New Project Helps Communities
Manage and Restore Fragile Land, Forest and
Water Supplies
30/08/2005 - A multi-million dollar initiative
that should help some of the world’s poorest
people to better cope with droughts and pest
infestations is being launched by the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the
Global Environment Facility (GEF).
The $ 14.5 million project aims to conserve
and restore damaged forests, soils, water
systems and other key life support systems
in southern Niger and northern Nigeria.
Niger, ranked second to last on the United
Nation’s poverty index, has been racked by
drought and more recently locust infestations.
It has led to an estimated third of the more
than 11 million people in Niger suffering
severe food shortages.
Experts believe that the country is now more
vulnerable to natural disasters like droughts
and plagues as a result of human pressures
such as over grazing, felling of forests for
fuel and water pollution.
Such pressures are deemed to be highest on
the borders between the countries and have
become a source of tension and conflict between
villages and communities.
The wide-ranging project aims to strengthen
the way natural resources are managed, boost
the legal and institutional frameworks that
oversee these areas and streamline cooperation
between the two countries.
Experts believe these actions can play their
part in alleviating poverty, increasing food
production while improving the health and
viability of the region’s fragile, wildlife-rich,
habitats and ecosystems.
Len Good, Chairman and CEO of the multi billion
dollar GEF fund, for which UNEP is one of
the three implementing agencies, said: “The
tragic images of people suffering and starving
in Niger have shocked us all. In the short
term, these people desperately need food and
medicines and reliable and stable markets
for grain and livestock. In the long term,
however, we must help them to reclaim their
future. This can only be done by reducing
the pressures on their natural resources through
the improved management of soil, vegetation
and water systems”.
“In doing so we will not only be bolstering
these communities so that they can better
handle the environmental shocks of droughts
and plague. We will also be helping to put
them on track towards meeting the Millennium
Development Goals, from improved water supplies
and better health, to the empowerment of women
and reduced child mortality,” he added.
Klaus Toepfer, UNEP’s Executive Director,
said: “In mid-September heads of state will
gather in New York to review the implementation
of these Goals. It is my sincere hope that,
as underlined by this new project, they will
fully agree that the environment is not a
luxury but is ‘natural capital’ needed for
overcoming poverty and delivering peaceful,
long lasting, development”.
Under the new project, over 20 pilot areas
are to be established in communities linked
with four river catchments shared by Niger
and Nigeria. These are the Maggia-Lamido,
Gada-Gulbin Maradi, Tagwai-El Fadama and Komadugu
catchments.
The pilots will include natural resource
conflict prevention, evaluations of biological
resources, management of degraded sites, the
pin-pointing of sustainable practices and
new and profitable alternatives to unsustainable
and damaging, activities in areas such as
food production and energy.
Better managing shared water resources and
fisheries may also be part of the project
with proposals to reclaim degraded lands in
areas such as the Komadugu Yobe and Tagwai-El
Fadama.
Notes to Editors
Total funding for phase 1 of the Integrated
Ecosystem Management of Transbounbdary Areas
Between Nigeria and Niger amounts to $ 14,497,500
of which the GEF will contribute $ 5 million.
The rest comes from the two governments concerned
as well as from other development partners.
A second phase is planned amounting to just
under $14 millions. The two phases are scheduled
to take eight years.
