In 1985 the general perception was that the state owned all natural resources, including the trees, but by 2012 most farmers recognize that they have a right to protect, manage, and benefit directly from the use of their on-farm trees. A weakening of the state after 1985 may have created space for farmers to take back what they thought rightfully belonged to them. Besides this, external interventions began promoting regreening by farmers, and they collaborated closely with the forestry service, which supported the process.
8. Mainstream regreening into existing agricultural, forestry, and rural development projects. On-farm trees tend to be ignored by ministries of the environment, which are more interested in protected areas, national forests, and plantations. Ministries of agriculture often concentrate on the modernization of agriculture by increasing the use of inorganic fertilizers or new seed varieties. Little or no attention is paid to the role of trees in agricultural production systems. Introducing an agroforestry component into agricultural development projects can often be achieved at little additional cost. If existing funds for tree planting would be redirected toward the promotion of natural regeneration by resource users, more can be achieved at lower cost.
9. Explore possibilities for developing value chains for agroforestry products. Certain tree products generate cash income for resource users. Shea nut in West Africa is a well-known example. It is collected and marketed by women’s cooperatives, and it increasingly finds its way to pharmaceutical companies.
10. Produce documentaries for national TV about regreening and its impacts. A recent documentary, “More People More Trees,” returned to locations filmed in Kenya and Burkina Faso in 1994 and presented interviews with the farmers and project staff involved in regreening at that time. It depicts a transformation that defies conventional gloom-and-doom stories. More documentaries should be made about regreening successes and their impact on food security, adaptation to climate change, and impact on poverty reduction.
11. Inform national as well as international media about successes in regreening. The overwhelming majority of Africans are convinced that degradation continues unabated everywhere. It is vital that national and international media publish information about success stories in order to create a more balanced picture.
12. Promote regreening with a long-term commitment (more than 10 years) of all stakeholders. Expanding regreening requires a combination of flexibility, transparency, and minimal bureaucracy, as well as a willingness to accept that one knows the starting point but cannot predict where the process will be in 5 or 10 years. Standard project implementation frameworks are not well suited to discovering innovations, capitalizing on unexpected opportunities, and following through to scale up successes.
13. Develop a movement of stakeholders willing to engage in the promotion of regreening. Scaling up requires the capacity and commitment of a large number of organizations, each with its particular strengths. Engaging diverse stakeholders would enable a process of promoting regreening through the dissemination of knowledge among farmers and through effective advocacy for policy reforms.
14. Develop research activities around regreening. It is important to generate hard data about the socioeconomic and biophysical impact of regreening, as such data can help influence decisionmakers and inform policy reforms. Governments and aid agencies need to be informed about the quantified impact on crop yields and on improving soil fertility, increasing food security, and reducing vulnerability to climate change.
Conclusion Regreening has clear potential for improving farmers’ welfare and reducing their vulnerability in arid African countries and elsewhere. Building on the growing knowledge of what works, the international community, national governments, local communities, and civil society organizations need to work together to go beyond isolated interventions and systematically scale up successful regreening projects.
For further reading: World Agroforestry Centre, Creating an Evergreen Agriculture in Africa for Food Security and Environmental Resilience (Nairobi, Kenya: 2011), available at www.
worldagroforestry.org/downloads/publications/PDFS/b09008.pdf; C. Reij, G. Tappan, and M. Smale, “Re-Greening the Sahel: Farmer- Led Innovation in Burkina Faso and Niger,” in Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agricultural Development, ed. D. J. Spielman and R. Pandya-Lorch (Washington, DC: IFPRI, 2009);
C.Reij, “Investing in Trees to Mitigate Climate Change,” in 2011 State of the World: Innovations that Nourish the Planet, ed. D. Nierenberg and B. Halliwell (Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute, 2011); A. Tougiani, C. Guero, and T. Rinaudo, “Success in Improving Livelihoods through Tree Crop Management and Use in Niger,” GeoJournal 74 (5): 377– 89; C. Reij, African Re-Greening Initiatives,
www.africa-regreening.
blogspot.com.
Chris Reij (
chris.reij@
wri.org or
c.p.reij@
vu.nl) is a senior fellow at the World Resources Institute and a sustainable land management specialist at the Free University Amsterdam.
www.ifpri.org
Copyright © 2012 International Food Policy Research Institute. All rights reserved. Contact
ifpri-copyright@cgiar.org for permission to republish.
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