IUCN, Regional Office for Western Africa

This publication aims to contribute to planning and management approaches that minimize land degradation and desertification in arid and semi-arid zones as a result of extractive industries operations. Both operational and policy guidance are included to help those government departments responsible for the licensing, planning and monitoring of extractive industries activities to take account of environment and development issues in their decision-making.

This publication aims to contribute to planning and management approaches that minimize land degradation and desertification in arid and semi-arid zones as a result of extractive industries operations. Both operational and policy guidance are included to help those government departments responsible for the licensing, planning and monitoring of extractive industries activities to take account of environment and development issues in their decision-making.

L’Afrique de l’Ouest est l’une des régions du monde les plus vulnérables au changement climatique. L’impact souvent désastreux de la variabilité et des extrêmes climatiques au cours des trente dernières années en est une parfaite illustration, mais aussi un des signes avant-coureurs de cette vulnérabilité.

West African is among the most vulnerable regions to climate change worldwide. The often disastrous impact variability and extreme events over the past thirty years is a striking illustration and a harbinger of this vulnerability.

The workshop was organised to improve the understanding of the dialectic between water-related infrastructures and institutional frameworks in West Africa.

In West Africa, desertification threatens the living conditions of over 250 million people. The results of projects to combat desertification undertaken over the last 40 years or so have been mixed. One reason for this is probably that technical or technological approaches have taken precedence over the sociological approach.