Multi-Country – Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger — W-Park Biodiversity Pilot Project in Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage site.
Key objectives
To promote the conservation of biodiversity and fight desertification while fulfilling the basic needs – such as safe drinking water, health care and rural electrification – of the populations living in the buffer and transition zones around the park.
Description
In 2003, the Partnership completed a demonstration project in the W Park, a UNESCO declared World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve. The project was conducted in collaboration with the three host countries – Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger – as well as with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the European Union (EU).
The project identified renewable energy supply systems that will promote the conservation of biodiversity in the core area of the park and fight desertification while fulfilling the basic needs – such as safe drinking water, health care and rural electrification – of the populations living in the buffer and transition zones around the park. A number of different installations and measures were implemented under this project.
Management of the installations has been transferred to the local populations, who, through cooperatives based on traditional systems already in existence in West Africa, have taken over ownership of the equipment and installations and the responisibility for their operation and maintenance. The project has resulted in direct job creation, increased eco-tourism within the region, improved health care and access to safe drinking water for populations in and around the W Park.
In 2006, a five-year maintenance and monitoring plan, funded by the European Union, was launched to ensure the preservation and sustainability of the project, under the administration of the W Park local project (ECOPAS).
G-SEP (Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership)
