(AGENPARL) – gio 05 dicembre 2024 Giving back to the desert in Mauritania
Restoring land as part of the Great Green Wall of Africa protects communities against desertification
©FAO/Giulio Napolitano
“Since the implementation of the programme, the dunes have been stabilized. Many trees have grown,” comments Teslim Mint Soueilim, leader of the FACI (ferme agricole communautaire integrée) in Mifta el Kheir. “It’s the only income we have, so we put all our money into it for the success of this activity.”
A group of eight women sit together in a circle, their crossed legs enveloped in the vibrant colours of their traditional cotton dresses. They sit on the dirt ground next to a tent for relaxing, but the women don’t seem to have time to use it. Most are discussing their work in their garden here in Mifta el Kheir, a village about 150 kilometres south of the country’s capital Nouakchott, while one woman concentrates on the great tradition of preparing minty Mauritanian tea.
The tea break doesn’t last long though, and the women are up and about again, tending to the various elements of their small farm called a FACI (ferme agricole communautaire integrée): the fruit trees, the seedling nursery, the forage crops and the chicken hut.
There is a lot to show for their years of work in this FACI, which started in 2016. Around the perimeter of the community farm are trees stabilizing the soil and keeping the nearby advancing dunes at bay. These trees are the key to the survival and success of both the homes of the villagers living in the desert but also for any agricultural activity they undertake. The species for this living barrier of trees and grasses were selected carefully and purposefully by the Action Against Desertification (AAD) programme of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
As a visionary solution, Mauritania, and 10 other countries across the 8 000 kilometres of the African continent, started the Great Green Wall initiative. Adopted officially by the African Union in 2007, the Great Green Wall vision was to create productive landscapes across North Africa, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa, transforming the lives of millions of people.
Supporting restoration activities as part of the Great Green Wall initiative, FAO’s AAD programme, funded by the European Union, puts communities at the centre of restoration and reforestation, combatting these challenges with expertise and training in selecting which tree and grass species to grow, where to plant the seeds for optimal results and how to harvest products or their seeds for future use.
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