Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

NEF‚ ‚ Forests for a Resilient Future‚ project began in 2019 to increase vegetation in village lands, reduce pressure on forest resources and restore degraded lands. 

NEF has been at the forefront of climate resilient development and natural resource management in the Mopti region of Mali for 30 years. In this time, NEF has observed how deforestation unequally impacts impoverished rural communities of Mali, especially women and young people. Land degradation is affecting food and financial security in these communities. Local authorities have lacked a system and budget to integrate climate change into plans and there has not been the technical capacity to support reforestation. 

We conducted in-depth consultations and diagnostic studies with these communities to identify where we would launch programming and what interventions would be most effective and impactful. These analyses explored causes of degradation, important species, existing considerations of forest resources in social, economic, and development plans, and the perspectives of technical services, producers, women, youth, and community leaders. 

After completing these studies, NEF consulted with communities to successfully launch ‚ Forests for a Resilient Future‚ in six target communities of the Mopti Region facing severe desertification and climate change. NEF is supporting reforestation, afforestation, and forest protection to increase forest cover by 2470 ha, while also taking community-based approaches to address root causes of forest loss. The program is designed to create lasting impacts by incentivizing forest protection through income generation from non-timber forest products and improved governance.

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Best Estimate of GHG Avoidance/Reduction of This Project (Tonnes CO2 Equivalent/Year):

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The projects core objectives all drive toward empowering those traditionally underrepresented in climate movements, but who are most impacted by climate change. This approach also ensures the sustainability of investments in forest resources. 

Project activities are implemented in collaboration with communities and rural populations, organized with local authorities and through grassroots community organizations, including associations of young people or women and socio-professional groups (loggers, women market gardeners, farmers, herders). 

The participatory consultation and community-driven action, the project aims to: 

* Increase forest areas through collective and individual actions (reforestation, restoration and measures to reduce pressure on forest resources), and to manage these areas sustainably. 

* Build local climate resilience capacity by adopting sustainable natural resource management practices. 

* Help communities to participate in sustainable development strategies and to fight against poverty. 

* Mobilize communities through participatory procedures to develop and implement projects and measures that integrate forest and climate adaptation. 

NEF is mobilizing communities in 6 communes in the Mopti circle: Bassiro, Fatoma, Konna, Korombana, Kounari and Sio. The key stakeholders involved in the action are as follows: 80 local authorities (communities and villages) which are responsible for local development and resource management; 2,675 people living in rural localities (75% women), who benefit from agricultural, forestry and pastoral resources and who have the potential to improve their living conditions, their food security and their resilience to climate change; and 20 people working in technical services (local representatives of the National Directorate of Water and Forests (DNEF), the Regional Directorate of Water and Forests (DREF), and deconcentrated technical services (local level)), which support the management of forest resources in the region and collaborate with the national forest services. 

As part of the action, we plan to have 41,200 vulnerable people (final beneficiaries) benefit from training on the effects of forest degradation and climate change, reforestation, sustainable management and carbon sequestration.

Collaboration with communities and rural populations will be organized with local authorities and through their grassroots community organizations, including youth or women's associations and socio-professional groups (loggers, market gardeners, producers breeders). NEF UK has strong relationships with these communities and grassroots community organizations and can quickly mobilize and coordinate the efforts required for the proposed action.

Joint activities under the project provide a sustainable and holistic approach to address the root causes of forest degradation and expand forest cover in target communities. 

Theory of change: IF local governments are helped to 1) invest in forest resources; 2) manage natural resources in a sustainable way in the face of climate change; 3) better participate in sustainable economic development and 4) incorporate protection measures into local development and resource management plans, THEN forest cover will increase durably.

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