Integration of climate change adaptation measures in the concerted management of the WAP transboundary complex: ADAPT-WAP (Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger)

The W-Arly-Pendjari (WAP) Complex is one of Africa’s most important compositions of terrestrial transboundary ecosystems. It is considered as the largest and most important continuum of unharmed ecosystems in the West African savannah belt. Shared by Benin, Burkina and Niger, this network of protected areas consists of a number of areas with different status and protection regimes. The natural resources of the WAP Complex represent a major asset for the local populations whose livelihoods are mainly based on agriculture, livestock breeding, fishery, forest resources (wood and non-wood products), and tourism.

However, the WAP Complex is subject to multiple pressures and threats, mainly conflicts of use, poaching, overgrazing, agricultural lands expansion, transhumance, bushfires, surface water pollution, climate change and variability, unsustainable fishery and use of wood and non-wood products. Added to this, the WAP Complex is located in an agro-pastoral region characterized by high inter-annual variability exacerbated by climate change which makes it more vulnerable.

The project will focus on the following issues:

• Droughts leading to uncontrolled movement of pastoralists,
• Floods threatening the safety of populations and plains by the loss of crops,
• Uncontrolled bushfires leading to the shrinking of forest areas and caused by both human and natural factors,
• Expansion of agricultural lands increasing pressure on natural resources and inducing loss of ecosystem services as carbon sequestration.

The project aims to strengthen the resilience of ecosystems and improve populations’ livelihoods within the WAP Complex in relation with the climate change issue through the establishment of a Multi-Risk Early Warning System and the implementation of concrete adaptation measures.

The project specific objectives are:

1. Improve Strategic reference documents, i.e. development and management plans, by integrating the climate change issues.
2. Increase the resilience of populations through an Early Warning System and providing relevant and timely information on the occurrence of extreme weather events in the WAP Complex and its adjacent areas.
3. Improve the resilience of ecosystems (fauna and flora) and populations’ livelihoods through the development of infrastructure, (transhumance corridors, drinking troughs, and anti-flood structures…),
4. Ensure the sustainability of adaptation measures through mobilization and sensitization of beneficiaries and partners to master the tools developed and to execute the planned activities.

Project Documents