Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
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Establishment of community plant nurseries, woodlots, wind breaks and botani-
cal gardens for conservation of threatened fauna species.
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Ecological fund administration should make adequate funding provision chan-
neled towards prevention, mitigation and adaptation strategies for gender specific
policies on emergency response and disaster preparedness.
Non Technical Measures:
This will include water rationing, water use restrictions,
water use education, and use of pricing mechanism or metering though this
method may be difficult in view of the level of poverty in the greater populace
and the possibility of jeopardizing health hygiene standards. Development of
national drought forecasting and early warning system including indicator maps
for effective adoption of appropriate mitigation measures and pro-active strategic
decision making. A comprehensive drought and desertification containment plan
must integrate both long-term and short-term measures which must include elements
of pre-disaster planning as well as crisis management when disaster occurs. The
local communities need to be involved because they have fore knowledge of the
events as years evolved.
Land users make management decisions about inputs, operation and maintenance
of farming systems that involve crops, livestock, marketing and animal health and
about improvements to be made in the farming system as a whole. To improve
their abilities to make these decisions, land users should be involved in the whole
process of land management. In this way it is more likely that they understand
why certain measures, introduced by outsiders, take place and why certain changes
are to be made in farming and livestock management systems. On the other hand
policy makers, administrators, project implementers and other actors, will better
understand why land users take certain decisions and why they prefer certain
traditional practices.
The role of land users in the process of combating desertification and arresting or
reversing land degradation is gradually being appreciated and is being accepted as
a vital component in land management. To involve land users in plans to implement
sustainable land management leads to an understanding of the meaning land users
attach to world-view. To accomplish this there needs to be a communicative process
in which there is exchange of views and discussion. Not knowing land users's
priorities and not including their agenda in policy formulation mean that profes-
sionals are likely to address the wrong problems. Land user involvement is seen as a
necessary ingredient to enhance the effectiveness of land management. Land users
should be involved in planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of land
degradation related issues.
The following are the key conclusions:
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Desertification and drought are at the heart of development challenges in Niger
and merit urgent attention in policies and actions at national regional and global
level.
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