The World Bank/WBI’s CBNRM Initiative

Case Received : February 17, 1999

Authors : Bawa Gaoh Ousmane, PAIGLR-GAYA, Thomas Price, IUCN Niger

     Sani Arzika, IUCN Niger.

Tel: +227 72 40 06 / 72 40 28

Fax: +227 72 40 05

Email : iucn@intnet.ne

Project:     Program in support of local management initiatives for the fan-palm groves [rôneraies] of Dallol Maouri and the Gaya-Niger river.

Country:     Niger (Western Africa)

Region:     Dosso département, Gaya arrondissement, 300 km from the capital city of Niamey.

Resources:     Overall management of the following ecosystems: fan-palm, fisheries, fauna, rangelands (forage).

Present context:    

• Decentralized natural resource management

• Make natural resources a factor in the region's socioeconomic development

• Greater accountability for grassroots communities.

The destabilization of local systems of natural resource exploitation and the establishment of new relationships between the communities and their environment (access and use) dating from the colonial period were for a long time sources of continuing conflict between the Government (forestry authorities) and the local communities.

The experiment in community-based management of fan-palm ecosystems (palm groves) that we intend to submit has been taking place in Western Africa, in the Gaya arrondissement of southwestern Niger (300 km from the capital, Niamey).

In 1993, the Government of Niger and UICN, supported by funding from Switzerland, introduced a joint community-based natural resource management program, and it is proposed to encourage the emergence and promotion of other essential (non-Government) stakeholders and to offer the local communities the possibility of turning the palm groves into a resource for the region's economic and social development.

This experiment was initiated at the end of the national conference in 1991, when major political, economic and social changes were proposed:

• Democratization of public life

• Greater security for the rural environment (Rural Code)

• Privatization

• Decentralization

Fan-palms, that is to say the fan-palm groves, play a principal role in the local economy, and are at the core of the region's agricultural and pastoral activities.

These palm groves provide many products for human and animal nourishment, for the manufacture of furniture and fishing gear, for medicinal use, and for bee-keeping.

In addition, the existing potential stumpage of around 2,476,000 in 1973, whose estimated value in that year was over CFAF 40 billion (17,000 per unit of stumpage), makes the palm groves into a resource whose exploitation concerns not only the local populations but also the local authorities and the national Government, and whose effective management poses challenges for individual and collective interests at the local, regional, and even the national level.

• What was the nature of the problem before implementation of the Program in Support of Local Fan-Palm Grove Management Initiatives (PAIGLR)?

• At the political level, the palm-groves, which used to be owned by the local communities, who operated and protected them using traditional management systems, have become exclusively Government-controlled natural resources.    

• At the economic level, projects to reconstitute and develop the palm groves were implemented between 1978 and 1992, a process in which the local communities played only a very marginal role, consisting of little more than the sale of their manpower.

The absence of any legitimate regard for the users led to a lack of enthusiasm on their part for sustainable development and management of the fan-palm groves, which became depleted as a result. The people were unhappy at this marginalization, an attitude summed up in the words of a village chief: "The palm groves will never be protected if the people living in them are ignored."

With implementation of the PAIGLR, however, the communities have undertaken to participate fully in the following activities:

1.     conservation of the fan-palm groves;

2.     protection, through surveillance and reporting of violators;

3.     regeneration, through direct sowing of the nuts and supplemental reforestation, introducing other species in addition to the fan-palm;

4.     felling and marketing of palm wood;

5.     establishing an organization based on the setting up of local management systems that will enable the communities to effectively take over responsibility for the region's development (local planning and restructuring).

This new program (PAIGLR), which was launched in 1994 and is still in progress, is based on a natural resource management strategy focusing on the Village Land Management Approach [Approche Gestion des Terroirs], with revival of the various organs (local institutional support, thanks to the canton and village chiefs). A new institutional framework has gradually developed, one that militates for the decentralized and community-based management of natural resources: steering committee, land commission in Gaya, local management agencies [structures locales de gestion - SLG], and cantonal committees set up to monitor local management.

Substantial results have been achieved:

• Twenty-six local management agencies (SLGs) now handle the planning and autonomous management of the resources in their terroir.

• Over 3,000 hectares have been regenerated thanks exclusively to the communities' own efforts over the past five years.

• Fifty-nine environmental protection crews, employing over 310 workers, are responsible for protection and surveillance activities in the fan-palm groves.

• Participation by the local inhabitants in the process of palm wood marketing has led to improved performance and higher earnings. Over CFAF 15 million has been mobilized to the benefit of the communities.

• Institutionalization of the steering committee and creation of the land commission.

At the national level, the Program has made a notable contribution to development of the Rural Code, the Forestry Code, and the decentralization process, the PNEDD, the national biodiversity program, etc.

Several important lessons have been learned from this experiment in local management of fan-palm ecosystems:

1.     The local communities are aware of the concept of biodiversity, but this has to be introduced gradually, and the starting point has to represent something that will attract and hold their interest:

In the case of the PAIGLR, the fan-palm was the starting point, but the experiment has been expanded to include other resources:

1.     Fisheries management (fish resource)

2.     Rangeland management (forage)

3.     Fauna management (water birds)

4.     Consideration of other plant species

2.     Progressing beyond the original objective of community-based natural resource management, the Program has created frameworks for teaching the principles of democracy and for promoting economic objectives.

A village that is to receive project support in implementing a Village Land Management Plan has to be elected by the other villages. The village delegates are required to make presentations demonstrating their suitability for selection based on criteria set by all the communities, which range from a sense of good management of collective property to one of rational exploitation of natural resources.

3.     The exercise of local power linked to natural resource management is in most cases accomplished if confidence, transparency and equity can be developed within the local community. This has been shown to happen when the local management agencies promote consultations, planning sessions and feedback as part of their mandate to implement management plans.

4.     Success stories in the area of conservation depend greatly on community (village) organization, and above all on the relationship between the community and the natural resources to be managed.

5.     The experiment in community-based management of the Gaya fan-palm groves is not intended to be specific to that region alone. Its extension to other areas is certainly possible, as has already been shown proven in the area not yet covered by the project. Moreover, requests from villages outside Gaya and requests for PAIGLR action from other departmental and national bodies are further proof of its replicability.