Land degradation in the North of Senegal is a vast dynamic, impacting foremost the local agro-pastoral communities. The harsh consequences are food insecurity, migration, social conflict, and degrading health conditions.
The project Tamba 20.000 - Regeneration d’ Écosystèmes pour des Communautés Résiliants (RECR) ), aims at supporting the resilience of these communities - in terms of food security and social strength - by ensuring sustainable access to fertile land. The intervention model is based on “the creation and management of a common good”. The management of the “common good” (initially a site of 250ha of degraded land per community) is inspired by the principles of E. Ostrom and embedded in a community program and a long-term partnership agreement. Key drivers of the program are:

• EARTHWORKS: the creation of micro-basins to reinforce infiltration
• VEGETALISATION: a combination of grasses and local tree species
• LAND USE MANAGEMENT: a program of extensive community engagement to manage the grazing and reinforce the appropriation and protection
• VALORISATION: sustainable exploitation of non-timber forest products (Gomme Arabique, Neem and Balanites) and grass land.

The project is at a first implementation stage, whereby the regeneration on 4.000 ha of Savana has started. At this first stage the intervention model and programme - that has been successfully developed and deployed by Hommes Et Terre in Burkina Faso and Mali on 40.000 hectares - has been adapted to the specific Senegalese context (in terms of land rights and governance structures) and regional specificities (pastoral practices and socio-economic reality).