A1. Strategic Watershed Planning:
This subcomponent will support large-scale integrated watershed management planning. Plans will be prepared for up to 20 watersheds, covering all of northern Nigeria. Rapid initial versions will be prepared in less than a year, with refined updates to be prepared throughout the project lifetime.
The planning will be carried out using analytical approaches and through development of a modern knowledge base (including collation of existing data from in situ and earth observation and biophysical surveys). Extensive participatory stakeholder consultations will be fundamental.
ACReSAL will strengthen multisectorality at the institutional and policy level but the project’s design additionally emphasizes the importance of multisectoral SLWM planning. The multisectoral planning process will prioritize project investments, expected to include those 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 of Nigeria supported under Subcomponent C1.
A2. Landscape Investments: This 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, 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.
A3. Special Ecosystems: Investments under this subcomponent will support better management and conservation of special ecosystems in all participating states, including wetlands, desert oases, and protected areas. Investments could include those related to wetland improvements, monitoring systems, inventories of the status of these ecosystems, 30 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. Actions to increase application of current policies and regulations applicable to special ecosystems, the review or improvement of these policies and capacity building of institutions responsible for their management and conservation are included under Subcomponent C1.
