Final technical report : Guinea natural resources management project

The project benefitted the target watersheds" 8,000 residents, most of whom participated in two or more activities to the limit of their ability and time. About $100,000 in revenues were generated -- $45,000 from the pilot initiatives. Of perhaps greater importance were the new institutional structures created, the commercial producer groups initiated, and the novel tenure contracts developed. The institution and landscape changes are testament to the increased number of productive home gardens, irrigated perimeters, and terraced fields. Many of the new income and organizational opportunities created will live beyond the PACD. Villagers have been consistently positive about project interventions and have learned to work together on community efforts. Significant policy changes have given people more control over development decisions at a local level, and provided for greater local participation in NRM. Although fiscal policies still impede sustainable land husbandry, the project"s approach to working with local residents was supportive of the Government of Ghana"s efforts to decentralize development and improve local responsibility for NRM. The project encouraged the formation of groups to carry out economic activities, and management committees for broader community NRM activities, and worked with local authorities, such as the Rural Development Committees and the Sous-Prefect and Prefect and their staffs. The case studies and Participatory Rapid Appraisal training conducted by the Land Tenure Center (LTC) to identify alternative tenure rights systems brought tangible benefits to watershed residents. Almost 70 of the innovative land contracts were introduced with the help of LTC and have helped home gardening groups obtain access to land. Watershed technicians successfully negotiated these contracts in areas adjacent to water sources, where the project promoted tree planting. The community-based NRM experiences have enriched policy dialogue at the village and national levels. The project also enhanced the capacities of, and received support from, several local and international NGOs, especially the Guinean Union of Volunteers for Development, the African Training Center for Development (CENAFOD), and Guinee Ecologie. Women have been very involved in community and family-level NRM efforts. In establishing the village-level NRM committees, the project worked to ensure that some women were on each committee. Although the women may not take a lead role in these committees, their membership has enabled them to represent women, pass information from the committee to village women, and mobilize women in support of community initiatives. More concretely, some interventions, such as capped springs and improved wells, have noticeably benefitted women by reducing labor time to obtain water for household needs and gardening, in many cases by over 75%. General issues of importance are as follows. (1) Changes in project design were warranted but were never enacted, even after the mid-term evaluation highlighted serious deficiencies. Whether USAID or Chemonics should have taken leadership in this area is now irrelevant. However, the newly developed Results Framework for NRM fully articulates the expected consequences of the next partner"s interventions. (2) Future agricultural development in all three watersheds must take place through agriculture intensification on higher potential sites. Such systems must incorporate production and soil conservation measures that enhance soil fertility in the short term and soil retention in future years. To be sustainable, such production must be based on more sustainable natural resource systems, including improved stewardship of forest and pasture resources. (3) Failure to include an agronomist on the TA team clearly had a negative impact on market crops, levels of production, and farm income, and reduced both the incentive and the resources necessary to adopt associated conservation practices. Similar deficiencies in forest management and range improvement limited progress in these areas as well. Includes strategic recommendations for follow-on implementation, as well as lessons learned and recommendations for each project component.