Image: Yempabou Ouoba, iStock
Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in West Africa, is already suffering the impacts of climate change. In recent years, extreme rain and flooding events have increased, combined with long droughts which exacerbate land degradation and desertification. This has devastated agriculture, with 46% of Burkina Faso’s total arable land now degraded. Every year, between 105,000 to 250,000 hectares of land becomes degraded, posing a serious threat to food security, health, and the well-being of the country’s rural communities.
There are devastating impacts from these climate change-related weather events on both the short- and long-term. Extreme precipitation can lead to crop losses and infrastructure damage in the immediate term; while flooding and drought can also cause far-reaching issues such as reduced soil quality due to land erosion, which all lead to profound impacts on public health, agriculture, and the economy.
46% of Burkina Faso’s total arable land [is] now degraded
In addition, continuous extreme flooding and drought cycles have resulted in the displacement of people – forced to leave their homes and livelihoods in search of security. Eighty per cent of the Burkinabè are employed in agriculture, therefore degraded land resulting in agricultural decline, combined with the increasing conflict and food insecurity has meant a displacement increase of over 7,000% since August 2018. This is one of the fastest-growing displacement rates in the world, alongside Mozambique and Ukraine.
To combat widespread land degradation, Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Finance, supported by the NDC Partnership, are proposing a land restoration project using nature-based infrastructure (NBI). Encompassing just over 100,000 square kilometres of the Sahel, Boucle du Mouhoun, Eastern, and Cascades regions, the project aims to regenerate 37% of the country’s total land cover.
Estimated to directly benefit over 26,000 households, the project also encourages gender-responsive NBI, ensuring that almost 8,000 women receive support. In addition, over 600,000 individuals are expected to indirectly benefit by the initiative, with hopes to further scale the approach in the country during future phases.
To quantify the benefits and avoided costs this project could bring, we assessed three scenarios for land restoration: a fully nature-based approach, a hybrid solution combining NBI with a solar-powered irrigation pumping system and traditional grey infrastructure. The NBI scenario focuses on a combination of tree planting, climate-smart agricultural practices, and the establishment of combined agro-silvo-pastoral (ASP) areas which integrate agriculture, grasslands, fruit crops (mango and citrus), and livestock farming. Together, these solutions aim to reduce land erosion, enhance water retention and improve soil quality, thereby boosting agricultural productivity.
The hybrid solution utilizes the land restoration practices and climate-smart agriculture, adding a solar-powered irrigation pumping system. This integrated approach aims to combat soil erosion, enhance water management, and achieve higher agricultural yields and income. Finally, we assess a fully grey infrastructure approach, through the construction of a water reservoir and irrigation system. All three approaches account for the use of organic pesticides which are already used by local farmers. They offer an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional pesticides, aligning with the nature-based and hybrid approaches, supporting sustainable agricultural practices and minimizing negative impacts on ecosystems and human health.
This assessment employs a combination of spatial analysis, climate data, excel-based modelling, and financial analysis to conduct an integrated cost-benefit analysis (CBA).
Our results
What does this mean?
For every 1 USD invested, NBI delivers USD 14.8 in benefits.
- Both the nature-based and hybrid interventions also perform better than the grey infrastructure alternative of water storage and irrigation, while delivering valuable added socioeconomic benefits that conventional infrastructure cannot provide. For every 1 USD invested, NBI delivers USD 14.8 in benefits.
- Both the NBI and the hybrid interventions are therefore economically sound investments, yielding a net integrated value of USD 869.57 million and USD 1.09 billion, respectively. The scenarios result in enhanced agricultural productivity, resulting in higher crop and ASP area incomes, fostering improved food security, nutrition, and health benefits.
- The use of NBI increases carbon storage, helping to mitigate climate change, which generates an avoided cost of USD 28.1 million and offers potential financing opportunities through carbon credits.
- NBI avoids the displacement of people from their homes, increases stability, and reduces the potential for conflicts and violence by providing the community with reliable income sources and food security through climate-smart agriculture and protecting them from flood damage through climate-resilient infrastructure.
- The implementation of the nature-based infrastructure can be replicated, scaling across Burkina Faso and beyond, to effectively combat desertification and sustain rural livelihoods.
So, what’s next?
This report serves as a valuable resource for evaluating potential financial investment for the project. By determining the optimal financial structure for the project, as well as calculating the expected return on investment across the various scenarios, we hope to increase the bankability of this project and see the implementation of this large scale NBI project. Our analysis combines financial forecasting methods based on projected cash flows, economic valuations of natural ecosystem services, and considers other co-benefits offered by the project. All our assessment are fully customized to the local context, through close collaboration with the NDC Partnership and government stakeholders in Burkina Faso.
For more information, read the full report, read about our financing work here or get in touch to discover how we can help in strategizing financing approaches for your project. If you want to learn more about our model and how we produce an integrated cost-benefit analysis, you can also sign up for our NBI Academy.
Written by Becca Challis and Edoardo Carlucci, with thanks to NDC Partnership, Marco Guzzetti, Liesbeth Casier and Benjamin Simmons.
