The Ministry of Environment, Sustainable Development and Ecological Transition (MEDDTE), the European Union (EU) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) officially launched the Resilience and Intensive Reforestation Project for the Safeguarding of Territories and Ecosystems in Senegal (RIPOSTES/”Dooleel Aalam”) on 24 November 2022 in Ndiob, Fatick.
The RIPOSTES project is placed under the political leadership of the MEEDTE through the Senegalese Agency for Reforestation and the Great Green Wall (ASERGMV). RIPOSTES is financed by the EU for an amount of 4.9 million euros (3.256 billion FCFA) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for 1.1 million euros (731 million FCFA). It covers the silvopastoral zone and the groundnut basin, particularly the regions of Louga, Matam, Fatick and Kaffrine.
The objective of the project is to contribute to the strengthening of communities capacities to adapt to climate change and to mitigate its effects through sustainable land and ecosystem management (SLM). It targets the scaling up and saturation of 50,000 hectares with forest cover enhancing restoration options for the benefit of 10,000 households from 13 communes (35,000 ha directly facilitated including 5,000 ha of community woodlots and 15,000 ha through adoption by influence).
During the implementation of the project, particular emphasis will be placed on (i) promoting holistic and integrated governance of natural resources and contributing to the ownership and optimization of local resilience dynamics; (ii) strengthening the restoration and rehabilitation of agrosystems as well as promoting a sustainable land use system through a landscape approach to SLM in order to contribute to carbon sequestration and the improvement of ecosystem services; (iii) capacity building of populations, including vulnerable groups, by creating sustainable opportunities for the valorization and development of non-timber forest products (NTFP) value chains and by promoting public-private partnerships (PPP): 30 NTFP valuation enterprises and 13 nurseries newly created or revitalized and 2,000 rural jobs generated, in addition to an ecotourism business model based on PPP around the reserves.
The various stakeholders emphasized the pressing issues and challenges that the project must address to boost local actions and ensure SLM. They also mentioned the contribution to the implementation of the Emerging Senegal Plan (ESP) and the acceleration of the Pan-African Great Green Wall programme.
Abdou Diop, Deputy Governor of the Fatick region, in charge of development and representative of Alioune Ndoye, Minister of the Environment, Sustainable Development and Ecological Transition, praised the commitment of development partners to the implementation of the PES and stressed the importance of this new project which will boost local actions for sustainable and inclusive land management.
According to Gouantoueu Robert Guei, FAO Sub-regional Coordinator for West Africa and Representative in Senegal, “the RIPOSTES project will complement and strengthen governance and multi-stakeholder dialogue frameworks in order to achieve more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agroforestry systems”.
Jean-Marc Pisani, Ambassador of the European Union to Senegal, said that “with more than 35,000 hectares of land restored, the creation of some 50 agro-ecological farms, the establishment of 27 nurseries, support for sustainable entrepreneurship and the creation of some 2,000 new green jobs for young people and women, the RIPOSTES project is equal to the challenge and contributes to ‘climate justice’, a common vision of the partnership between the European Union and Senegal”.
Credit:FAO