The disastrous consequences of desertification often oblige young people living in affected areas to leave, depopulating the communities and affecting the productivity of the communities. Many of the pressures on natural resources in Benin (and other countries) come from activities of young people, including wild fires and poaching.
To address the challenges that young people face – and the ones that they generate – Benin initiated a pilot project to establish youth environment groups, with financial support from Venezuela. At first, the project focused on villages in the districts of Djidja and Ouaké. The main objective of the project is to improve conservation of natural resources by environmentally appropriate practices that also advance development goals (i.e., generate jobs and money).
The project targeted 15 villages that were suffering from desertification: 10 villages in Djidja and 5 in Ouaké. Accordingly, in 2004, 15 youth environment groups were established, one in each village. The membership in the groups included youths between the ages of 15 and 25 years, with an initial total of 165 young people in Djidja and 134 young people in Ouaké.
Before starting the activities, a participatory diagnostic was conducted in the villages. Through this diagnostic, the young people were asked to identify the problems and potential solutions. Then a participatory economic planning process enabled each group to plan their activities. In view of strategic activities, a series of trainings was organized. The primary activities included: fighting wild fires, nursery, reforestation, beekeeping, breeding of porcupines (Swinderianus thryonomys), fighting erosion, and mushroom production.
There are short-, medium-, and long-term benefits of establishing these youth environment groups. In the short run, young people have benefited from training in techniques relating to nursery, beekeeping, and breeding of porcupines. These trainings will allow them to be self-employed with diversified incomes. In addition, the project has raised environmental awareness, and this is expected to help with the long-term environmental protection and sustainable management of natural resources.
The training also helps young people to solve problems that they face. By fighting desertification, they are able to generate household incomes. In addition, the breeding of porcupines fights poaching, because the porcupines can satisfy the need for meat reducing the pressures on wild game.
For more information, see http://www.mehubenin.net and https://bch-cbd.naturalsciences.be/benin/ or contact cbbes_ong2002@yahoo.fr