Renato Carucci, now an independent consultant based in Camerino, Italy, was Chief Technical Adviser to the Keita Project in the Niger from 1984 to 1997.
Lessons learned from a long-running integrated rural development project in the Niger.
Trees have an essential role in strategies to control desertification, protecting the soil from erosion by wind and water and stabilizing dunes, while also improving the rural standard of living by providing fuelwood, fodder for livestock and habitats for wildlife. This article focuses on lessons about desertification and the potential of trees as part of the solution, drawn from a specific rural situation in the Sahel, that of Keita, Tahoua Department, the Niger. The observations and conclusions herein are based on the direct experience over almost 15 years in Keita, particularly within the framework of the Ader Doutchi Maggia Rural Development Programme (GCP/NER/028 and 032/ITA), more commonly known as the Keita Project (see FAO, 1994).
The Keita Project, financed by the Italian Government and implemented by FAO, with support from the World Food Programme (WFP), began in 1984 and is currently in its third phase. The first phase was confined to the Keita district itself (4 860 km2), but in August 1991 the programme was extended to the neighbouring districts of Abalak in the north and Bouza in the southeast.
Desertification control was a vital ele-ment of the project, and the planting of trees (an average of about a million seedlings a year) has played a constant and major role. There are signs that the battle against land degradation and efforts for sustainable improvement of local livelihoods will be maintained into the future.
When the project started, the situation looked very grim on all fronts, and not just because of the drought, although this had reached critical levels (with a mere 150 mm of rain in 1984). The project document classified most of the district as marginal land with no hope of rehabilitation, especially the plateaus and slopes.
- R. CARUCCI
A prevalent initial attitude regarding local people's use of tree resources was summed up in a statement by the Tahoua Forestry Service (Dumont, 1986): "They cut down more than a hundred trees for each one they replant." This way of referring to the project's stakeholders and partners made it clear that some hard participatory work would be needed: it would be essential to work with the people and not just blame them and their livestock.
The project staff first set out to analyse the actual rural situation of the target area. Aerial photographs of the Keita district taken in 1984 were compared with those from 1975 and 1955, and with the help of other available information, an effort was made to understand the main issues: husbandry and land use, the mechanisms of land degradation, the various roles of trees in the diversified landscape of the area and the potential of people and communities. This analysis resulted in a better understanding of the real problems and potential of the region - which were very different from the initial assumptions - and guided the subsequent choice of methods for rural development. The analysis indicated an overriding need for tree planting, which was consequently introduced into the project's activities (Carucci, 1990).
The Keita district is located just below the fifteenth parallel, on the edge of the Niger's pastoral zone. In the 1950s it was sparsely populated and very little land was used for agricultural purposes. Aerial photographs from the period show patches of fallow land and very few cultivated fields. Most of the land was shrub- or lightly tree-covered steppe and was used for grazing. Forest galleries were found along the valleys.
Women carrying stones for surfacing of bunds
- R. CARUCCI
The surface drainage network seemed stable, with no significant sign of any recent changes in water courses. Kori (temporary water course) beds were narrow, and their banks were unmarked by erosion. Old dunes were also stable under a grass and shrub cover.
Negative changes in rainfall patterns in the mid-1960s triggered severe land degradation processes in the region. Annual rainfall, which had averaged 517 mm between 1956 and 1966, fell to 317 mm during the period 1967 to 1987.
The low rainfall led to the disappearance of the existing grass and shrub cover on the plateaus, steeper slopes and non-sandy glacis (gentle, uniform slopes with inclines of 1 to 3 percent). The diminished vegetative cover led to an increase in destructive runoff, unleashing accelerated erosion throughout the area. All this is clearly visible on aerial photographs from 1975.
Aerial photographs taken in 1975 and assessment in 1984 showed that in two decades severe degradation had modified the landscape in a number of ways.
- Grass cover, which had been a regular feature of the landscape, was eliminated over plateaus, slopes and colluvial areas; thus animal husbandry, a subsistence activity, was threatened.
- Trees, especially shrubs, were decimated, except the old growth acacia in the valleys which characterized the traditional agroforestry parklands; thus the capability of tree cover to contribute to meeting livelihood constraints, especially during lean periods, was reduced.
- Erosion had become visibly more aggressive as the koris, the temporary brooks, had cut deeper in their courses; in many cases they had been affected by regressive processes eating up their glacis watersheds.
- Hitherto stable sand deposits had been bared and had become actively moving sand dunes, threatening adjoining fields and fertile valleys.
- More land had come under cultivation, including previous grazing lands that had had some vegetative cover. The spread of cultivation was partly a result of increasing population (compounded by the migration of farmers moving up from the south in search of land and the progressive settling down of semi-nomadic groups following the degradation of pastoral areas) and partly a result of drought; farmers were constrained to sow more land to cope with the decrease in productivity per hectare associated with diminished rainfall.
Aerial view of a treated glacis with trees growing along the bunds
- R. CARUCCI
Populations intervene in natural formations by progressively establishing their niche, often eliminating whatever is not perceived as necessary to sustainable livelihoods. The remaining trees in the landscape have usually been selected through lengthy intergenera-tional trial and error, research and development processes. When these systems are threatened or have disappeared, it is not easy to re-establish them. On the basis of the project's preliminary studies, and with the monitoring of a socio-economic team and close cooperation with foresters, the project established a strategic approach to tree planting in the Keita valley. It had the following six main objectives.
Two approaches were identified for reversal of watershed degradation:
- conservation of natural remaining tree cover in watershed areas, favouring natural regeneration and overall increase of tree, shrub and grass cover;
- in severely degraded areas, tree planting, raising local species or introducing bushy species to cover the ground quickly, although this would require heavy investment in human labour.
The project carried out tree planting in the severely degraded areas as follows. On the steep slopes and hillsides, not suited to agriculture, where the soil (shallow, brown to reddish-brown or yellowish-red and very acid) was very gravelly and stony but permeable under the stony cover, Acacia seyal, Acacia nilotica var. adansoni, Acacia raddiana and Prosopis spp. were planted in afforestation trenches 3 m long x 0.6 m x 0.6 m (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Trenches for afforestation of slopes
Some 500 to 600 trenches were dug per hectare.
Digging of afforestation trenches on a slope
- R. CARUCCI
On degraded glacis, the deep brown, fairly fine textured and slightly alkaline soil was very compacted and impermeable. Agrosilvipastoral plots were prepared through subsoiling (mechanical loosening) and protected by anti-erosion bunds. Acacia seyal, A. nilotica and Prosopis spp. were planted along the bunds (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Bunds for rehabilitation of glacis (gentle slopes)
It is clear that this type of afforestation must be integrated in a more complex programme for soil and water conservation to halt the accelerated erosion unleashed by the drought-induced disappearance of the previous natural plant cover.
Aerial view of an area prepared with afforestation trenches
- R. CARUCCI
A strategy was devised combining tree planting with soil rehabilitation, including superficial scratching to improve water retention and infiltration and establishment of stone bunds to check erosion, and farmers began to apply the process.
The tree components were designed to include shrub species with a strong root system and multipurpose production (particularly leaves for fodder), such as A. seyal, A. nilotica var. adansoni, Bauhinia rufescens and the local Prosopis species, a hybrid of P. juliflora and P. glandulosa (Figure 3). (For further information on the tree and shrub species of the Sahel, see GTZ, 1993.)
A degraded, desertified glacis, showing the remains of an abandoned village
- R. CARUCCI
To check the excessive spreading of the kori, the project planned intensive tree planting along them, which would provide a combination of organic matter buildup and a strong root network to buffer their torrential characteristics. This component of the programme was carried out with tree species that included, among others, local shrubby species (A. seyal, A. nilotica, etc.) and introduced species such as Parkinsonia aculeata, which promised and indeed produced the best results owing to its capacity to grow in compact stands where soil is deep and aerated.
Figure 3: Design for agroforestry bunds on an eroded plateau
Taking advantage of good experience already acquired in the area, especially in the Maggia valley, the project included an objective to establish windbreaks, and accordingly expanded tree planting in rows within and around intensively cultivated valleys.
Workers preparing a plateau for planting
- R. CARUCCI
The denuding of formerly stable sand deposits triggered movement of the sand, which threatened fertile agricultural fields. To restabilize the dunes, the project planned afforestation operations using a set of adapted species (e.g. Prosopis spp., Parkinsonia spp.). These operations benefited a number of villages by protecting fields and creating new wood resources.
In many areas of the Keita valley, where sandy or loamy deposits were deep, residual stretches of tree-covered fields were still in place. The need to reestablish the agroforestry parklands where they had disappeared was recognized and included in the programme. The dominant species of these park-lands is Faidherbia albida, well known and accepted in all parts of the valley.
Experience in Keita has shown that steady recovery of these features is feasible. A number of factors support this:
- the large number of seeds in the soil of drylands, ready to express themselves as soon as rains occur;
- the favourable influence of goats and sheep, which leave droppings containing the seeds that they have eaten, facilitating their germination in favourable conditions and thus contributing to abundant, localized regeneration of the natural tree and shrub cover;
- the popular recognition of the many products and socio-economic services provided by trees in the region, which makes it easy for extension services to develop readiness and generate interest for introduction or reintroduction of trees by local communities.
Assisted regeneration supposes a minimum of observation and care in regard to the natural behaviour of vegetation in fields and fallows. The farmer will need to spot and mark out seedlings. With the advent of animal traction and use of small ploughing machines, the superficial parts of the root system are often scarred; this process favours regeneration through suckers.
To facilitate recovery of the plant cover in the various landscapes of the region, about one and a half million seedlings were grown in nurseries run by farmers' groups, especially women. Several factors determined the choice of species: first, their quality as fodder, in order to meet the primary needs of the people; second, their growth rate, given the urgency of the situation; and third, their resistance to the soil conditions and moisture conditions found in these areas. The species grown were those most successfully used in the Keita Project.
The combination of tree planting with the many other components of the Keita Project, from structure building to social services and the establishment of local institutions that have a say in local resource management, is certainly positive. The inclusion of tree planting as a full-fledged component in a comprehensive local development programme, atypical for the region, facilitated its acceptance. Although the project has received some criticism, i.e. for the heavy mechanization used in some aspects and the large amount of incentives used to promote the programme, a number of elements illustrate the potential for continuity and sustainability of its overall achievements - and especially the sustainable management, conservation and development of the tree resources on the village lands involved. The following, for example, are likely to be enduring benefits.
- The spectacular results obtained have demonstrated that with efforts and effective involvement, the land can be restored.
- Local institutions and leadership, including village, local and subregional development councils, have been restored and given a say; they have become conversant on the importance and contribution of trees outside forests in the local economies.
- It is hoped that locally established nurseries will continue to facilitate access to seedlings, that farmers' nurseries will develop further and that buying seedlings will become normal practice.
- Maintenance of established plantations and the use or sale of their products will certainly have a role in sustainability building.
- R. CARUCCI
Continuing commitment to the problems of desertification is required on the part of the many developing countries concerned and their international partners. Until now, the best opportuni-ties for establishing a unified strategy seem to have been missed. Various initiatives, sometimes contradictory, have too often ended up by squandering available resources (see Brunel, 1993).
It is plain that the spread of trees as part of a programme for rehabilitation of desertified lands, and thus for regional development, is an enormous task which the countries of the Sahel cannot undertake on their own. Nevertheless, these countries do have the primary task of showing the true nature of desertification, which is a natural calamity of concern to everybody. They also have the task of regaining the necessary credibility to attract support from international cooperation agencies. This can be done through convincing examples of technical ability and efficiency, the involvement of communities in resource management and the application of specific rural regulations, in particular those concerning the management of forest resources, land tenure and tree tenure.
The example of Keita shows that the trend towards desertification can be reversed if essential measures are taken. It requires a unified political will and the mobilization of inhabitants, using a community-based approach with appropriate techniques and resources matching the scale of the problem.
Acacia spp. planted along an eroded brook (kori)
- E.H. SÈNE
Bibliography
Brunel, S. 1993. Le gaspillage de l'aide publique. Paris, France, Éditions du Seuil.
Carucci, R. 1990. Aperçu sur l'approche territoriale et méthodologies d'intervention dans la lutte contre la désertification de l'arrondissement de Keita. Actes du Séminaire National sur l'Aménagement des Sols, la Conservation de l'Eau, et la Fertilisation, Tahoua (Niger), 1989. West Lafayette, Indiana, USA, USAID/Purdue University.
Dumont, R. 1986. Pour l'Afrique, j'accuse. Terre Humaine/Poche.
FAO. 1994. The Keita integrated development project. Illustrated brochure. Rome.
GTZ. 1993. Arbres et arbustes du Sahel, leurs caractéristiques et leurs utilisations, by H.J. von Maydell. Eschborn, Germany.
