The Dryland Management component will support Strategic Watershed Planning processes and prioritize major investments to address desertification/land degradation in Northern Nigeria at Federal and State level as well as complement investments at community level. Investment for the component is expected to take about S$327.8 million equivalent spread across its sub-components in the entire region
A1: Strategic Watershed Planning : The Strategic Watershed Planning subcomponent will support large-scale integrated watershed management planning. Plans will be prepared for 20 watersheds, covering all of Northern Nigeria. The planning will be carried out using analytical approaches and developments of a modern knowledge base (including collating existing data from in situ and earth observation and biophysical surveys). Extensive participatory stakeholder consultations will also be fundamental. ACReSAL under this sub-component will strengthen the multisectoral planning process, prioritising project investments related to information, institutions, and those required for desertification control, SLWM in drylands, and improved natural resource-based livelihoods. The strategic watershed plans will also provide a framework and guidance to the micro-watershed-level planning in Component B and will be a foundation for the longer-term dryland management framework.
A2: Landscape Investments: The Landscape Investments subcomponent will support landscape-level investments, as prioritized in the strategic watershed plans. These may include those related to water resources management (for example, surface and groundwater storage, managed aquifer recharge, riverbank restoration, gully rehabilitation, sedimentation control into existing dams, and irrigation), to nature-based solutions for environmental management (for example, stabilization of sand dunes, vegetation management, reforestation). Additionally, the subcomponent will support large-scale agriculture investments for rangeland management and for a range of agricultural extension services such as the promotion of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and knowledge and data services. Depending on the scope of subprojects, investments under this subcomponent are expected to be implemented at State as well as at the Federal levels. A considerable pipeline of investments has already been identified and prepared under NEWMAP and some of these will be financed under ACReSAL, provided they are consistent with ACReSAL objectives and requirements.
A3: Special Ecosystems: The Special Ecosystem subcomponent will support Investments to manage and conserve wetlands, deserts, oases, and protected areas in all participating States. Investments could include those related to improvement of wetland, monitoring systems, inventories of the current status of these ecosystems, stabilization and restoration of wetlands, forest reserves, and oases. Traditional uses of wetlands and oases have been impacted by overuse of water for agriculture and other uses. The project will support investments for community work in restoration activities (for example, including women and youth participation in restoration action plans such as tree planting), creation of demonstration gardens, knowledge sharing of traditional uses of wetlands and oases, and pest management, among others.
