ECOWAS : Water Management for Cropland and Rangeland Management Associated countries

• Mauritanie / Sénégal / Gambie / Cap Vert / Guinée Bissau / Guinée Conakry / Sierra Léone / Libéria / Cote d'Ivoire / Ghana / Togo / Bénin / Nigeria / Tchad / Niger / Burkina Faso / Mali

Objectives and Thematic Actions

The overall objective of the AMESD program in the ECOWAS region is accessing water management for cropland and rangeland management and monitoring for sustainable management of environmental resources.

It is aimed at developing operational geo-information services and strengthening the information management capacity of regional and national institutions in order to support decision and policy making processes.

The ECOWAS THEMA aims inter alia at improving the national structures (Ministries of Agriculture, Ministries of Environment, etc.) within the ECOWAS Region (enlarged to Mauritania and Chad), in environmental management to alleviate poverty in one of the poorest area of the planet.

It is to increase the information management capacity in the region provided by the regional and national institutions that are responsible for managing water linked to the agricultural and livestock resources management. It lastly aims to support the regional decision makers by facilitating access to environmental information derived from Earth Observation data for the West Africa Region.

Regional Implementation Centre (RIC)

• Centre Régional Agrhymet (CRA)
• Key products: Vegetation state, Dry matter productivity, Phenology, Fraction cover, small water bodies, active fires, burnt areas
• Distributed in near real time by EUMETCast and internet
• Key users: ECOWAS, CILSS,
• International and regional organisations, national authorities
  

Service « Production and Distribution of indicators for four environmental themes chosen by the users »:

• Estimation of yields of cultural and pastural land
• Dryland areas and drought risks
• Filling levels of small water bodies to support livestock management
• Savannah fires

Region ECOWAS: THEMA Implementation Regional implementation

• EUMETCast (PUMA and AMESD) reception stations localisation

Region ECOWAS: Regional and national actions

Actions at regional level

• Creation of a data base of AMESD data and products
• Elaboration of AMESD thematic information products on use for selected themes
• Implementation of information services for the diffusion of AMESD products
• Diffusion of AMESD products via EUMETCast and Internet
• Training of trainers for the use of AMESD products
• Training of technicians and thematic experts for the instituions hosting AMESD stations
• Organisation of regional meetings of sensitization of decision makers

Actions at country level

• Upgrade of PUMA station network for the reception of AMESD products
• Installation of new AMESD stations
• Organisation of information workshops on AMESD products
• Implementation of AMESD national focal points to facilitate the exchange of AMESD products and their use by decision makers

Bushfires are common in West African landscape. While they are often set to manage natural resources, they may also be dangerous. The advances made in the domain of remote sensing make it possible nowadays to detect burning bushfires and to carry out a regular monitoring of their occurrence.

The first bulletin on fires issued by AGRHYMET/AMESD on April 2010 analyzes the distribution of burning fires detected with the use of MODIS captors in different West African countries. The reliability of satellite data was verified on the ground by validation missions carried out in Benin and Senegal in February 2010 by AGRHYMET teams in collaboration with national partners from the AMESD network.

More information is available on the following link:

http://www.dev.amesd.org/en/library/cat_view/43-newsletter.html