Grassroot Project

Sahel region, West Africa
Restoration of degraded land using urban household waste in the Republic of Niger
Project “Cleaning the Cities, Greening the Land”

Project Leader

Professor Shuichi Oyama

Partner country

• Ministry of Environment and Anti-desertification of the Republic of Niger (Ministere de l’environnement et de la lutte contre la desertification)
• Niger National Weather Service (Mètèorologie Nationale, Republique du Niger)
• Niamey City

• 

• 

• 

Project Overview

Republic of Niger, which is located in the Sahel region on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, is facing a serious problem of desertification (land degradation). As desertification progresses, agricultural production stagnates, the standard of living of the people declines, hunger and poverty spread, and ethnic conflicts and terrorist attacks resulting from hunger and poverty become frequent, threatening the lives and livelihoods of the inhabitants.

Prof. Shuichi Oyama started his academic research in the rural areas of south-central Niger in 2000, and has continued his field research while living with the rural people. Based on his findings, he has been working on an international cooperation project which aims to identify the local ecological knowledge of Hausa farmers and their responses to land degradation, since 2015.　

The project aims to create a material cycle between urban and rural areas to improve land degradation in the rural areas and sanitation in urban areas. This project also aims to eradicate hunger and poverty, to prevent ethnic conflicts between farmers and herders and to reduce terrorism. To combat desertification, this project is using household waste from cities to restore the degraded land and create grazing areas for livestock in the rural areas. Livestock is kept by both farmers and herders. ,  Providing grazing land for local people enables them to fatten their livestock, generate cash income and buy food that is in short supply. The project also helps to prevent ethnic conflicts between farmers and herders caused by livestock crop damage. The project will further help to prevent the spread of cholera and typhoid fever, which occur every year during the rainy season, by cleaning up the waste in the city.　

In 2021, Prof. Oyama set up a local NGO in Niger called OLDACV-SHARA [Organisation Non Gouvernementale pour la Lutte Contre la Désertification et l’Amélioration du Cadre de Vie (Organization for combating desertification and improving livelihoods)] to work with the people of Niger to improve urban sanitation and combat desertification by greening the city with household waste. In the same year, he also launched the JICA Grassroots Technical Cooperation Project “Greening with Organic Waste in the Niamey Metropolitan Area of the Republic of Niger”, which aims to improve urban sanitation and combat desertification through the use of household waste in Niamey.

The aim of this project is to improve the living conditions of rural communities in the suburbs of Niamey by greening the degraded land to prevent ethnic conflicts between farmers and herders, and to avert terrorism, as well as to address natural disasters such as frequent flooding in the capital city. We also aim to mitigate global climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse effect gases, and to tackle the solid waste management challenges.

Kyoto University Niger Field Station

Kyoto University Niger Field Station

History of the project

2000	Start of research activities in Niger
2003	Greening experiment with household waste in rural areas (preliminary experiment)
2006 July	Establishment of local NGO, OLDCS-shara [Organisation pour la Lutte contre la Désertification et l’Amélioration des Conditions Sanitaires], approved by the Niger government. “Project for the prevention of desertification and improvement of urban sanitation in Niger”).
2008	Greening experiment with urban household waste (field experiment)
2011 October	Signing of a cooperation agreement with the city of Dogondoutchi (for the first time).
2012	Greening with urban household waste (under the cooperation and community participation by farmers and herders)
2015 October	Expansion of greening activities funded by the Mitsui Environmental Fund (until September 2018)
2016 May	Signing of a cooperation agreement with the city of Dogondoutčhi (for the second time)
2016 June	Signing of a cooperation agreement with the commune IV of Niamey city
2018 September	Signing of a cooperation agreement with the city of Dogondoutchi (for the third time)
2021 July	Establishment of the local NGO “OLDACV-SHARA [Organisation Non Gouvernementale pour la Lutte Contre la Désertification et l’Amélioration (Project for combating the desertification and the improvement of living conditions) approved by government of Republic of Niger.
2021 August	Signing of a cooperation agreement with the Ministry of Environment and Combating Desertification, the Government of Republic of Niger.
2021 August	Launch of the JICA grassroots technical cooperation project (grassroots cooperation support type) project.