Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
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Development of Benchmarks for assessing progress of Program Implementation.
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Submission of Quarterly Progress Reports on the implementation of programs to
the National Focal Point.
Using simple techniques such as planting trees and preserving natural vegetation,
teams of workers have already rehabilitated three million hectares of severely
degraded land, according to the Nigerien government. Some notable results have
been recorded, but their impact could have been more meaningful had the approach
been more global. To date according to various reports of the Ministry Environment:
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the production of 80,000,000 saplings which would correspond to an average
reforestation of 8,000 ha per year
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The development of about 480,000 ha of forests
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the restoration of 107,000 ha of degraded lands
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the realization of 22,000 km of firebreaks
Surveying in parts of southern Niger has found between 10 and 20 times more
trees in 2005 than 30 years earlier.
In 2008, the government launched the second phase of the campaign, targeting
1,530 ha of dunes, which threaten to bury valleys and roads. The plan will give work
to more than 60,000 people in the cash-strapped country. While a total of 750 ha of
sand dunes had already been improved, the government plans to restore a further
15,000 ha of degraded lands and 1,500 ha of oasis-based watering schemes, for a
total of about US $2.8 million each year.
UNDP has been active in two projects:
•
Niger: Oasis micro-basin sand invasion control in the Goure and Maine-Soroa
Provinces (PLECO) under the Strategic Investment Program for SLM in sub-
Saharan Africa (SIP).
•
Niger: Sustainable Co-management of the Natural Resources of the Air-Tenere
Complex.
5.3
Possible Solutions to Niger's De-forestation
and Fuelwood Problem
5.3.1
Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration
A program for making wood production more efficient was launched in Niger in
the1980s. It involves putting the villagers at the heart of the strategy and making
them the true custodians of the rural landscape. They manage their forest capital
and in return they recuperate an income generated by their activity. This policy
preserves biological diversity, provides jobs and revenue to the villagers (see below)
and boosts the states' tax receipts.
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