A participatory demonstration project on
desertification mitigation and rural development
has been launched in Northern Africa under SMAP
Programme (Short and Medium-term priority environmental Action Programme) financed by the
European Union. The project, whose title is
"Demonstration Project on Strategies to Combct
Desertification in Arid Lands with Direct
Involvement of Local Agro-pastoral Communities in
North Ajrica ". is carried out in sensitive regions in
Morocco and Tunisia with the coordination of the
NRD of the University of Sassari (Italy) and the
partnership of the Agriculture Ministries of
Morocco and Tunisia.
The project involves restoration of vegetation cover
with drought resistant perennial forage species
(Opunti, Atriplex, Acaci, etc.) in highly degraded
Rangelands, to mitigate desertification processes
and to improve rangelands productivity. The areas
are located in regions characterised by rural
poverty, food dependency and land abandoning:
here urgent measures are needed to promote
optimisation of resource management in view of a
sustainable development.
This is a concrete demonstration project supported
by the direct involvement of local communities.
Successful actions already carried out in this field by
the participants of the project as well as by other
Mediterranean Countries. has been taken into
Account, re-elaborated and exploited thus
promoting South / South co-operation and exchange
of knowledge. Participation of all actors and
especially of local communities is the key point in all
the phases of the project and is strengthened by
means of dissemination and sensitisation campaigns
and by training courses. Only if, at the end of the
project, all actors will own/share all choices made
and the technology used, will interventions be
"sustainable"