Argan oil cooperatives in Morocco. Regreening Niger. Revitalizing a national park in Madagascar. Wildlife conservancies in Namibia. Cashew plantations in Burkina Faso. Beach management in Kenya. Agroforestry in Ghana. These are but a smattering of the many initiatives that have tried to reverse land degradation in Africa while improving people’s lives. Some succeeded, others failed, and as a recent study finds, the outcomes are devilishly difficult to predict. Nearly half of Africa is affected by desertification, and two-thirds of productive land is degraded, according to a 2021 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO); yet, 60% of people in Africa depend on their land and forests. The Torra Conservancy, northwest Namibia. Much of the arid landscape is unsuitable for farming, and income from tourism, including a partnership with Wilderness Safaris, provides substantial benefits for conservancy members. Image by Sonse via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). “I do a lot of projects where I go to the communities, and I work with people to change things, and to imagine how we could improve things,” says Camille Jahel, a researcher at the French Agricultural Centre for International Development (CIRAD). “At one point we wanted to know, but is it possible? Is it even possible to have a sustainable change?” To be clear, this is not an entirely new question. But Jahel says that while there’s a trove of theoretical work, few studies have looked at on-the-ground projects in Africa and holistically considered the complex combination of local dynamics,…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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