Mali Monitoring

2014-11-12

Johan has started an assignment in Mali to monitor a programme called Sustainable Development in the Inland Delta of the Niger River on behalf of the Swedish embassy in Bamako and Sida. The delta is huge, about 41,000 square km, larger than the Swedish region of Småland, and home to about 2 million people. It is central to the country’s supply of rice and other food crops. However, it is under threat since climate change has caused rainfall in the mountains upstream to fall with the result that the annual inundations have been reduced in size and a smaller area is irrigated each year. At the same time the local population degrades existing forests in search for firewood and there is strong land erosion. Johan’s assignment will continue through next year.