UNCCD COP14: Communities regreen the Sahel
At the UNCCD COP14 in India, which is taking place from 2-13 September 2019, Both ENDS is co-organising a number of side events.
One of them is:
COMMUNITIES REGREEN THE SAHEL
CSO actions to combat desertification: working with communities to up-scale Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration throughout the Sahel.
Organised by CARI, ReSaD, Drynet and Both ENDS
Since 2017, Both ENDS and partners from civil society organizations, Sahel Desertification Network (ReSaD) coordinated by CAR, and research institutes are working together in a 10-year project that aims to support communities in Burkina Faso, Niger and Senegal to regreen the Sahel with FMNR techniques. The overall objective of the program is to unite communities, governments, NGOs and academics, into recognizing FMNR as a viable method to combat desertification, to contribute positively to land degradation neutrality and to improve access to local and regional markets for FMNR products.
The side-event will provoke a lively interactive discussion on the enabling conditions for farmer managed natural regeneration and the options for actions for different actors, by:
1. Providing an introduction to Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration in Niger, Senegal and Burkina Faso
2. Reaction of different actors/ stakeholders to what they have just heard on these enabling conditions from their respective perspectives
3. Facilitate a lively discussion on options for actions
This side event will contribute to knowledge development on the contribution of community led initiatives to Land Degradation Neutrality (SDG15) and on ways these community-led initiatives can be facilitated and supported.
For more information
Themes
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Dossier
The merits of community-based restoration
Globally, the area that is suffering desertification and land degradation is ever expanding. Unsustainable and often large-scale agricultural practices, including the copious use of pesticides and fertilisers, are a major driver of land degradation, aprocess that is further exacerbated by climate change, causing more erratic rainfall patterns, longer periods of drought and unpredictable growing seasons. This is very problematic not only for the hundreds of millions of people who directly depend on land and water for their livelihoods, but also for life on earth as a whole. It is clear that this process must be stopped and reversed, better sooner than later. But how to go about it?
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Alternative
Regreening
In various countries in the Sahel, vast tracts of land have been restored by the local population by nurturing what spontaneously springs from the soil and protecting the sprouts from cattle and hazards.
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News / 16 August 2019
Opinion: "Sustainable land use needs radical policy change"
Today, an op-ed by Nathalie van Haren and Stefan Schüller was published in the Dutch national newspaper De Volkskrant about the IPCC's latest report "Climate Change and Land". Below you find the English translation.
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Publication / 11 July 2019
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Event / 12 September 2019, 08:00 - 10:00
UNCCD COP14: From global frameworks to local actions
At the UNCCD COP14 in India, which is taking place from 2-13 September 2019, Both ENDS is co-organising a number of side events.
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Event / 4 September 2019, 13:00 - 15:00
UNCCD COP14: Pathways for big money to reach local communities
At the UNCCD COP14 in India, which is taking place from 2-13 September 2019, Both ENDS is co-organising a number of side events.
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Event / 6 September 2017
UNCCD COP 2017 - CHINA
From 6-16 september, the 13th Conference of Parties' of the UNCCD (UN Convention to Combat Desertification) took place, this time in Ordos, China. The UNCCD is the global convention of the United Nations on combating desertification and drought. Every country in the world has signed this convention. Canada withdrew in 2012, but in 2016 - under the Trudeau administration - started a process to re-enter the convention. Both ENDS is a member of Drynet, a network of local organisations and communities in dry regions searching for ways to use land in a sustainable manner.
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News / 30 August 2019
Dealing with drought: the UNCCD COP in India
Worldwide, hundreds of millions of people live in areas where the soil is depleted; often they are forced to, or the region they have been living in for generations has become increasingly arid over time. The desert is advancing and this is a global problem. Opinions about the causes of land degradation and desertification, but especially about the solutions, are very divided. To discuss this, the biennial global conference on desertification will take place from 2 to 14 September. This is where policymakers, scientists, NGOs, female and male farmers and pastoralist, herders and companies from all over the world come together. Our colleague Nathalie van Haren is present at the conference and explains why.
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Publication / 14 January 2019
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Publication / 14 January 2019
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Dossier
Improving soil health for farmers and ecosystems (iSQAPER)
Soil health is of great importance for both ecosystems and agricultural and food-production systems. Both ENDS promotes sustainable land use and fair land governance, this way contributing to better soil health.
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Alternative
Inclusive Land Governance
Both ENDS works with partners around the world to ensure that land is governed fairly and inclusively and managed sustainably with priority for the rights and interests of local communities.
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News / 28 September 2017
Both ENDS at UNCCD COP13: don’t forget about the people
This September, Both ENDS participated at the 13th Conference of the Parties of the UNCCD in Ordos, Inner Mongolia in China. We were part of the Drynet delegation, a network of CSOs, to bring local realities to the international UNCCD discussions.
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Event / 7 November 2016
COP22: Marrakech Climate Change Conference
From 7 to 18 november, the Climate Change COP22 will take place in Marrakech, Morrocco. This '22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)' as it is called officially, is the annual meeting of the 195 countries which have signed and ratified the convention.
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News / 23 November 2018
Yacouba Sawadogo receives Right Livelihood Award!
Today, the Right Livelihood Awards 2018 will be presented in Stockholm. One of the four people who will receive the prize this year is Yacouba Sawadogo, 'the man who stopped the desert'. Yacouba, a farmer from Yatenga, Burkina Faso, is one of the founders of so-called 'Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration' with which degenerated and dry areas are becoming green and fertile again. According to Both ENDS, Yacouba's award is very well-deserved!
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Event / 13 April 2019, 14:15 - 15:30
'Positive Vibes from the Sahel' on Africa Day in KIT Amsterdam
On Saturday April 13th, the annual Africa day will take place in the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam.
Both ENDS and Voice 4 Thought will organise a joint workhop (in English), titled:
'Positive vibes from the Sahel: from regreening to slam poetry'
Facilitator: Andrew Makkinga
The Sahel region from Chad to Senegal is often seen in the Netherlands as an immensely dry, infertile area where extremists and smugglers serve and where hunger thrives. But there is so much more to tell about the Sahel region.
Over the last decades, a large number of positive social initiatives have been taken up both in the cities and in rural areas. Initiatives that create and stimulate self-esteem, culture, education, climate resilience and prosperity.
Young people are often the driving force behind these movements, which is not surprising considering that almost 70 percent of the population in a country like Niger is under the age of 25.
In this workshop Both ENDS and Voice4Thought want to tell the other story of the Sahel by highlighting some of these positive initiatives, and by showing how they are interlinked and part of a larger, bottom up movement in this area.
Hope to see you there!
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Publication / 28 January 2019
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Publication / 8 April 2019
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Publication / 1 September 2017
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External link / 31 May 2018
Supporting farmer managed natural regeneration to gain ground (Annual Report 2017)
Many people in the desertifying Sahel region have to choose: claim their land back from the desert, or leave their farms behind. In 2017, Both ENDS started a new project here, introducing a method for regreening the landscape: Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR). It has proven itself in Niger, where we worked on FMNR for 15 years. By 2017, 15.000 ha of dryland had been regreened.
