Niamey – A technical workshop is organised from 13 to 17 November in Niamey, Niger, by Action Against Desertification to evaluate and plan restoration activities for 2018 and reinforce communication on results achieved.

The workshop will allow communication specialists, forest restoration experts and agrosilvopastoral  landscape restoration experts from 12 countries - Burkina Faso, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan - to discuss the best ways to carry on restoration activities along Africa’s Great Green Wall (GGW).  

Together, the experts will analyse the challenges and successes of land restoration activities so far, as well as of visibility action undertaken in support of Action Against Desertification (AAD), particularly in view of the whole of the Great Green Wall initiative.

Early results in land restoration are encouraging, suggesting that land degradation is not yet irreversible. Under Action Against Desertification, an estimated 12 000 hectares of degraded land were planted between 2015 and 2017 to start their restoration, including in Niger.

These land restoration activities aim to strengthen the resilience of local communities to climate change and to promote the sustainable development of those communities, while improving people’s food and nutrition security. But restoration activities need to be sped up if AAD is to meet its target of 40 000 hectares by 2019.

That is why the experts get together now and plan the restoration activities for 2018, as well as national communication and visibility plans with a view to achieve a more performing, comprehensible, homogeneous and coherent outreach for AAD and the GGW.

The participants to the workshop will also travel to Tera to see some of AAD’s initial achievements for themselves: how land restoration is being carried out and how communities collect and produce seeds for restoration as well as fodder from their own restored land.