Update Dune Stabilisation – Mali

Joliba Trust – Report on Dune Stabilisation 2009-10

We are extremely grateful for your generous help with dune stabilisation. A lot has been achieved during the year. Dune Management Committees were established in Tereli, Ireli, Yayé, Bonronwon and Komokan. They organised their communities to plant 13 hectares of sand dunes in 2009, and a further 10.5 hectares in 2010, making a phenomenal 23.5 hectares in all that were planted during your period of funding.

This achievement will make a big contribution to the ongoing security of very fertile valley land near cliff villages. This fertile land is so important that its productivity supports a very wide area, and most families have a right for one of their more elderly farmers to grow crops there. This valley is being covered in sand from mounting dunes and more severe weather. Increased wind and more extreme monsoon rain are carrying sand onto the valley. Historically, this is the earliest settlement area for the Dogon people, and culturally, it is by far the most important. Most people can trace their history to villages next to the fertile valley, and always return to their ancestral villages for ceremonies, and religious events and burial.

Training in the techniques of dune-stabilisation planting was carried out with Village Nature Protection Societies by our Foresters trained in Dune work: David Dara, Garib Poudiougou, and Aldiouma Niangaly. Male volunteers collected Leptadenia shrub cuttings – which are only found today in a few remote areas – and transported them long distances by donkey cart, over a number of months, to plant in the dunes. Women collected seeds of deep-rooting plants, and Euphorbia cuttings were transported by truck and donkey cart into the dune area.  

Tools were provided for making deep holes in the dunes for planting live and dead hedgerow cuttings, to act as windbreaks to protect the live planting. Contour-measuring equipment was provided for measuring the angles of the dunes. These were planted in grid patterns. The size of the grid varies according to the steepness of the dune slopes.  The steeper it is, the smaller the grid. A desert Euphorbia, which gradually grows into a 3m wide shrub, was planted in an interlocking pattern, to reinforce the grids. Other areas of the dunes were planted with deep-rooting grasses and trees.  The principal trees grown in nurseries for the dune planting were Acacia raddiana, Zizyphus and Balanites aegyptiaca. These were planted in the largest numbers, as they are the best-adapted to sandy terrain and droughts.    

The impact of the dune stabilisation is becoming more and more visible. Over 75 hectares of dunes have been planted in all since 2004. In each of the villages involved there is now a plant covering on the dunes, the presence of small wildlife species, and the reduction of the movement of sand onto the fertile valley land.

We are enormously grateful for your very generous help with the dunes, which has been invaluable to the long-term survival of so many people in our area.   We will be continuing this work over the next years, as the dune problem is enormous.

Project details:

In the Sahel, sand dunes are increasing in size every year and covering fertile farming land used for crop growing.  By planting a variety of shrubs and trees on sand dunes over several years, the sand dunes can be stabilised. In the Dune Stabilisation Project, villagers volunteer to be community workers for their zone of dune plantings.The Joliba Foresters train villagers in dune stabilisation techniques. Throughout the duration of the project these volunteers manage the dune plantings and introduce new species. The trees planted are grown by villagers in the regenerating Tree Resources Project.

ITF’s support has allowed our partner, The Joliba Trust to train the new Foresters in dune stabilisation techniques who have then gone on to train 222 people from 14 villages. The majority of which are from the Dogon farming community. Last year the villagers stabilised 16 hectares of dunes bringing the total up to 49 square kilometres of dunes. The plantings have been a great success and they have already seen a return of wildlife to the area within a few years of planting. Desertification of fertile land is seen as a real threat by the villages in Mopti region and so Joliba Trust are planning to continue the dune stabilisation project for another 7-10 years. ITF are hoping to continue supporting Joliba Foresters to train more villagers in dune stabilisation techniques.