Combating desertification is a priority for the Government of Benin. So the Government undertook activities to restore soils and degraded land within the framework of a programme on natural resource management (known by its French acronym, PGRN) and through a project on natural resource and soil management (known by its French acronym, PGTRN). These activities were conducted in a participatory manner involving the people living in the municipalities of Boukoumbé, Ouaké, Ouessè, and Aplahoué, all of whom had experienced desertification.
In a participatory diagnostic process, the communities identified the problems of degradation of lands and loss of fertility of grounds as major problems. To address these problems, the PGRN and PGTRN provided support to the communities to build their capacity to fight erosion and to restore the fertility of the soil. The communities learned how to develop soil maps using aerial photos.
Each of the affected villages developed a soil map. This was a particularly important step, since the maps facilitated more coordinated and effective land management and it also touched on land tenure, which Benin considered important to effectively combat desertification (people were perceived as being more likely to invest energy and resources in fighting desertification and land degradation to land that they owned).
The communities also undertook various activities to reforest degraded lands. The reforestation had dual purposes: to combat desertification and to provide a source of fuel. To reduce erosion, the communities also built rock retaining walls following the contour lines and strengthened them with plantations vetivers (an East Indian grass). Plants for restoring fertility were cultivated, and compost pits were constructed.
Benin’s experiences in working with local communities to combat desertification has yielded some lessons learned. First, capacity building is key to combating desertification (e.g., in teaching illiterate communities how to read aerial photos and how to draw contour lines. Land tenure remains an important tool to effectively combating desertification. From these experiences, Benin has developed a draft law on rural land taxes, which the National Assembly is reviewing. This law would promote sustainable land management, and would focus on local communities.
For more information, see http://www.mehubenin.net and https://bch-cbd.naturalsciences.be/benin/ or contact cbbes_ong2002@yahoo.fr