It has taken much longer to produce this update
than predicted in update no.3, but the advantage is that we have a lot of good
news to report. There is a growing
interest in restoring degraded land using a mix of proven practices, including
farmer-managed re-greening.
Two major new projects
with re-greening components
The Netherlands development cooperation decided
in July to approve a 50 million US dollar regional project for Mali, Burkina
Faso, Niger, Kenya and Ethiopia. This regional project wants to enhance food
and water security for economic growth.
The World Agroforestry Center formulated the proposal and is responsible
for its implementation. The on-the-ground work will be done mainly by
non-governmental organisations.
Until now a number of proven practices have
often been applied in isolation, but this project will as much as possible
integrate re-greening, water harvesting and the use of small quantities of
chemical fertilizers (micro dosing).
A first planning workshop was already held in Ouagadougou
in August. Start-up workshops will be held in October and it is expected that
activities will start soon.
The US Agency for International Development
(USAID) is funding the REGIS-ER project
in Burkina Faso and Niger. REGIS-ER
stands for Resilience and Economic Growth in the Sahel-Enhanced Resilience. It
is a 5 year and 70 million $ project, which will be implemented in Burkina Faso
and in Niger.
These two major new projects mark the beginning
of increased investment in the drylands across the Sahel. The costs of emergency aid are high. In 2012
alone the costs of humanitarian aid amounted to one billion US $. It is less expensive to support dryland
communities to build resilience to drought, which makes people less dependent
on emergency aid and can significantly lower its costs. As mentioned in
previous updates, during drought years the rural poor literally survive on
on-farm trees. When crops fail, trees continue to produce fruit, fodder,
firewood, medicines.
Follow-up to study
visit by Nigerian delegation to Niger in May 2012
In May 2012, a delegation from Nigeria visited
farmer-managed re-greening in Southern Niger to draw lessons for policy and
practice in Northern Nigeria. One of the
participants in this study visit was a key staff member of the European
Commission in Abuja and it is no coincidence that the Commission is now funding
a new agroforestry project in one of the northern states. A follow up can
include a visit by Dennis Garrity (World Agroforestry Centre) to the Federal
Minister of Agriculture as well as a visit by farmers from Niger to Northern
Nigeria to explore with their peers the major reasons behind the low on-farm
tree densities in parts of that region.
Positive developments
in other regions
At the Conference of Parties of the UN
Convention to Combat Desertification in Windhoek (Namibia) in September Dennis
Garrity mentioned that the Government of India has decided to invest hundreds
of millions of US$ /year in agroforestry through the states.
Sri Lanka is creating an Asia-Pacific Institute
for Evergreen Agriculture, which will be launched in November during the
Conference of Commonwealth Heads of State.
World Vision Australia has launched an
excellent website on farmer-managed natural regeneration. The website provides
information about re-greening activities by World Vision and it offers
opportunities to download relevant publications.
Land for Life Award
and Global Dryland Champions 2013
During the recent Conference of Parties of the
UN Convention to Combat Desertification in Windhoek (Namibia), Tony Rinaudo of
World Vision Australia received a Land for Life Award for his dedication to
re-greening in drylands. Tony helped catalyze the re-greening process in
Niger’s Maradi region in the middle of the 1980s. Tony and World Vision
Australia are now promoting re-greening in 14 countries !!
Yacouba Sawadogo and Chris Reij were both
honoured with a Global Drylands Championship Award. Yacouba’s life, work and
impacts feature in the documentary “The Man who stopped the desert”. His
innovations in water harvesting allowed the restoration of tens of thousands of
hectares of severely degraded land across parts of the West African Sahel.
Besides this he has created a very diverse 23 ha forest with more than 60
species of trees and bushes on land that used to be completely barren.
http://www.1080films.co.uk/trailer-manwho-full.htm
The documentary will soon be shown on Kenya Airways
flights.
Chris received the award for his relentless
promotion of African Re-greening Initiatives.
Both Yacouba and Chris were given an
opportunity to make a key note presentation at the High-Level Summit of the
Conference, which was attended by about 200 people (delegation leaders of the
countries represented at the Conference of Parties, Ministers of Environment,
representatives of NGOs).
From left to right: Tony Rinaudo (World Vision
Australia), Mathieu Ouedraogo (Reseau MARP, Burkina Faso); Yacouba Sawadogo
(“The Man Who Stopped The Desert”, Burkina Faso); Chris Reij (World Resources
Institute, Washington DC) and Mahamane Larwanou (African Forest Forum,
Nairobi).
Scaling up re-greening and restoration of
degraded land by building on successes
Every year millions of hectares of productive
land are lost due to deforestation, urbanization, overgrazing, degradation of agricultural land and
drought. One thing is certain, we lose
productive land at a rate which is much faster than the rate at which degraded
land is restored to productivity. Increasing
the rate of restoration of degraded
land will be vital for feeding 9 to 10 billion people in 2050 and for rural
economic growth.
Improving land and
water management
The World Resources Institute has just
published a working paper on Improving Land and Water Management. The accent in
this report is on the drylands in Africa. It analyzes the impact of a number of
promising land and water management practices and how they contribute to
improving food security for a growing population. The techniques discussed in
this paper include agroforestry, conservation agriculture, rainwater harvesting
and integrated soil fertility management.
Below you’ll find a link to this paper.
For earlier
updates go to: www.africa-regreening.blogspot.com
For more
information about African Re-greening Initiatives, you can contact:
Senior
Fellow World Resources Institute
For more
information about VOICES, you can contact:
