PRC-GEF Partnership: Land Degradation in Dryland Ecosystems: Project I-Capacity Building to Combat Land Degradation

The overall goal is to reduce land degradation and restore dryland ecosystems in the western region. The specific purpose of the CPF is to assist the Government to establish an effective system of integrated natural resource management. Activities financed within the CPF will assist the Government to make progress in (i) strengthening the enabling environment; (ii) providing improved operational arrangements, approaches and strengthening institutional capacity for integrated natural resources management; (iii) establishing a monitoring and evaluation system; and (iv) implementing pilot demonstration projects that test and demonstrate an integrated approach to land management GEF assistance will focus particularly on overcoming the seven barriers to a comprehensive approach to land degradation, namely (i) lack of a comprehensive legislative framework (ii) a fragmented institutional and policy agenda; (iii) lack of application of lessons learned from previous experience; (iv) lack of participatory approaches to address the root causes; (v) absence of locality-specific land use planning; (vi) perverse incentives; and (vii) inadequate financial arrangements and incentives to address land degradation in the western region.