained in several existing projects.

Our challenge is to improve the livelihood perspectives of these Malian children living on the Seno plains. The agroforestry parkland of their village is young and expanding. Protecting and managing natural regeneration is a low-cost, cost effective pathway to agricultural intensification. Also poor farmers can afford it.

2. Presentation at “Nederlandse vogelbescherming” (Netherlands Society for the Protection of Birds”

Increasing the number of on-farm trees produces multiple impacts….like reducing wind speed and local temperatures, increasing the availability of fodder, firewood, etc. Until now we have overlooked that it also has a positive impact on millions of European songbirds, which migrate to the Sahel to spend the winter in this region.

On April 7 a presentation was made to staff of the Netherlands Society for the Protection of Birds. Their intention is to develop significant re-greening action in the Sahel and to submit a proposal to a foundation in the Netherlands. Impact on European birds is a pinoff…improving rural livelihoods is key. I have informed our re-greening coordinators in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger (Mary Allen, Mathieu Ouedraogo and Prof. Toudou) about this development. Mathieu’s reaction was…several farmer innovators are feeding and watering birds in the dry season….because their droppings contain tree seeds and they help control pests.

3. Launch of the documentary about Yacouba Sawadogo (“The Man Who Stopped The Desert”)

On March 26 the documentary about farmer innovator Yacouba Sawadogo was launched officially in a cinema in Norwich (UK). You can go to www.1080films.co.uk to watch the trailer. The reactions were overwhelmingly positive. Mark Dodd, who made the documentary, is now approaching TV channels to show it.

4. State of the World 2011

The Washington-based Worldwatch Institute has a long history of producing annual “State of the World” reports, which are read by policy makers, journalists, farmer organisations and many other stakeholders. We will contribute a chapter to “State of the World 2011”.

5. Developing an International Advisory Group and creating a pool of specialists in re-greening: first steps

As mentioned before, African Re-greening Activities is about developing a movement, which is owned by its stakeholders. This movement is growing and will continue to do so. It is important to create an international advisory group composed of national coordinators, external specialists and representatives of funding agencies. Reflection about its composition and tasks has begun. Such an advisory group should meet at least once a year.

Because re-greening activities in Africa will increase, it is urgent to begin composing a pool of specialists, who can design new programs, train land users, initiate and participate in national policy dialogue, etc.

The national coordinators have been asked for suggestions regarding the composition of the International Advisory Group as well as for the pool of re-greening specialists.

6. What next?

During the next four weeks, the main thrust will be on developing a re-greening initiative in Ethiopia. A proposal will be submitted to Adessium Foundation in the Netherlands before the end of May.

Important opportunities for advocacy are emerging ....June 1 Davos, June 5 Bonn, June 26 – 28 Cape Town. More about this in the next activity report.

But remember…you can all be champions of re-greening.

Latest news from African Re-greening Initiatives

2010-02-17T11:58:00.000+01:00

January 29, 2010. Early morning sun over the Seno plains from the escarpment of the Plateau Dogon (Mali). At the foot of the escarpment one finds low tree densities on sand dunes, but beyond that a “sea” of on-farm trees can be seen, which are mostly young. A quick study should be done to look at the scale of this recent re-greening, which is significant.

Surprises keep emerging also in the beginning of 2010. The conclusion of the last activity report of 2009 was that we begin riding a wave. That’s the case. African Re-greening Initiatives is not about a big project with a cloud of money, but about creating a movement and a process….involving others….We know where we come from, we know where we are, but we do not yet know where this is going to end.

Here is some news about the first weeks of 2010.

1. Leslie Hill of FINHUMF and José Molina (tourism expert) visited Burkina Faso and Mali in the last week of January. Our re-greening coordinators in both countries participated in the visit. The dynamics observed are considerable. Although funding for the re-greening initiatives in Burkina and Mali became available barely six months ago (June 1, 2009) a movement is already emerging. Discussions with farmers who already protected and managed on-farm natural regeneration, show a great awareness of the multiple benefits of re-greening.

2. SahelECO and partners concentrate their activities in the first year on the Mopti region where it can build on earlier work. Meetings were held in three places and in all cases a wide spectrum of partners (non-governmental organisations, technical ministries and elected officials) participated. 10 – 12 organisations participated in each of the meetings. All partners emphasized their interest in promoting farmer-managed natural regeneration and some have mobilized funding from other sources to do so. Three field visits showed the considerable dynamics that the re-greening activities in Mali can tap into and build upon. Adapting national forestry legislation, by removing some ambiguities in it, is regarded a key activity. Informing farmers about the contents of the current legislation and what this means to them is also important.

Photo 2:Farmers on the Seno plains in Mali have already built tree based production systems on a large scale….and are very aware of the multiple impacts. Their future depends on trees. This photo shows the group exchanging with a farmer.

3. Although it would be possible to show many pictures of on-farm re-greening in the areas visited, it is good to show here one picture of what is one of the astonishing features of agriculture on Mali’s Dogon Plateau…and unique in Africa. With project support farmers have built the last three decades dozens of small dams across valley floors. This created reservoirs and farmers literally constructed new fields on bare rock along the reservoirs. They collected soil elsewhere, carried it in baskets on their heads to the bare rock....constructed shallow fields on the rock, created a grid pattern in order to irrigate efficiently and produce onions. A narrow green belt snakes through the valleys and in the dry season tens of thousands of tons of shallots are produced and exported to other regions.

Photo 3: Irrigation just outside Sangha on the Dogon Plateau; Most irrigation is by hand, but some pumps are used. Also in this case shallots dominate, but some cabbage and lettuce is also cultivated. (January 27, 2010).

4. The re-greening initiative in Burkina Faso has selected six provinces for intervention and it is now operational in 103 villages. The initiative collaborates closely with elected officials at the “Commune” level. In different “Communes” areas are demarcated in which villagers will protect and manage natural regeneration. Some of these transects are along major roads, which means that regeneration will be visible to those driving along it. The transect along the main road (Ouagadougou – Dori) on both sides of the village of Banh is about 26 km long and 1 km large. Villagers will be involved in the monitoring and evaluation of regeneration…and researchers will select a sample of transects for the study of regeneration and its impacts.

Photo 4: transects are demarcated where natural regeneration will be protected and managed by villagers.

5. In the first week of February partners in the Web Alliance for Regreening Africa (W4RA) met in Ouagadougou to learn from existing experience with the use of ICT in agriculture and to begin the process of designing a 3 year project proposal, which will as soon as possible be submitted for funding. Key challenge is to link internet, rural radio and mobile phones…..to share knowledge and information relevant to re-greening between stakeholders and to create access to this info to all those interested in it wherever they are.

6. A two day field visit preceded the workshop to allow all partners to familiarize themselves with field realities. Participants included: Steve Bratt and Stéphane Boyera (World Wide Web Foundation), Prof. Hans Akkermans (Director of the Network Institute of VU University Amsterdam), George Sadowki (Director ICANN) and Prof. Saa Dittoh (University of Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana).

If you are interested in more info go to:
http://www.webfoundation.org

click on regreening in Africa and in text click on “workshop on mobile web for rural development in Burkina Faso 3-4 February”. You will find there the program and the minutes of the workshop.

7. Antoine Kalinganire, the Sahel coordinator of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) also participated in the workshop and the opportunity was used to discuss collaboration between the World Agroforestry Centre and African Re-greening Initiatives. Frank Place, economist of ICRAF, also happened to be in Ouagadougou and we discussed designing a research project on the “economic valuation of agroforestry in the Sahel”. Such a research project is highly needed as the multiple benefits of agroforestry in the Sahel continue to be under-estimated. We all agreed it is urgent and Frank Place will design a first draft proposal.
8. Good news….IUCN Netherlands is developing and supporting a re-greening initiative in the Sahel and some of our partners have been approached. We will contact IUCN to get more info and to explore possibilities for synergy.

9. Our partner Both Ends (www.bothends.org) has just submitted to the Turing Foundation (created by the owners of Tom Tom) a proposal for funding a re-greening initiative in Niger. Funding has been requested for a modest two year program….but as soon as this is up and running we will try to mobilize additional funding.

10. Re-greening partners from World Vision in Northern Ghana expressed an interest to visit sites in Burkina Faso and in Mali. This will be arranged.

11. A message was received from Mr. Wanga Masakhalia of the Pastoralist Integrated Support Project in Marsabit, Kenya. Mr. Masakhalia is interested to promote re-greening of the Chalbi desert. Two days after rfeceiving this message, I happened to meet Karen Witsenburg of Both Ends….who wrote a PhD with Adano Wario Roha about “Surviving Pastoral Decline: pastoral sedentarisation, natural resource management and livelihood diversification in Marsabit District, Northern Kenya”. One of their findings is that sedentarisation has not led to widespread environmental degradation. My plan is forward the message of Mr. Masakhalia to Adrian Cullis, Karen and Adano and others in our network who are knowledgeable about pastoralism.

Some upcoming events
12. The Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will meet in Rome on February 17 and 18. A panel will be held on February 18 on successes in agriculture and natural resource management in Sub-Saharan Africa. Mary Allen (coordinator re-greening initiative in Mali) and Chris Reij (facilitator ARI) will be on the panel. More about this in next activity report.

13. On March 9 and 10 researchers from Columbia University, Stockholm University and VU University Amsterdam will meet in Amsterdam to explore possibilities for creating a consortium to do research on the biophysical and other impacts of re-greening in the Sahel.

14. On March 26 the documentary about Yacouba Sawadogo, farmer innovator in Burkina Faso, will be launched in Norwich. Its title: The man who stopped the desert”.

“Coming out of the stone age”

15. As the Web Alliance for Re-greening Africa will get shape….I will in the course of 2010 begin to stop with sending ARI activity reports to individuals….but the activity reports (as well as other products) will begin to be published on different websites. My ICT colleague just created a blog….on which you can find some of activity reports of 2009….we will gradually upload all old activity reports and publish the new ones on it.

For more info….please contact

Chris Reij
Center for International Cooperation
VU University Amsterdam
Cp.reij@dienst.vu.nl

Or

Wendelien Tuyp
CIS-VU
Wam.Tuyp@dienst.vu.nl

African Re-greening in Amsterdam and Washington

2010-02-12T12:18:00.000+01:00

From right to left: Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Mathieu Ouedraogo, Yacouba Sawadogo and Chris Reij during a press conference at VU University Amsterdam on October 20, 2009

Some highlights of the remarkable month of October 2009

1. The report for September 2009 had stories about the article in Le Monde on August 21, the documentary shown by BBC World about re-greening in Burkina Faso and Mali as well as the short field visit to Burkina by the director of VU Amsterdam’s Network Institute and other VU colleagues to generate ideas for using modern communication techniques to spread info relevant to re-greening. October was a remarkable month, because partners from the Sahel travelled to Amsterdam and to Washington to inform very different audiences about their experience with farmer-managed natural regeneration.

Mathieu Ouedraogo and Yacouba Sawadogo in Amsterdam at the occasion of a honorary doctorate for Sir Tim Berners-Lee

2. Twenty years ago Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who works at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology of Harvard University, invented the world-wide-web, which caused a global revolution in communication. On October 20 VU University awarded him an honorary doctorate for it. Sir Tim has recently created the World Wide Web Foundation, which recognizes that 1.5 billion people have access to the net, but 4.5 billion people still don’t have access. A major objective of the WWW Foundation is to increase access and the first project selected is the African Re-greening Initiative. This new project is called W4RA or Web alliance For Re-greening Africa. It combines our African partners with the WWW Foundation, the (interdisciplinary) Network Institute and the Center for International Cooperation of VU University. A workshop will be held in Burkina Faso in the first week of February 2010 with all partners to develop a proposal.

3. On the morning of October 20, a symposium was held at VU University on “The World Wide Web and Social Development” in which Sir Tim looked at the future of the WWW. This was followed by presentations by two key persons of the WWW Foundation, Steve Bratt and Stéphane Boyera. The second half of the morning’s program was about the scale and impacts of re-greening, about how to build on current successes and the role modern communication technologies can play in this process. Before the coffee break the trailer was shown of the documentary by Mark Dodd about the life of Yacouba Sawadogo “The Man Who Stopped the Desert”. It resonated well with the 300 participants. It put Yacouba’s life and work into perspective. Subsequently, Mathieu and Chris got 45 minutes to present the African Re-greening Initiatives and the Chair of the Board closed the symposium with a short speech expressing his support. This was immediately followed by a press conference and several Dutch newspapers wrote the next day about the achievements of Sir Tim Berners-Lee, but also mentioned Yacouba and his impact on land rehabilitation in the Sahel.

4. With Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Steve Bratt, Stéphane Boyera, Prof. Hans Akkermans (Director VU Network institute) and his colleagues, we have new and formidable partners for the African Re-greening Initiatives. The many positive reactions of staff of the Faculty of Science involved in the Network Institute as well as of the Board of VU University, were very encouraging.

Washington “The Other Green revolution: How farmers reclaimed the desert to create an agricultural future for Africa”

5. The Obama administration is developing a “Global Food Security Policy” and will invest about 3.5 billion dollars in it. This initiative is subjected to considerable pressure to develop a conventional package: chemical fertilizers, new seeds, irrigation, mechanization, etc. OXFAM America decided that it would be useful to insert some other ideas into the debate and invited a delegation from the Sahel to Washington to tell about the scale and the impacts of investments in natural resource management during the last 20 to 30 years. The delegation from the Sahel was composed as follows:

Mr. Issa Martin Bikienga Deputy Executive Secretary of the Permanent Inter-State Committee on Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS)
Ms. Edwige Botoni (CILSS)
Mr. Mahamane Larwanou (African Forest Forum)
Ms. Sakina Mati (organizes women in six villages in Niger’s Aguié department around farmer-managed natural regeneration)
Mr. Mathieu Ouedraogo (coordinator Burkina Re-greening Initiative).
Mr. Yacouba Sawadogo (farmer innovator Burkina Faso)
and the undersigned…(facilitator African Re-greening Initiatives)

Mark Dodd and his crew accompanied the activities in Amsterdam and in Washington to finalize the one hour documentary about Yacouba.

The Sahel delegation on the steps of Lincoln Memorial. From Left to right Sakina Mati, Yacouba Sawadogo, Chris Reij, Edwige botoni, Issa Martin Bikienga, Mahamane Larwanou and Mathieu Ouedraogo
Let’s briefly look at some of the key events:

6. Presentation at Capitol Hill in the room of the Committee on Foreign Affairs to about 30 staffers of members of Congress (October 27). These staffers are the eyes and ears of Congress members. Both Yacouba Sawadogo and Sakina Mati (below right) made excellent short statements about the impacts of their work.

Just before the presentation in the Rayburn Building at Capitol Hill. From left to right: Mathieu, Chris, Edwige, Larwanou, and Sakina.

7. Presentations at World Wildlife Fund on October 28 by Mahamane Larwanou and Issa Martin Bikienga. About 30 participants. They made impact.

8. The major event was on October 29 in the Ronald Reagan Building. Three panels about the theme “The Other Green Revolution: Farmer-Managed, Agro-Environmental Transformation in the Sahel”. About 150 participants. Key note speaker: Mr. Franklin Moore, who is Deputy Assistant Administrator for Africa and the Obama Administration’s Global Food security Coordinator. Three panels: 1. Voices from the Sahel; 2. Practitioner’s Insights into the Obama Administration’s Global Food Security Initiative and 3. US Policy and The Other Green Revolution.

9. The reactions were overwhelmingly positive. It is of course not possible to predict whether the presentations will have an impact on the contents of the Global Food Security Initiative. The political pressures for a conventional approach are big. To use a biblical parallel, ee are like David against Goliath. However, the reactions of various USAID staffers were such that we may hope that USAID will get involved in the promotion of farmer-managed natural regeneration.

10. The key message that we all hammered on was….by protecting and managing natural resources in general, and on-farm natural regeneration in particular, you not only help farmers to adapt to climate change, you also help increase food production and reduce rural poverty. Trees are the backbone in this process.

11. A lunch presentation at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) with about 100 participants. Also here…the message fell on fertile ground. If you like to watch the presentations we made at IFPRI…go to: http://www.youtube.com/ifpri and go to Other Green Revolution. Worthwhile to also quickly look at the one minute trailer on Millions-Fed: Provcn Successes. Or go to: http://www.ifpri.org/event/other-green-revolution

From left to right: Yacouba Sawadogo, Rajul Pandya-Lorch (IFPRI’s Head of the Vision 2020 program) and Sakina Mati.

12. Other activities in Washington? Meetings with journalists (Washington Post, Bloomberg, Reuters….all.africa.com). It should be mentioned here that Gray Tappan of the US Geological Survey and our key remote sensing specialist joined us on October 28 during the presentation at World Wildlife Fund and before leaving Washington Gray Tappan and Mahamane Larwanou were interviewed by the National Public Radio (NPR) and this interview will be broadcast several times on NPR during the month of November. Gray Tappan has recently been diverted to coastal West Africa, but we need him back in the Sahel heartland for baseline studies as well as for the monitoring of changes in land use and vegetation

13. A reception offered by the Embassy of Burkina Faso allowing informal meetings with the Ambassador of Burkina Faso (H. E. Dr. Ernest Yonli) and the Ambassador of Niger (H.E. Mrs. Toure A.D. Maiga). The Ambassador of Burkina Faso in Washington was many years Burkina’s Prime Minister until a year ago.

14. OXFAM America managed to arrange a tourist visit to the White House, which was not easy as this has to be formalized well in advance. I had a slight moment of panic when Yacouba wanted to rest and sat down on an early 19th century chair, which looked a bit fragile, but it ended well.

15. In terms of advocacy and partnership building, October was an extraordinary month. Our friends and colleagues from the Sahel did an extraordinary job. We want to express our strong appreciation to Melinda Smale and her colleagues of OXFAM America as well as to Aimée Niane of IFPRI, who moved mountains of work to get the Sahel delegation to Washington and to organize the program. How Yacouba and Sakina managed to get their messages across during the formal presentations with the support of respectively Issa Martin Bikienga and Mahamane Larwanou….. was a miracle. They even did not seem to nervous !!

16. This is not going to be the end of the story. We will try to monitor the impact of this visit to Washington and brief you about it in the next activity reports.

Mark Dodd (center), Ashley Norton (left) and Mariam Arnett (interviews…not on this photo)
at Capitol Hill. The documentary about Yacouba will be finalized early 2010.

17. Much more happened in October. For instance, Dr. Laurent Sedogo, Burkina’s Minister of Agriculture made a presentation in Iowa at the event of the World Food Prize; Dr.Dennis Garrity, the DG of the World Agroforestry Center, visited the Zinder region in Niger; a meeting with the Adessium Foundation in the Netherlands and their decision to support the preparation of an Ethiopia Re-greening Initiative. More about this in the next activity report.

18. I like to end this activity report on a personal note, which is a bit unusual, but it’s a nice story. Of course, it is motivating to present the African Re-greening Initiatives to very different audiences, to tell about the scale and multiple impacts of re-greening and to paint a picture of Africa that is quite the opposite of the perceptions that most people have about Africa. After my presentation in the second panel on October 29, I got off the stairs of the podium, a young African woman (from Namibia) walked up to me…and said “I feel so encouraged by your story, allow me to hug you”. She did not wait for an answer…and gave me two big hugs in the middle of that big meeting room. Well….that never happened before. It demonstrates that all of us have a story to tell that inspires and shows that it is possible to improve the livelihoods of millions of Africans living at the edge in drought-prone regions.

Amsterdam
9 November 2009

African Re-greening activities September 2009

2010-02-12T12:04:00.000+01:00

This picture was taken on September 27, 2009 in the Yatenga region of Burkina Faso. These are the fields of Ousséni Kindo. These fields were barren in 1985. Mr. Kindo is what is called a precision farmer. He treats each niche of his fields differently and has developed a system of conservation farming with numerous trees. He will get an excellent harvest this year. His son controls the grazing of cattle.

Some highlights of the last 30 days

GENERAL

1. In the third week of September, BBC World showed the documentary on re-greening in Burkina and Mali 4 or 5 times. The information reached us a bit late. None of us has been able to watch. However, the Earth reports of BBC World are viewed by about 250 million people all over the world…so the message is spreading. Mathieu Ouedraogo and Mary Allen, our coordinators in Burkina and Mali, play a key role in this documentary. The producers will send a DVD. We’ll explore the costs of making a French version of this documentary.

2. Had a brief discussion on skype with Peter Weston of World Vision Australia about a strategy for developing re-greening initiatives in Africa. This will be given a follow-up in the near future. My assessment is that building tree-based production systems will more easily find funding. Reason is that it is the only low cost way for farmers to sustainably intensify agriculture and at the same time adapt to climate change. Our challenge is to develop proposals as well as to develop the organisational capacity in different countries to implement these proposals. The continuing food (prize) crisis and the growing attention for adaptation to climate change will give us wind in the back.

3. Just a remark….our current knowledge of what farmers have already done to develop tree based production systems (agroforestry) is largely insufficient. We know about a number of cases, but much remains to be uncovered. Two years ago I travelled the road between Koutiala and San in Mali….and was impressed by the natural regeneration in the agroforestry parkland. Who has analyzed this case ? We still need a more systematic effort to identify and analyze existing successes upon which we can build !!!

NIGER

4. At present Dr. Dennis Garrity, the Director General of the World Agroforestry Center, is travelling in Niger’s Zinder Region (October 5 – 9), to look himself at the large-scale on-farm re-greening. From Niger he will continue to Burkina Faso and Mali. Our colleague Mahamane Larwanou of the African Forest Forum acts as guide and Antoine Kalinganire of the Sahel program of the World Agroforestry Center is also part of this mission. Will try to update you in the next activity report.

5. CARE Denmark is funding a new project on farmer-managed natural regeneration in the southern part of the Maradi region (Niger).

6. Prof. Toudou has developed a first draft for a Niger proposal, which will be submitted by Both Ends to the Turing Foundation

BURKINA FASO AND MALI

7. The partners of the re-greening initiatives in Burkina Faso and Mali met on September 25 and 26 in Gourcy to discuss monitoring and evaluation as well as project implementation. What is going to be monitored, how and by whom? Réseau MARP will develop a system for self-monitoring by farmers. All agreed that establishing a good baseline situation is vital.

8. On this occasion, partnership contracts were signed between VU University Amsterdam and Reseau MARP and with SahelECO. There was excellent chemistry between all participants and a shared vision of the importance of promoting tree-based production systems in the Sahel.

9. On October 2, Mathieu Ouedraogo and Chris Reij had a 40 minute meeting with Dr. Laurent Sedogo, the Minister of Agriculture. Objective: brief him about the re-greening initiative and propose the organisation of an information session for key staff of the three ministries (agriculture, environment, livestock) and the directors of major agricultural development projects. The minister agreed and a date will soon be set. This may lead to mainstreaming of agroforestry in the major projects.

ETHIOPIA

10. Adessium Foundation is willing to fund the preparation of a re-greening initiative in Ethiopia. A meeting with Adessium Foundation will take place on October 13. This is very good news. Whether they will fund the initiative depends of course on their evaluation of the final proposal. More info in the next activity report.

W4RA (Web for Re-greening in Africa)

11. This is the likely title of a new project to be developed by the Network Institute of VU University and the Web Foundation. As mentioned in the previous activity report, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world-wide-web, will receive on October 20, a honorary doctorate of VU University. The new project will be developed around this honorary doctorate. This new project will be built around the African Re-greening Initiatives and its sister project SCI-SLM (Supporting Community initiatives in Sustainable Land Management).

12. From September 26 – 29, a fact-finding mission took place in Burkina; Objective: generate ideas for the new project. Participants in this mission: Prof. Akkermans, Director of the Network Institute, ICT colleague Anna Bon, communication specialist Wendelien Tuyp, Chris Reij (all VU University) and Prof. Saa Dittoh (University of development Studies, Tamale, Ghana). Adama Belemvire and Mathieu Ouedraogo participated in a meeting in Ouagadougou.

13. This fact-finding mission did the following:

- A meeting with the elders of the village of Ranawa about how they use mobile phones. Each of the 160 families in this village has at least one member with a mobile phone. What they use them for…how they recharge batteries in a village without electricity….how they recharge their credits.

- A visit to the fields of Ousseni Kindo and Yacouba Sawadogo.

From left to right: Ouesseni Kindo, Mathieu Ouedraogo, Wendelien Tuyp, Anna Bon, Hans Akkermans and Saa Dittoh. They are standing on barren soil. This is what the field in the background was like in 1985.

- A visit to two cyber cafés in Ouahigouya.
- A meeting with the radio station “Voice of the Farmer” in Ouahigouya. Chris was after the meeting immediately drawn into the studio for a live interview.
- A visit to the mayor of Ouahigouya to draw his attention to the forest created by Yacouba Sawadogo and the threats to this forest.
- A meeting with the telecom company Zain (Celtel) in Ouagadougou. They have 1.5 million subscribers. Zain is interested in the re-greening initiative (corporate responsibility). It is possible, for instance, to craft short messages about trees and send these to all 1.5 million subscribers.

14. The key challenge is…how can we use all modern means of communication to share and spread info relevant to re-greening initiatives (from on-farm natural regeneration to community-based forest management). A workshop will be organized early in 2010 which will involve more partners. The Network Institute and the Web Foundation will mobilize funding for W4RA. One thing is obvious….relevant educational material will be collected and developed and put on a new website. Youth and women will get specific attention.

Upcoming events

15. On October 20, a symposium will be held at VU University on The World Wide Web abd Social Development (see www.vu.nl/dies2009). Speakers: Hans Akkermans, Tim Berners-Lee (The World Wide Web – Humanity Connected)….Mathieu Ouedraogo and Chris Reij will have 50 minutes !!!! to present “Regreening Africa’s Drylands”. Interesting challenge. At this symposium the trailer will be shown “The man who stopped the desert”. This is about Yacouba Sawadogo, our farmer innovator from the Yatenga. He will be a guest of honour at this symposium. Mark Dodd, the documentary maker will be there to film and he will also be in Washington to finalize the documentary (see next point).

16. As also mentioned in the previous activity report, OXFAM America and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) jointly organize a public panel on “Greening the Sahel”. It promises to become a big event. More in the next activity report, which you can expect just before mid-November…or earlier if there is groundbreaking news.

The invention of Tim Berners Lee triggered a booming cybercafe business in Ouagadougou and elsewhere. Watch the interesting name of this cybercafé in Ouagadougou.

Chris Reij
Center for International Cooperation,
VU University Amsterdam

Tel. + 31 20 5989090
E: cp.reij@dienst.vu.nl or c.reij@chello.nl

October 7, 2009