25 years of soil rehabilitation and conservation in the Sahel region Supporting the efforts of the rural population in Niger In cooperation with B 25 years of soil rehabilitation and conservation in the Sahel region List of Acronyms 3NI ............. Nigeriens Nourish Nigeriens Initiative PASP .......... Project for the Integrated Protection of Agricultural, ADPRS ....... Accelerated Development and Poverty Forest and Rangeland Resources Reduction Strategy PDES .......... Economic and Social Development Plan BMZ ........... German Federal Ministry for PDRT .......... Tahoua Rural Development Project Economic Cooperation and Development PED ............ Dynamic economic growth poles CGTV .......... Village land management committees PISA ........... Small-scale irrigation and food security programme CMS ............ Supreme Military Council PMAE ......... Programme for Erosion Control Measures CNEDD ...... National Environmental Council PNEDD ...... National Environmental Plan for Sustainable Development for Sustainable Development CSA ............. Climate-smart agriculture PNN ........... Northern Niger Programme DED ............ German Development Service (now part of GIZ) PromAP ..... Promotion of Productive Agriculture Programme EIG .............. Economic interest group PRS ............. Poverty Reduction Strategy FC ............... Financial cooperation RDS ............ Rural Development Strategy FICOD ........ Investment Fund for Local Authorities RGPH ......... General population and housing census GIS .............. Geographic information system SWC/SPR .. Soil and water conservation/ GIZ ............. Deutsche Gesellschaft für soil protection and restoration Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH TC ............... Technical cooperation LUCOP ....... Rural Poverty Reduction Programme TLU ............. Tropical Livestock Unit MDGs ......... Millennium Development Goals UNCCD ...... United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification M&E ........... Monitoring and evaluation WFP ........... World Food Programme NEPAD ....... New Partnership for Africa’s Development Supporting the efforts of the rural population in Niger 1 List of contents kleine bildbschreibung hier From left to right: Grazing of plateaus, stone bunds on slopes, gully erosion Summary ................................................................................................................................................ 2 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 4 2 The programme’s working zone ........................................................................................... 6 3 How is it done? Concepts and approaches ........................................................................ 9 3.1 Participatory approach to village land management .............................................................................. 9 3.2 Continuity needs a long-term strategy ........................................................................................................... 10 3.3 The extension and advisory services system ............................................................................................... 11 3.4 Local conventions, support for the rural code ............................................................................................ 11 3.5 Women play an important role – the gender approach ......................................................................... 11 3.6 Donkey carts diminish costs and help maintaining soil fertility ....................................................... 12 3.7 Value chains link up production and markets ............................................................................................ 13 3.8 Economic growth poles .......................................................................................................................................... 14 3.9 Support measures ..................................................................................................................................................... 14 3.10 Monitoring and evaluation system .................................................................................................................. 15 4 Technical approaches adapted to the people and sites ................................................ 16 5 A lot has been achieved ............................................................................................................. 20 6 What are the effects and how sustainable is the programme? ................................. 22 7 Significant benefits with reasonable cost .......................................................................... 27 8 Success and challenges as pointers for future programmes ...................................... 30 9 Prospects ......................................................................................................................................... 32 10 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................... 33 2 25 years of soil rehabilitation and conservation in the Sahel region Summary The Governments of Germany and Niger are among the y The programme provided a clearly limited period of signatories of the United Nations Convention to Combat support according to a seven-year rolling plan, consist- Desertification (UNCCD), which commits member coun- ing of a start-up phase, an intensive work phase and a tries to ‘combat desertification and mitigate the effects of pull-out phase during which the villages become pro- drought in countries experiencing serious drought and/ gressively self-reliant. or desertification, particularly in Africa.’ The two Govern- y The programme used simple methods with rapid and ments therefore began in the early 1980s to take action visible impact. to combat the degradation of land and natural resources y An extension and advisory services system with practi- mainly in the regions of Tillabéri Nord and Tahoua in cal training provided by local extension agents who live Niger. The Tahoua Rural Development Project (PDRT) in the communities was combined with self-evaluation started work in 1985, and the Project for the Integrated to successively improve the methods used. Protection of Agricultural, Forest and Rangeland Re- y Local conventions that record the jointly negotiated ar- sources (PASP) commenced its pilot phase in the region rangements for the management of the collective sites. of Tillabéri-Nord in 1986. From 2004 to the end of 2011, y The programme’s gender approach actively promoted the activities of the two initial projects were continued women’s participation in the village management com- under the Rural Poverty Reduction Programme (LUCOP). mittees and facilitated access of women to land. Funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Co- y The use of donkey carts in addition to lorry transport operation and Development (BMZ), these activities were allowed increasing the capacity to transport stones used carried out by the agencies responsible for technical coop- for soil conservation and restoration measures, while at eration (GIZ) and financial cooperation (KfW) and by the the same time reducing transportation costs. German Development Service (DED). Some of the work is y By giving up the ‘food-for-work’ approach, efforts were currently still being continued. refocused on villages really interested in soil conser- vation and restoration work. Although giving up this During 25 years of work, the programme has developed, approach did lead to a significant temporary drop in tested and applied a number of soil and water conserva- participation and the work carried out, this decline was tion approaches. The most important ones were: fortunately only for one year. y The programme had a system for monitoring the work y A long-term strategy defined the surface area to be achieved and its impact, which showed the proven rehabilitated until desertification is stopped and the benefits of the activities and helped to justify expendi- required time to carry out the work. The clear objective ture as well as documenting good practices for other helped in retaining support from the donor. programmes. y The long duration of the programme made it possible to pursue these approaches with a high degree of effi- On a technical level, the programme developed soil and ciency and to achieve broad impact. water conservation/soil protection and restoration (SWC/ y The participatory approach aimed at creating owner- SPR) methods adapted to forest and rangeland on pla- ship and encouraging self-help among the local people teaux, slopes, cropland and valley bottoms. Overall, the by setting up well-organised producer groups who ac- SWC/SPR measures covered 354,294 hectares of cropland, tively participate in all the activities. 165,743 hectares of forest and rangeland and 8,132 hec- Supporting the efforts of the rural population in Niger 3 Water spreading weirs are different types of use tares of valley bottoms. Some 700,000 people have ben- From 1986 to 2011, German cooperation invested around efited directly from the measures and tens of thousands of EUR 92.5 million in the programme, a figure which does people have received training. not take into account the significant participation of the local people in terms of time and physical labour. Almost Monitoring shows that the average millet yield has more all the techniques