Monitoring drylands ecosystem dynamics for sustainable development policies: the Keita experience

The Keita Valley in Niger covers an area of about 4,800km(2) of plateaux with rocky slopes and valleys forming a complex system of watersheds moulded by strong winds and water erosion. The Keita Rural Development Project began in 1982. Its main objective was to reduce food insecurity in an arid region in danger of environmental collapse. The project proposed to increase rood security while combating desertification through the reduction of soil erosion and reforestation in this large area. More than 20 years of soil conservation and land reclamation interventions make Keita an open-air laboratory for the study of desertification dynamics and land reclamation activities. The availability of long series of environmental and socioeconomic data and information allows for ecosystem monitoring through indicators based both on field data and model output. This extraordinary Situation, almost unique in the Sahel, provides the opportunity not. only to model the behaviour of natural vegetation during the re-colonization of degraded lands but also to evaluate the impact on populations and production systems. Observing dynamics in the Keita Valley helps to extrapolate the potential evolution of environmental behaviour in arid and semi-arid ecosystems. Environmental monitoring in Keita has a dual target in planning support at national and local levels. The former supports the definition of national policies and actions plans to combat desertification and land reclamation while the latter, according to the decentralization process that Niger has initiated in natural resource management, sustains local authorities in territorial planning.