Project Detail

"Integrated watershed rehabilitation for environmental conservation and food security".

The project aims to address major causes of land degradation in 8 vulnerable communities in the Lower River Region. The project components include watershed rehabilitation for erosion control and agricultural development, capacity building of communities in land husbandry practices and improved agricultural practices, promotion of sustainable livelihood activities which are environmentally friendly and contribute to food security and increased incomes. The project will also contribute to mitigating the effects of global warming and reducing green house emission (GHG) in the environment. Flora and fauna will be reclaimed; water retention within the watershed will be maintained thus promoting rich natural environment for all year round crop cultivation resulting to an enhanced biodiversity. Controlled erosion in the farm lands will enrich the top soil for general agricultural crop production and productivity.

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Project Snapshot

Grantee:

Freedom From Hunger Campaign

Country:

Gambia

Area Of Work:

Land Degradation

Operational Phase:

OP5-Y3 (Jul 13 - Jun 14)

Grant Amount:

US$ 100,000.00

Co-Financing Cash:

US$ 28,000.00

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 55,000.00

Project Number:

GMB/SGP/OP5/Y3/STAR/LD/13/16

Start Date:

8/2013

End Date:

7/2015

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

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Project Characteristics and Results

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

The goal of the project is to enhance livelihoods by restoring degraded lands and introducing sustainable livelihood activities which contribute towards that goal.

Replication of project activities

There is a high degree of likeliness that the project activities may be replicated depending on the available of resources.

Policy Influence

This project adopts an integrated approach to environmental conservation by bringing together key sectors in agriculture, forestry, community development and water resources agencies to address complex issues at the local level. Its outcome will be a motivation for forging inter-agency collaboration.

Notable Community Participation

This strategic project will work with 8 vulnerable communities to protect their environment and enhance their livelihoods. An earlier project had worked with 4 of the communities and a lot of success i terms of community participation was registered.

Capacity - Building Component

This will be a major focus of the project aimed at knowledge and skills transfer to the communities.

Project Results

- A baseline survey was conducted in the 8 villages to assess the level of resource degradation and some of the opportunities available.The 8 villages are: Misera, Sare Musa, Sumbundu, Sare Biran, Madina Fonkoi, Kohel, Sare Saidy and Seno.

- Technical surveys were conducted in the 8 villages to map out the boundary of the watershed and its catchment area and also a forest inventory to determine the different tree species in the area. based on the survey, an intervention strategy.- The exercise established that the watershed area was 862 ha composed of both uplands and lowlands and a population of 1, 600 people who have a cattle population of over 500 heads.

- The project area has a population of 1, 600 people all of whom a are small scale farmers dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. The project will treat, protect about 862 hectares of land from degradation and restore it back into productivity through enrichment planting in the degraded forest areas, the adoption of soil and water conservation techniques on the farmlands for erosion control, capacity building of the farmers in erosion control, best practices in agriculture, bush fire controls and the promotion of sustainable livelihoods by introducing bee keeping for income generation.

- The project has 3 components: (1) Watershed restoration through soil soil erosion control measures, (2) Capacity building for communities in natural resources best management practices; and (3) Sustainable livelihood enhancement.

- 4 training sessions on nursery management, erosion control, forest conservation techniques and bee keeping was conducted for 24 participants drawn from the 8 villages.

- 20 bee hives were distributed among the 8 villages to enhance livelihoods and protect the environment.

- In the village of Sare Musa, a 115 meter long water retention dike was built to conserve water for agriculture and cattle drinking purposes.

- 28, 545 seedlings were planted in the watershed catchment area despite the poor rains experienced in 2014. Additional seedlings were raised in late 2014 at FFHC nursery in Mansa Konko for the 2015 planting season in the watershed.

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