Desert Margins Programme (DMP) Tranche 2

This is the second phase of the Desert Margins Programme (DMP) project. The overall objective of the DMP is to arrest land degradation in Africa’s desert margins through demonstration and capacity building activities developed through unraveling the complex causative factors of desertification, both climatic (internal) and human-induced (external), and the formulation and piloting of appropriate holistic solutions. The wider objective (Goal) of the DMP GEF project is to conserve and restore biodiversity in the desert margins through sustainable utilization. Its specific objective (Purpose) is to develop and implement strategies for conservation, restoration and sustainable use of dryland biodiversity (to enhance ecosystem function and resilience). The GEF increment to this project will enable the programme to address issues of global environmental importance, in addition to the issues of national economic and environmental importance, and in particular the loss of biological diversity, reduced sequestration of carbon, and increased soil erosion and sedimentation, associated with land degradation in these arid and semi-arid ecotones.