Launch of the RIPOSTES project in favor of the Great Green Wall

The objective of the project is to contribute to building the capacity of communities to adapt to climate change and to mitigate their effects through sustainable management of land and ecosystems.It targets the scaling up and saturation of 50,000 hectares with restoration options improving forest cover for the benefit of 10,000 households from 13 municipalities (35,000 ha directly facilitated, including 5,000 ha of wooded community areas,and 15,000 ha through influence adoption).

In particular, during the implementation of the project, emphasis will be placed on (i) Promoting holistic and integrated governance of natural resources and contributing to the management and optimization of local dynamics of resilience; (ii) strengthening the restoration and rehabilitation of agrosystems and promoting a sustainable land use system through a landscape approach to Sustainable Land Management (SLM), with a view to contributing to carbon sequestration and the improvement ecosystem services; (iii) building the capacities of populations, including vulnerable groups, by encouraging the creation of sustainable opportunities for the enhancement and development of value chains for non-timber forest products and by promoting public-private partnership (PPP): 30 companies development of NWFPs and 13 nurseries newly created or revitalized and generating 2,000 rural jobs, in addition to an ecotourism business model based on a PPP around the reserves.

The various stakeholders insisted on the pressing issues and challenges that the project must meet to boost local actions and ensure sustainable land management. They also discussed the contribution to the implementation of the Emerging Senegal Plan (PSE) and the acceleration of the pan-African program of the Great Green Wall. Abdou Diop, Deputy Governor of the Fatick region, in charge of Development and representing the Minister of the Environment, Sustainable Development and Ecological Transition, Mr. Alioune Ndoye, magnified the commitment of development partners for the implementation implementation of the Emerging Senegal Plan (PSE) and underlined the importance of this new project which will boost local actions for sustainable and inclusive land management. According to Gouantoueu Robert Guei, FAO Sub-Regional Coordinator for West Africa and Representative in Senegal, "the RIPOSTES project will complement and strengthen frameworks for governance and multi-stakeholder dialogue in order to achieve more efficient agrosilvopastoral systems, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable".

Jean-Marc PISANI, Ambassador of the European Union in Senegal, declared that "with more than 35,000 hectares of restored land, the creation of around fifty agro-ecological farms, the setting up of 27 nurseries, support forsustainable entrepreneurship and the creation of approximately 2,000 new green jobs for young people and women, the RIPOSTES project is up to the challenge and contributes to "climate justice", a common vision of the partnership between the'European Union and Senegal'.