Sustainable Silvopastoral Restoration to Promote Ecosystem Service in Tunisia

ABOUT US

The project is a pilot initiative aimed at building resilience of silvopastoral production, increasing and improving the sustainable provision and management of goods and services from agriculture, forestry, and fisheries in the semi-arid areas of Tunisia.

Period of Implementation

Nov 21, 2017 - Mar 31, 2019

Total Budget

USD 110,000.35

Project team

Mounir Louhaichi

ICARDA

Dr. Mounir Louhaichi has more than 25 years of experience in... see more

Azaiez Ouled Belgacem

ICARDA

Dr. Azaiez Ouled Belgacem has more than twenty five years-ex... see more

Partners

International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas - ICARDA

Direction Générale des Forêts - DGF

Donors

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations - FAO

OUR IMPACT

Goals

Strengthen resilience of the silvopastoral production system through the promotion of environmental improvement, reduced climate impact, and increased resilience to environmental impacts, climate change and natural disasters. The projects’ focus is on strengthening the capacity of communities and its intentions to build regional platforms for knowledge sharing and collaboration.

Objectives

To develop a pilot site in semi-arid Tunisia (Zaghouan Governorate) that will be scaled up in 2018 – 2019 based on ICARDA experience in the NENA region in illustrating sustainable management of silvopastoral production system in an integrated pasture-forestry-livestock production system.

Problems and Needs Analysis

The NENA region is characterized by an arid and semi-arid climate with low and erratic rainfall and therefore water scarcity is a major threat to sustainability. Rangelands in the NENA region represent the largest land use type in the region (average 70%), which condition is on a steady decline (degradation) due to overgrazing and encroachment of cultivation and recurrent droughts. During periods of prolonged drought agro-silvopastoral, systems are put under severe stress and the people and livestock that depend on these systems experience increased vulnerability including reduced levels of food security. Human red meat consumption and livestock numbers in the region are rapidly increasing, a matter that necessitates an urgent intervention for increasing the capacity of rangelands in the region. Long term protection and lack of grazing led to the decline of herbaceous strata and lignification of shrub/tree species.

Intervention Strategy(ies)

- Increase the forage and livestock production in agro-silvo-pastoral production systems; - Alleviate grazing land degradation; - Reduce water erosion; - Conservation of natural resource base (flora, fauna, soil and water); - Develop the linkages between seasonal fodder/forage production and livestock husbandry; - Increase community resilience, income and capacity of the local population; - Improve the livelihood of the silvopastoral communities.

Impact Pathway

The project focus on two main Outputs, namely: (i) sharing sustainable silvopastoral technologies with the local beneficiaries and (ii) developing sustainable silvopastoral technologies. The first output contributes towards the outcome of improving productivity and resilience of the silvopastoral systems, whereas the second is to an enhancement capacity of national partners, including farmers, to promote and adopt sustainable silvopastoral technologies. These two developmental outcomes ultimately support the sub-IDO ‘Increased capacity of beneficiaries to adopt research outputs’.

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