Reversing Land and Water Degradation Trends in the Niger River Basin

The project addresses the transboundary environmental management and capacity building for the shared water and land resources. The Project focuses on the increment needed to integrate management of the Basin’s resources, representing the major environmental element of the concurrent Strategic Shared Vision and Sustainable Development Action Plan (SDAP) for the Niger River Basin. The value of this Project is that, the component activities, either build on initiatives and activities which area already under implementation at the national and sub-Basin levels strengthening the institutions; or it provides the necessary knowledge and tools for good resource management practices. Three major components:(I) Capacity Building. Through the capacity building components, the Project supports integrated regional capacity building of the Niger Basin Authority (NBA); national institutions to increase their knowledge base, and decision-making capacities for strategic management of, and development in the Basin; and local capacity building to manage local resources, through community-based implementation of microgrant-supported interventions. (ii) Land and water issues. The Project’s principle focus is to reverse land and water degradation of the Niger River Basin, however this process requires an integrated approach to upper and lower Basin to land-water and environmental management. The GEF Project’s technical components, through the microgrant-supported demonstration activities, will develop an understanding of the inter-relationship of better land management practices in agriculture, forestry, and other relevant sectors; and define mechanisms to improve water quality while reducing degradation of the regional biodiversity and ecosystem, offering possibilities for cumulative rural socio-economic benefits for communities that depend on the land and water resources for their livelihood.(iii) Transboundary Increment. This GEF Project strategically address the incremental costs associated with converting the Project’s national decision-making capacity and individual national issues, which could be transboundary in nature, into a regional operational context, to achieve global benefits.