Mauritania
Mauritania sharpens fight against desertification

afrol News, 29 July - The Mauritanian capital today saw the opening of a four-day national validation forum of its National Action Programme to fight desertification. The Ministry of Rural Development and Environment indicated it was now to implement a series of efforts to maintain the productivity of the Saharan-Sahelian country.

Opening the Nouakchott forum Minister of Rural Development and Environment, Moustapha Ould Maouloud, assured that action against the ongoing desertification of the country was a "top priority" of the Mauritanian government and the President. In an African context, Mauritania had to take the lead in the fight against desertification, as the country, due to "its geographical position is the front line of the area turning into a desert." 

Human-made developments - such as the unsustainable use of scarce water resources and "an anarchistic increase in urban settlements" - even speeded up the process of desertification in Mauritania, Minister Ould Maouloud said. This was leading to the "disruption of socio-economic infrastructures and erosion and degradation of the marine zones."

The government action programme against the ongoing desertification process included large-scale reforestation campaigns, improved agricultural techniques and water-saving irrigations schemes. Equally important, Ould Maouloud announced a fiercer environmental legislation, especially targeted at the protection of forests and wildlife. 

Ould Maouloud recognised that desertification was one of the main obstacles for development and the fight against poverty in Mauritania. Ongoing, large-scale rural development programmes - including electrification and improved infrastructure, health and education services - were being reversed by desertification, ripping rural societies off their livelihoods. The fight against desertification was therefore becoming "an integrated part of" the government's fight against poverty. 

According to the Mauritanian state press agency AMI, the Minister's invitation to evaluate the desertification action programme was well received by stakeholders. El Hacen Ould Taleb, President of the National Organisation of Cultivators and Herdsmen, promised the full cooperation of his members. The fight against illegal fuelwood cutting and bushfires was already intensifies locally, he said.

Desertification has turned into the main environmental and economic problem of Mauritania. After 30 years of climatic degradation, including increased droughts and human-made desertification, Mauritania's agricultural zone has shrunk to a 200 kilometre wide strip running east to west. A combination of human and ecological factors has made Mauritania particularly susceptible to the effects of prolonged drought. 

With the national economy still based on the rural sector, the consequences of desertification for food security have been disastrous: Mauritania's 2.7 million population is exposed to food shortages, which are turning more and more chronic. Further, Mauritania's population is increasing at a rate of 2.8 percent annually, meaning that it is set to double every 25 years. 

Sources: Based on Mauritanian govt, AMI and afrol archives