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MAURITANIA 2024. Addressing desertification through innovation

19-25 October 2024. Mifta El Kheir/Nouakchott/Bagdad, Mauritania. Climate change and rising temperatures in Mauritania are accelerating desertification and exacerbating food insecurity and poverty. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) supports communities in this country to grow food by halting desertification and restoring fertile land. The intervention includes innovative solutions like agricultural drones to scale up impact.

Duration 4m56s

Edit Version International

Video Type Video News Release (VNR)

Date 12/04/2024 5:40 PM

File size 650.95 MB

Unique ID UF212XE

Production details and shotlist

UNFAO Source FAO Video

Shotlist STORY: MAURITANIA / ADDRESSING DESERTIFICATION THROUGH INNOVATION
TRT: 04’:56’’
SOURCE: FAO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT FAO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / FRENCH / HASSANIYA / NATS
DATELINE: 19-25 OCTOBER 2024, MAURITANIA / CHECK SHOTLIST

SHOTLIST

21-22 OCTOBER 2024, MIFTA EL KHEIR, MAURITANIA
1. Aerial shot, dune encroachment
2. Close up, wind blowing over a sand dune
3. Pan left, dune encroachment
4. Med shot, Teslim Mint Soueilim and a group of farmers working in the community farm
5. Close up, farmer Teslim Mint Soueilim working in the community farm
6. SOUNDBITE (Hassaniya), Teslim Mint Soueilim, farmer: "This year, the rain has not been good in the region. Compared to other years, the season was bad."
7. Wide shot, Teslim Mint Soueilim and a group of farmers working in the community farm
8. Close up, hoe digging the ground
9. Med shot, Moctar Sacande (right), FAO Senior Forestry Officer, showing Teslim Mint Soueilim (left) how to collect plant seeds for seeding
10. Wide shot, Moctar Sacande (right), FAO Senior Forestry Officer, inspecting a banana tree with Teslim Mint Soueilim (left)
11. Close up, Banana fruits
12. Pan right, FAO Senior Forestry Officer Moctar Sacande (right) and Teslim Mint Soueilim (left) checking a solar panel topped by a water cistern
13. Med shot, farmer filling a watering can
14. Close up, farmer watering a plant
15. Wide shot, Teslim Mint Soueilim feeding chickens
16. Close up, chickens eating

25 OCTOBER 2024, NOUAKCHOTT, MAURITANIA
17. SOUNDBITE (French), Abakar Mahamat Zougoulou, Scientific and Technical Director of the Pan-African Agency for the Great Green Wall: "We have to support these populations with income-generating activities. These activities can bring income in three months, four months, six months maximum. And that is what the FACI are, the facilities to first secure the populations, so that they participate in the major reforestation actions."

21-22 OCTOBER 2024, MIFTA EL KHEIR, MAURITANIA
18. Aerial shot, community farm with Mifta el Kheir village on the background
19. Aerial shot, dune stabilization site
20. Aerial shot, Mifta el Kheir village
21. Close up, bird singing on a tree
22. Pull focus, Acacia Senegal tree for gum Arabic production
23. Close up, desert date
24. Wide shot, a group of farmers working in the community farm
25. Close up, farmer working in the community farm
26. SOUNDBITE (Hassaniya), Teslim Mint Soueilim, farmer: "Everything around us was occupied by dunes, but since the project was implemented, the dunes have been stabilized. Many trees have grown since the project started."

19 OCTOBER 2024, BAGDAD, MAURITANIA
27. Aerial shot, semi-arid landscape

24 OCTOBER, NOUAKCHOTT, MAURITANIA
28. Aerial shot, desert landscape
29. Aerial shot, green belt of Nouakchott
30. SOUNDBITE (English), Moctar Sacande, FAO Senior Forestry Officer - Head of the Action Against Desertification programme: “Mauritania is in the unique position that it is kind of the entry point, the barrier or the gate to help also other countries farther south. If you go south, for example, you have the same [desertification] phenomenon in Senegal. But if you don't manage to block it from the Mauritania side, of course it'll go down the further south.”

19 OCTOBER 2024, BAGDAD, MAURITANIA
31. Wide shot, FAO Senior Forestry Officer Moctar Sacande discussing with drone operator before aerial seeding operations
32. Close up, FAO Senior Forestry Officer Moctar Sacande filling the drone tank with seeds
33. Med shot, agricultural drone taking off
34. Close up, agricultural drone dispatching seeds
35. Aerial shot, agricultural drone dispatching seeds

24 OCTOBER, NOUAKCHOTT, MAURITANIA
36. SOUNDBITE (English), Moctar Sacande, FAO Senior Forestry Officer - Head of the Action Against Desertification programme: "The best of the solutions that we have got so far to go at scale is to use drone technology to help with seeding. For the direct seeding of 100 hectares, the community will seed a maximum of 20 to 25 hectares, and then we use drone technology to mimic that and dispatch the direct seeding to 80 or 75 hectares. That has come as a useful tool to compensate what the communities cannot access by hand using the drone technology to dispatch the seed for the direct seeding. Massive improvement."

19 OCTOBER 2024, BAGDAD, MAURITANIA
37. Aerial shot, agricultural drone taking off
38. Aerial shot, agricultural drone flying
39. Aerial shot, agricultural drone flying
40. Med shot, farmers receiving seeds for manual seeding
41. Wide shot, farmers seeding manually
42. Med shot, farmers seeding manually

21-22 OCTOBER 2024, MIFTA EL KHEIR, MAURITANIA
43. Aerial shot, community farm of Mifta el Kheir
44. Aerial shot, community farm with Mifta el Kheir village on the background

Script In Mauritania climate change and rising temperatures are accelerating desertification and exacerbating food insecurity and poverty.

In this country in northwest Africa, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) supports the communities to grow food by halting desertification and restoring fertile land.

The threat of advancing sand dunes and land degradation is strikingly evident across Mauritania which is almost 90 percent desert. Without intervention, rural communities risk losing not only their homes and villages, but also their livelihoods, food sources and livestock.

Teslim Mint Soueilim, a 65-year-old mother of four, is a farmer and community leader in Mifta el Kheir, a village on the verge of the Sahara about 150 kilometres south-east of Mauritania’s capital Nouakchott. She has witnessed the impact of the changing climate.

SOUNDBITE (Hassaniya), Teslim Mint Soueilim, farmer:
"This year, the rain has not been good in the region. Compared to other years, the season was bad."

FAO’s Action Against Desertification programme is supporting Mauritanian communities in creating protective barriers around their villages. The barriers consist of restored and reforested land used as community farms, known by locals as Ferme Agricole Communautaire Intégrée (FACI).

Farmers like Teslim grow vegetables, fruit trees, forage crops and poultry on the community farms for their own consumption and generate income from sales in local markets.

Teslim's community has benefited from the support of the Mauritania National Agency for the Great Green Wall. This includes provision of boreholes and solar panels for irrigation, seeds and seedlings of fruit trees such as banana, mango, jujube and dates, and a chicken hut to generate income. The agency is responsible for the fight against desertification in the country in partnership with FAO.

Community involvement is a central element of the Great Green Wall initiative, which is not only aimed at combatting desertification but also at creating sustainable livelihoods for rural populations, explains Abakar Mahamat Zougoulou, Scientific and Technical Director of the Pan-African Agency of the Great Green Wall.

SOUNDBITE (French), Abakar Mahamat Zougoulou, Scientific and Technical Director of the Pan-African Agency for the Great Green Wall:
"We have to support these populations with income-generating activities. These activities can bring income in three months, four months, six months maximum. And that is what the FACI are, the facilities to first secure the populations, so that they participate in the major reforestation actions."

Plants and trees cultivated on community farms shield villages from encroaching sand. Native species, including the desert date and the Acacia Senegal for gum Arabic production, are selected in consultation with the communities for their resilience to Mauritania's arid conditions.

SOUNDBITE (Hassaniya), Teslim Mint Soueilim, farmer:
"Everything around us was occupied by dunes, but since the project was implemented, the dunes have been stabilized. Many trees have grown since the project started."

Mauritania is in a key location to contain the Sahara's advance further south explains Moctar Sacande, FAO Senior Forestry Officer and head of the Action Against Desertification programme.

SOUNDBITE (English), Moctar Sacande, FAO Senior Forestry Officer - Head of the Action Against Desertification programme:
“Mauritania is in the unique position that it is kind of the entry point, the barrier or the gate to help also other countries farther south. If you go south, for example, you have the same [desertification] phenomenon in Senegal. But if you don't manage to block it from the Mauritania side, of course it'll go down the further south.”

To expand the impact of the Great Green Wall, FAO is supporting the introduction of innovative solutions such as agricultural drones to seed for land restoration in large, scarcely populated areas. This technology allows small communities to restore larger areas in less time notes Sacande.

SOUNDBITE (English), Moctar Sacande, FAO Senior Forestry Officer - Head of the Action Against Desertification programme:
"The best of the solutions that we have got so far to go at scale is to use drone technology to help with seeding. For the direct seeding of 100 hectares, the community will seed a maximum of 20 to 25 hectares, and then we use drone technology to mimic that and dispatch the direct seeding to 80 or 75 hectares. That has come as a useful tool to compensate what the communities cannot access by hand using the drone technology to dispatch the seed for the direct seeding. Massive improvement."

The interventions in Mauritania are part of the implementation of Africa’s Great Green Wall initiative aiming to create green, productive landscapes across the 8 000 kilometres of North Africa, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa.

Adopted by the African Union in 2007, the Great Green Wall initiative seeks to restore 100 million hectares of degraded land across the 11 participating countries by 2030.

The Great Green Wall in Mauritania aims to restore half a million hectares of degraded land by 2030.

In 2023, for the first time on record, FAO estimated that more than 4 billion people lived in countries experiencing temperatures exceeding 1.5°C above average. FAO also estimated that almost 3 billion hectares, corresponding to 60 percent of the agricultural area, were exposed to higher-than-average temperatures. The growing frequency and intensity of disasters and extreme weather are increasing the vulnerabilities of those relying on weather-dependent agriculture, aggravating poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition. Reducing land degradation through agricultural lands restoration will contribute to the transition toward sustainable agrifood systems, with more and better food production and for a better environment.

FAO's Action Against Desertification programme is implemented with financial support from the European Union, with acti