10am Friday 15th August
Room S119, First Floor, South Wing, Menzies Building (School of Geography and Environmental Science Building), Clayton Campus, Monash University
There has been a remarkable turnaround of positive vegetation changes in Niger Republic, a country generally considered to be beyond repair due to the advance of the Sahara desert. Over the last 20 years, Niger has experienced a net gain in tree cover, despite being one of the poorest and most drought-prone countries in the world. Chris will share how this occurred in the absence of any significant government or foreign aid interventions in the forestry sector, based on the successful Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration model that has spread throughout the Niger Republic. Chris will present how this initiative got started, its current status and what is happening in neighbouring Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, and Chad.
*About the Speaker*
Chris Reij is a human geographer by training, who began working in the Sahel in 1978 as a regional planner. Since 1982 he has been with the Center for International Cooperation of VU University Amsterdam. He has been involved in numerous consultancies for multilateral and bilateral agencies (World Bank, IFAD, UNSO, OECD/Club du Sahel, EU/CTA) as well as for NGOs mainly in, but also outside, Africa. In the last 10 years Chris has been coordinating research programs on indigenous soil and water conservation practices in Africa (13 countries), on farmer innovation in Africa (7 countries) and on long-term trends in agriculture and environment, as well as impacts of investments in natural resource management (4 countries). He is coordinator of the Sahel Re-Greening Initiative, a coalition of NGOs promoting revegetation in four countries of the Sahel region of north Africa. These research programs have led to a number of publications.
Co-hosted by the M.IDEA Program, Monash University, and World Vision Australia Friday, 15 August 2008, 10:00 a.m.
Room S119, First Floor, South Wing, Menzies Building (11)
All Welcome
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