NATURAL RES. MGMT

closed

The primary objective of the Rural Resource Management Project is to slow down, stop and ultimately reverse the current process of land and natural resource degradation in order to secure sustainable agricultural production and growth, alleviate poverty and improve the living conditions of Niger's rural communities. In addition, the project has two specific objectives: 1) to assist selected rural communities in different agro-ecological zones in designing and implementing management plans for their lands and provide them with the necessary know-how, information, technical and financial resources and the proper institutional and legal framework to successfully carry out such an endeavor; and 2) to assist the government in building up a national capacity to promote, assist and coordinate the diverse natural resource management (NRM) initiatives underway in Niger in the framework of the National Natural Resources Management Program (NNRMP), and help prepare NRM policies and strategies, based on lessons learned from field experience. The principal components of the project are: 1) direct technical and financial assistance to communities for the design and implementation of Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) plans involving about 280 selected communities in five districts, and assistance through ongoing NRM projects to another 100 communities in Niger; 2) provision of services to help achieve the project's objectives, namely: human resource development, national assessment of the state of natural resources, natural resource information networking, research and studies; and 3) assistance to decision-makers in devising national NRM policies and strategies.