k_lab - interacting on the reality interface a project by césar meneghetti in collaboration with enrico blasi, sam cole & matthew mountford
Baratou Ango | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mamam Lawal | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Halima El Zakari | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ibrahim Ousseini | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Moumouna Z. Yaou | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Abdoulaye Indo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Mahamadou Moussa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sidi Malam Habi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Seidou Harouna | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Augustin Abdoulaye | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
M. Claire Hanounou
Benedetto Senni Renato Carucci Se Mamadou Tandja |
The Keita valley in Niger covers an area of more than 4,800 km2 of plateau with rocky slopes and valleys, forming a complex system of watersheds stoked by strong wind and water erosion.
The Keita Rural Development Project was launched in 1982 with the objective to reduce food insecurity in an arid region close to the environmental collapse. The main objective was to increase food security over a very large area, while combating desertification through the reduction of soil erosion and reforestation.
More than 20 years of soil conservation and land reclamation interventions makes Keita an open-air laboratory for the study of desertification dynamics and of land reclamation actions.
The availability of long series of environmental and socio-economic data and information allows the ecosystem monitoring through indicators based both on field data and models output. This extraordinary situation, rather unique in the Sahel, gives the opportunity not only to model the behaviour of natural vegetation during the recolonisation of degraded lands but also to evaluate the impact on populations and production systems. Observed dynamics at Keita level allow extrapolating potential environmental evolution behaviours in arid and semiarid ecosystems.
Environmental monitoring in Keita has a double target in planning support: national and local level. At the first one, it supports the definition of national policies and actions plans for fight against desertification and land reclamation. At local level, in tuning with the decentralisation process that Niger engaged also in the natural resources management, it supports local authorities in territorial planning.
Andrea Di Vecchia
Giancarlo Pini