Niger 

More than two billion hectares (ha) of land are degraded worldwide, including in the Sahel. Confronted with this, forest and landscape restoration (FLR) aims to transform degraded or barren lands into healthy and fertile landscapes where local communities, ecosystems and other stakeholders can co-exist within the framework of sustainable land management (SLM).

In the Sahel, populations depend heavily on the exploitation of natural resources: extensive pastoralism, rain-fed food crops, collection of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) for food or pharmacopoeia, and firewood for cooking. These natural resources are subject to strong biophysical pressures: low and erratic rains, high temperatures, high aridity, often poor and easily degradable soils, etc. These pressures are exacerbated by anthropogenic pressures: demographic boom, climate change, insecurity and weak governance.

Expected Results

The project foresees actions at the municipal and national levels in Niger and actions at the sub-regional and global levels:

• local actions implemented in an innovative and decentralized manner with rural communes as part of the Great Green Wall Initiative for the Sahara and the Sahel; and
• sub-regional actions (CILSS/ECOWAS area) in support of planning, biophysical and socioeconomic assessment of impacts, sub-regional monitoring and evaluation, sub-regional capitalization/dissemination; global actions in terms of global monitoring and evaluation, promotion, and identification of private funding opportunities.

Impacts

• municipal level: reinforcement of communal councils and local stakeholders in planning and logistics capacities; financing and monitoring-evaluation of the actions of FLR/SLM and development of income-generating activities, with the opening of dedicated municipal councils on these two themes (target of 500 ha/Restoration Commune);
• national level: capacity building for FLR/SLM policy, creation of a database of past SLM actions, creation of FLR/SLM Code of Practice, development and dissemination of educational materials, creation of a monitoring and evaluation manual for the actions of FLR/SLM via the Agence Nationale de la Grande Muraille Verte (ANGMV) in Niger;
• sub-regional level: satellite mapping to monitor the evolution of landscapes at national and regional scales; cost/benefit assessment of the FLR/SLM; knowledge sharing on implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change; and
• global level: knowledge sharing and advocacy; attracting private financing for FLR/SLM.

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For more information of FLRM activities, click here:

• FLR and SLM in the Sahel
• The launch of the project "FLR and SLM in the Sahel"
• First Global Steering Committee of the project "FLR and SLM in the Sahel"