Lake Faguibine, Mali: The ecosystem around Lake Faguibine has shifted from the livelihoods of a lake, fishing and livestock keeping to a livelihood that is forest-based as a new system to help combat climate change and its negative impact on the Faguibine community. However, with additional funding from the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) of $5.23 million, UNEP is reviving the project to take into account the new situation. Most activities have been built around small scale agriculture. He turned out to be one of the foremost Touareg people of the region (from a 2008 diary entry by Jan Egeland, then UN Secretary-General's Special Adviser on conflict, and currently head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, quoted by IRIN). UNEP project At the request of the Government of Mali, UNEP in 2008 began implementing a project to rehabilitate the Lake Faguibine ecosystem. Some of the villagers pointed out that during the recent drought their animals had only been able to survive because of the fodder provided by Prosopis; others said that they had used the timber to make charcoal. 4.3 The Niger River With a length of 4200 km the Niger is the third longest river in Africa. Water In the Timbuktu region, around 72% of the land is used as pasture and the rest is reported as forested land use (DRPSIAP 2008). It quoted local engineer Mohamed Touré, as saying: “The soil around the lake is very fertile and spongy; the water can spread for 5km. According to the Government of Mali, the security situation could also be greatly alleviated if the lake’s ecosystem were restored and development projects implemented in the region. as land use changes in the catchment areas may need to be taken into account. ... increased evaporation and land-use changes – and of the benefits likely to accrue to close to some 200,000 mainly nomadic people living in and around the area. Unfortunately, climate change has led to erratic rainfall patterns as well as the advance southward of the Sahara desert. The top image is made from observations acquired on January 3, 1974, and December 26, 1978. One example of increasing aridity in Mali appears in Lake Faguibine. For the Lake Faguibine System the determining factor is the hydrograph of the Niger River, especially the height and the duration of the flood peak. In the Timbuktu region, around 72% of the land is used as pasture and the rest is reported as forested land use (DRPSIAP-T 2006). UNEP project. The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), established in April 2013, provides security in the country and is contributing to peace. Landsat imagery is especially suitable for detecting ecosystem fragmentation and degradation and offers a resolution (level of detail) that is ideal for developing comprehensive land cover classification datasets, another way to detect land use change (Giri et al., 2013). The connector channel and lake floor are the areas of interest. Are you sure you want to print? Human Presence. … © UNEP Terms of Use Privacy Report a project concern. Since the mid 1990's, Lake Faguibine, once a major regional center of agriculture and aquaculture, has suffered a major drop in water levels. They use a West African rice variety that grows well as the water rises. At the request of the Government of Mali, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) is implementing a project to rehabilitate the Lake Faguibine ecosystem and is studying the Lake's ecosystem and looking at ways in which the management of land and the hydrological cycle could be improved. Drought and water-diversion projects have caused Bolivia’s second-largest lake to dry up. Lake Faguibine is a lake in Mali on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert situated 80 km west of Timbuktu and 75 km north of the Niger River to which it is connected by a system of smaller lakes and channels. Since the mid 1990’s, Lake Faguibine, once a major regional center of agriculture and aquaculture, has suffered a major drop in water levels. Even though normal rainfall resumed after the year 2000, the lake remained nearly dry. Asia Human-influenced desertification processes have resulted in wind erosion and deposition of sediments in saline lake basins in Rajasthan, India (Kar, 1986; Sharma, 1991). NASA Goddard Space In the past, the Lake Faguibine was a priority area for agriculture and fishery, but the Niger River-fed water system dried out with the droughts of the 1970s and 80s. Land use change Land use change [CSD] Indicators methodology sheets The workshops have also developed indicator ... Lake Faguibine for their livelihoods Republic of Mali. Others said that the species had taken over land once used for cultivation and fisheries. It lies north of the Niger River in the Macina depression, and it is reached by branches of the Niger in times of flood. He spotlighted Lake Faguibine, a spearhead-shaped body of water linked with seasonal flooding of the Niger, Africa’s third largest river. on which they are built as the amount of water they use remains constant irrespective of dry or wet years. People are certain that if they only had reliable water sources they could again turn this parched region into Mali's bread basket. Women have developed their own adaptive strategies based on newly emerged forest resources in the former lake area (e.g. Just 3.8 percent of the country’s land is arable, and increased use of natural resources combined with prolonged drought have nudged the country toward desertification, according to a report issued by the United Nations Environment Programme. Flight Center. United Nations Environment Programme. The bottom image is made from observations acquired on March 17, 2005, and September 28, 2006. Long and short. Two kinds of mobile livestock breeding systems are present: transhumant (a seasonal movement of people and livestock over relatively short distances) and nomadic (a migration of people and livestock over longer distances). The reformulated project (around $40 million when fully funded) integrates the original scheme into a broader programmatic intervention led by the United Nations, and will address both infrastructure development and socioeconomic interventions, including improving livelihoods. Life. Home to more than 13 million people, Mali stretches from the Sahara Desert in the north to the semiarid grassland known as the Sahel in the south. At high water it reaches a length of about 50 miles (80 km). impact of the African atlas in Mali, where a project to restore the lost Lake Faguibine is now underway. The once-great lake has lost most of its water and now spans less than a tenth of the area it covered in the 1960s. When we came to Lake Faguibine there was a big meeting with all of the community leaders there. Unique Imagery. 2013). 23 ... Drought in Africa Lake Faguibine Lake Chad 34 35. The women dry and rainy years for three types of pastoralists in the local agricultural association in Tin Aicha lost their former agricultural activities after Lake Faguibine dried out the transhumant and nomadic livestock herders use only and water was no longer available for irrigation, and they the natural Acacia forest, respectively, for 3 and 6 months. The Lake Faguibine ecosystem restoration project involved sensitizing communities upstream and downstream on the need to regulate and preserve the water flow in the Niger and its channels. Land use planning should be based the analysis on the value of ecosystem services instead of hotspots to make better conservation decisions. In 1974, this lake covered roughly 590 square kilometers (230 square miles). Today Faguibine is a dry Sahel lake, although it was probably a permanent water body ~16,000 years ago. ... Tadesse, G., E. Zavaleta, and C. Shennan. There is an increase in the average temperature of the earth’s surface, leading to wide spread impacts ranging from change in rainfall patterns to extinction of certain species. It aimed to re-flood the lake’s 600 square kilometres in order to restore its vital ecosystems (fish catches were once estimated at 5,000 tons annually), boosting the livelihoods of local fishermen, reviving agriculture along the lakeside, and providing food to thousands of people as well as migratory waterbirds. Lake Faguibine was a productive area for agriculture and fishing but the area experienced prolonged dry phases in the 20 th century and the lake had dried out by the end of the 1970s. Water transport benefits to the local economy. The same UNEP report states: “ Lake Faguibine dried out completely in 1914 and 1924, again in 1944 and has been at very low levels since the mid 1970s. Figure 3.2: Image showing Lake Faguibine, Mali: A view through time with Landsat imagery. In December 2009 the World Food Programme reported on the success of a UNEP-supported food-for-work programme which opened up the water channels – for a while at least. Although the region has a long history of rainfall variability, the trend in recent decades has been … The connector is often blocked by moving sand dunes, making the lake floor useless as major local cropland. Image of the Day Save the planet. Deep and shallow. Two kinds of mobile livestock breeding systems are practiced: transhumant and nomadic. With only 3.8 percent of Mali having arable land, one can understand the benefits that a restored lake could bring. Starting in the late 1980s, a drop in precipitation steadily dried the lake. rebels attacked people in villages around Lake Faguibine, located to the northwest of Goundam, which were then abandoned and whose weekly markets were shut down. are excluded from the new lands in … Even though normal rainfall resumed after the year 2000, the lake remained nearly dry. Tricart et al. It is then harvested when the waters recede. Event Coverage - Jul 2013. Just 3.8 percent of the country’s land is arable, and increased use of natural resources combined with prolonged drought have nudged the country toward desertification, according to a report issued by the United Nations Environment Programme. Plastic pollution is an environmental injustice to vulnerable communities – new report, West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), New UNEP synthesis provides blueprint to urgently solve planetary emergencies and secure humanity’s future, ‘One health’ approach critical to tackle health inequality and emerging diseases, Improved livelihoods of about 200,000 mainly nomadic people living in the area, A lifeline for thousands of migratory water birds restored, Increased availability of drinking water for humans and livestock; improved groundwater resources, Enhanced local sustainable natural resource management. All these factors combine to deprive Lake Faguibine of much needed water. Land Lake level at Faguibine is less affected by local rainfall patterns. Starting in the late 1980s, a drop in precipitation steadily dried the lake. This means the farmers here don’t need tractors or fertilizer, they can simply plant a seed like a tree and the plant will just grow – this is true for thousands and thousands of hectares." All these factors combine to deprive Lake Faguibine of much needed water. Sand dunes block parts of the channels, thereby preventing the replenishment of the lake. Interviewed in 2009 by UNEP expert Levis Kavagi, retired Col Tidiani Ascofare, the man leading the Government’s efforts to restore Lake Faguibine’s ecosystem at the time, said: ‘’In 2006, only 100 hectares of land around the lake was farmed. This year [2009] it will be more than 20,000 hectares. The Lake Faguibine System, four interlinked lakes 80 km west of Timbuktu, was historically one of Mali's most fertile areas. Made with a combination of visible and infrared light, the images show vegetation as red, water as blue, and bare ground in shades of beige and gray. Land 4.3. With the drying out of Lake Faguibine, those water dependent activities are no longer relevant. He said: 'I am an orphan of this dead lake because I lived and flourished by the lake when it was a wonderful place for fishermen and farmers and pastoralists. Land By mid-June 2009, the rare filling of this lake in Australia’s Simpson Desert appeared to have reached its peak. United Nations efforts to date Heat The region's prosperity evaporated along with the water. The series of good floods from 1924 to 1930 and from 1951 to 1955 completely filled the lake. It is the latest in a series coordinated by UNEP, and the agency’s Executive Director Achim Steiner stressed that “the stark reality they portray” can catalyze action on the ground, citing the impact of the African atlas in Mali, where a project to restore the lost Lake Faguibine is now underway. Lake Faguibine, the northernmost lake, in December after replenishing Lake Tele in August and Lake Takara in November.3 When the flood reaches its peak level, the lakes, pools, and channels enter a stage of recession as the waters return to the Niger River. In years when the height of the annual flood of the … But over seven years, droughts in the 1970s dried up the lakes. In the past, during prolonged rainfall in the Fouta Djallon highlands in Guinea, the river flooded and forced water to flow through two channels into the lake. One of them made a rousing appeal to me that I will always remember. Water. It followed UNEP’s successful ecosystem rehabilitation of the Iraqi Marshlands, the world’s largest wetland ecosystems. Lying at the end of a series of basins watered by the Niger River when it floods, Lake Faguibine has experienced widely fluctuating water levels since the turn of the twentieth century but, at its fullest, has ranked among the largest lakes in West Africa. We believe that Faguibine is highly responsive to both fluctuations in the water volume of the Niger River, reflecting precipitation falling on the rainforest zone, far up river, and also geomorphological processes. 41 Mid-1980s, maximum depth was around 8metres with 4.72km2 coverage Siltation caused by deforestation of charcoal production). land use was previously dominated by agriculture and very few residential settlements. An example is the drying of Lake Faguibine in northern Mali due to extended low precipitation, in which the ecological transformation caused communities to change from fishing and farming to harvesting forest products (Djoudi et al. Image of the Day Upstream, people use the water for large-scale irrigation and to produce hydropower. Our results show that the Recent uses of …