DEVELOPMENT-NIGER: Land Degradation No Match for Speculators

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Michée Boko

COTONOU, Feb 22 2007 (IPS) - The term “property speculation” may not be the first that comes to mind concerning Niger, a country which is mostly desert. Nonetheless, this is exactly what is happening in the West African state.

Degraded land is being bought by investors who then have it restored through the introduction of semi-circular catchment areas, stone barriers and pans, amongst others. The improved properties are later sold for a substantial profit.

“One piece of land bought for 50,000 francs CFA (100 dollars) is resold, after restoration, for 150,000 FCFA (300 dollars) two years later…” notes a report titled ‘Sahel Studies’ issued in September 2006 by African and western specialists on desertification, at a workshop for land restoration held in Niger’s capital – Niamey.

Some have expressed concern about the speculation, pointing to how the poorest and most vulnerable are effectively being exploited in this process by the well-off, who buy their land.

However, the rehabilitation of land has also improved prospects for those living in Niger’s villages by creating a new profession – that of land restorer – which pays relatively well in the context of widespread poverty in Niger, observes ‘Sahel Studies’.

According to the 2006 Human Development Report, produced by the United Nations Development Programme, 60.6 percent of people in Niger live on less than a dollar a day. A land restorer can earn two or three dollars a day, and the work is available practically year-round.

There has also been a boost for those who supply tools needed by the restorers, such as ploughs, shovels, pick axes and hammers.

“Small scale trade has developed in all villages. The women in particular develop, alongside agriculture, activities that are generating income for them: the sale of wood, cooked dishes…” says ‘Sahel Studies’. The document further notes that “land restoration has changed the living standard and practices of the people of Niger”.

Overall, the speculation testifies to victories in the struggle to reverse desertification.

“Fighting against desertification is possible and this is the reason why these markets for degraded land have been created in Niger,” indicated a February 2005 report on implementation in West Africa of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.

In total, more than 250,000 hectares of land that was degraded have been restored by small-scale farmers of Niger over the past decade.

The campaign to halt desertification in Niger has been underway for several years: the 1980s and 1990s saw several projects on natural resource management initiated, such as the Integrated Keita Project, the Tahoua Rural Development Project and the first phase of the Special National Programme, with support from the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

A 2002 programme in Lougoum village in the centre of the country allowed for the re-cultivation of 3,000 hectares of land.

Niger also launched a 2.2 million dollar programme for restoring 8,000 hectares of agricultural land eaten away by sand – 1,000 hectares in each of the eight regions of the country – in November 2005, according to Abdou Labo, Minister of Environment and the Fight Against Desertification.

Nevertheless, Yamba Boubacar, a geographer at the University of Niamey, sounds a note of caution. “Alongside the success, it must be noted that there are areas where the projects have failed; erosion has even resumed in places,” he says.