I. BACKGROUND/SITUATION ANALYSIS
• What prompted the project?
• Is there an existing concern or potential problem that you want to address?
This project is based on catastrophic state of deforestation in Awdal region and specifically in Baki District in North West of Somalia. Deforestation in Baki and other districts in Awdal the region is massive with no accurate data or accurate statistical data to verify the extent of the destruction. Awdal as with the rest of Somalia had massive lands covered by forest trees a fact which can be attested by stories given by the elderly and land which now lies bare. Rampant cutting of trees for fuel, which has continued to date due to the increase of urban population especially in urban towns and increased demand charcoal, conflict mitigation strategies on grazing areas, civil war, lack of forest land protection strategies, weak intervention by the non-governmental organization, lack of aggressive advocacy to protect forest reserve lands, lack of community capacity building on forest protection and conflict mitigation challenges, lack of controlled charcoal licenses and lack of aggressive afforestation initiatives has drastically contributed to exponential degradation on the environment resulting in soil erosion, infertile farmlands, deep gullies, climatic change, loss of sources of livelihoods to many pastoralist communities in the region.
North West of Somalia mainly the Awdal region is the largest producer of sorghum which they grow in rainy seasons (FAO Due to low rainfall the sorghum yields have fallen drastically in 2011. Rainfall in the region comes in gu (April to June) and Karan (late July to September) which contributes to average rainfall of 500 and 650 millimeters annually (FAO & FSNAU report 2013). The region falls on latitude 9.94, longitude 43.2, thetemperature is between 29.3 to 34.4 degrees Celcius with a water ph value of 7. These factors give the Awdal region favorable conditions for the rapid afforestation program.
The project is focused to deliver afforestation initiative in Baki district particularly on designated forest reserve land. The main project deliverables will be establishing tree nurseries with specific tree species namely Acacia Sahel, Acacia Spp, Acacia Bussei and Acacia Senegal.The specific tree for the project is to enable the communities to benefit from the forest, Acacia Sahel is a gum producing a tree which the communities can harvest and sell, Acacia Spp is the flowering tree which can tremendously enable farmers to engage in bee farming, Acacia Bussei can be used for fuel which the charcoal dealers can be integrated to the project initiatives while they are engaged in cutting trees they can also, contribute to afforest the land already lost to such kind of activities. The project will also involve rehabilitation of water catchment areas, riverine forests, and river flats, this will contribute sources of water for engagement in afforestation activities, and use of water vapor innovation to capture water from the air will be used especially at night. On tree nursery and early stages of tree planting, the project intends to build capacity on tree nursery skills to the community on the latest technology on 80 port water controlled technology and use of water vapor harvester kit. Establishment of a data center to facilitate monitoring and data collection
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