Desertification: Niger

Question 1

Outline reason for landcover change

Answer 1

Hyper arid, 75% of the country receiving less than 300 millimetres of rainfall
- droughts, locust plagues, large scale deforestation, high land food prices and political instability all committed to the land degradation

Question 2

Human activity

Answer 2

Deforestation

• poor government management
• over grazing

Question 3

Natural process

Answer 3

• climate, low humidity
• drought
• locust plagues

Question 4

Economic impact

Answer 4

• farming output
• high price of food
• Niger poorest country $49 per person GNI
• 25.5 loss of cattle population, there most important export, 36.8% loss of sheep, 31.3% of goats

Question 5

Social

Answer 5

Famine

• hygiene
• increased population presence
• drought
• water accessibility

Question 6

Environmental

Answer 6

Salinity, dust in water

• drought
• soil erosion
• reduced crop yields

Question 7

Spatial tech

Answer 7

Remote sensing and GPS

Question 8

Responses

Answer 8

FMNR- local

Green Great Wall initiative of Africa- Regional

Question 9

FMNR(Farmers Managed natural Regeneration)

Answer 9

• farmers have successfully converted 5 million hectares of degraded land back to productive land with tree planting
• minimal effort or cost
• requires little funding
• no input of NGOs
• 40 trees per hectare where previously there was one
• improved soil fertility

Question 10

Great Green Wall initiative

Answer 10

• stretches from Ethiopian to Senegal, 7775 KM
• A zone of native vegetation that is ‘recreating’ much of the vegetation land cover that has been lost
• goal is to reduce to rate of desertification and to improve the livelihoods of those people living in that region

Question 11

Process of FMNR

Answer 11

• involves cutting down any shrubs or trees as competition for the limited soil and water available. Beneath the soil the living stumps of native trees were like a forest
• The FMNR requires farmers to preserve the tree roots and allow the trees to regrow

Question 12

GGWI

Answer 12

• range of vegetation is used to withstand drought as well providing local communities with a source of income providing local communities with a source of income from nuts, fruits and animal folder
• critical to plans success is the perception that the vegetation is worth mor experts alive than cut down and burnt

Question 13

Critics of GWWI

Answer 13

• not many people, looked after it
• 425000 seedling planted, only 20% accounted for
• in 2014, only 30% of trees remained from a planted tree be,t of 84 kilometres, the rest eaten by cattle