Lessons for Somalia - Community based re-greening in Niger

[ElPunto]

New York Times

By LYDIA POLGREEN

Published: February 11, 2007

 

GUIDAN BAKOYE, Niger — In this dust-choked region, long seen as an increasingly barren wasteland decaying into desert, millions of trees are flourishing, thanks in part to poor farmers whose simple methods cost little or nothing at all.

 

Better conservation and improved rainfall have led to at least 7.4 million newly tree-covered acres in Niger, researchers have found, achieved largely without relying on the large-scale planting of trees or other expensive methods often advocated by African politicians and aid groups for halting desertification, the process by which soil loses its fertility.

 

Recent studies of vegetation patterns, based on detailed satellite images and on-the-ground inventories of trees, have found that Niger, a place of persistent hunger and deprivation, has recently added millions of new trees and is now far greener than it was 30 years ago.

 

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[Che -Guevara]

Another change was the way trees were regarded by law. From colonial times, all trees in Niger had been regarded as the property of the state, which gave farmers little incentive to protect them. Trees were chopped for firewood or construction without regard to the environmental costs. Government foresters were supposed to make sure the trees were properly managed, but there were not enough of them to police a country nearly twice the size of Texas.

 

But over time, farmers began to regard the trees in their fields as their property, and in recent years the government has recognized the benefits of that outlook by allowing individuals to own trees. Farmers make money from the trees by selling branches, pods, fruit and bark. Because those sales are more lucrative over time than simply chopping down the tree for firewood, the farmers preserve them.

This was the key to preserving the trees. Only a society that has a sense of ownership of the land would learn to better manage its meager resources. Sadly, the nomadic Somali hardly have a connection to the land.

[Taako Man]

The before and after images in the graphic illustration on page 2 is amazing. The place got green because of the people's will.

[ElPunto]

^Che - People in Niger seem to have evolved - I think that can happen for Somalia too. Particularly since the environmental issues have grown to be acute. What is particularly hopeful is that this big change without the usual 'experts' and 'investment'.