Mali 2010 ceci mai 2931f mali karite sechage

Completed project

Improving Women's Resilience to Climate Change in Shea Parks

Burkina Faso

Adapting to climate change

Date

July 2018 to March 2021

Financial contributions

$1,420,009 CAD

Government of Quebec (International Climate Cooperation Program): $999,999 CAD; Global Affairs Canada (Voluntary Cooperation Program): $377,998 CAD; Contribution from local partners: $42,012 CAD

Consortium partners

OURANOS, GECA Environnement

Local partners: Agence Nationale de Météorologie du Burkina (ANAM), Fondation des Amis de la Nature (NATURAMA), Centre Écologique Albert Schweitzer (CEAS-Burkina), Fédération NUNUNA, Réseau des productrices de beurre de karité des Hauts Bassins et des Cascades (RPBHC)

Impact for

3 000 households

that directly benefit from the project through climate change adaptation and 16,500 people that benefit indirectly from the project through local partners or outreach activities.

The Résilience-karité project has been developed in response to the challenges of aging parks, pest attacks, deforestation and, above all, the threats posed by climate change in all its dimensions. Its aim is to increase the resilience to climate change of women involved in the collection, processing and marketing of shea products in the rural regions of Centre-Ouest and Hauts-Bassins, Burkina Faso.

The aim of these components is to provide training and technical support for capacity building (training and advisory support) for women leaders and trainers/facilitators, shea producers and other community leaders on the likely impacts of climate change, the sustainable management of shea parks, recommended adaptation strategies based on climate scenarios and analyses, and alternatives to wood fuel, as well as support for household investment in activities demonstrating these practices.

Similarly, the activities implemented are expected to contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by around 26,000 kilotons of CO2 equivalent per year, the equivalent of 12 tonnes of protected shea wood and 211 hectares of forest saved each year.

Objectives

1 / 4

Protecting shea trees using scientific data and local knowledge

The climate threat to shea trees means that their ecosystems need to be closely monitored. To achieve this, the project will draw on the expertise of climate specialists from the Ouranos consortium to produce climate scenarios based on meteorological data and local knowledge in Burkina Faso, in collaboration with the Agence Nationale de Météorologie du Burkina Faso (ANAM) and the NATURAMA foundation.

We are also building the capacity of Burkinabe institutions and NGOs, as well as community leaders and organizations of women shea producers, so that these players are able to interpret climate scenarios and use them to improve their practices in the face of the effect of climate hazards on shea.

Cost-benefit analyses are also carried out to ensure that the adaptation options chosen are the most appropriate in economic and social terms, both in the short and long term.

Promoting sustainable forest resource management practices

Demonstration plots are set up to popularize agro-silvicultural practices better adapted to climate change. Around 400 shea-producing households, 60% of them women, receive financial support to implement improved agro-silvicultural practices or demonstration plots.

Promoting innovative alternatives to wood energy

The project provided training and technical support for the implementation of alternatives to fuelwood, including “improved pyrolysis”, a technique that produces biochar from organic residues (notably from shea processing), one of the measures implemented by the project in collaboration with GECA Environnement and CEAS-Burkina.

Efforts have also been made to identify and disseminate other innovative technologies that could offer farm households an alternative to wood fuel, such as improved stoves, solar dryers and the use of briquettes as fuel.

Two semi-industrial biochar production units run by women have been set up, to add value to residues from the shea industry and improve access to biochar briquettes in the villages.

Strengthening women's leadership and economic power

As women are at the heart of the shea industry, we are working with leaders of women producers' organizations and other community leaders to strengthen their power, leadership, use of climate scenarios and adaptation or mitigation measures to cope with climate change.

Ultimately, the project aims to help establish a more climate-resilient socio-economic system, particularly for women who will be better prepared to protect shea parks and safeguard their incomes in the long term.

Greater resilience to climate change

Shea, the future for women in Burkina Faso

In Burkina Faso, shea products provide a livelihood for 1.5 million people, 90% of whom are women. But for several years now, the shea tree has been exposed to a number of threats, including ageing parks, pest attack, deforestation and, above all, threats linked to climate change.
In addition to the many social, economic and ecological benefits that the shea industry brings to communities, there are also major environmental problems associated with it. In particular, the production of shea butter requires a great deal of wood energy, and local capacity to recycle the waste associated with this production is low.

For CECI, the project's most important spin-off is the recognition and legitimacy it has gained in the fight against climate change in the shea butter sector in Burkina Faso. The approaches and technologies put forward by the project offer concrete solutions to problems that have long been part of the daily lives of women shea producers, such as the use of charcoal as an energy source for the production of shea butter, and the management of residues from the processing of shea kernels. Improved pyrolysis offers a sustainable solution to both these problems, since it enables residues to be transformed into biochar, which in turn replaces charcoal as an energy source.

Burkina 2009 E St Pierre 1209 Karite Torrefaction

Mali 2010 e st pierre 1963 karite reuecolte

4 236

people, 98% of them women, members of organizations of shea producers and processors, have been trained in practices adapted to climate change

2 221

women, members of the same organizations, took part in training courses on the manufacture and use of biochar briquettes as an alternative to firewood and charcoal. 320 of them received improved stoves designed specifically for the use of biochar briquettes.

320

of them received improved stoves designed specifically for the use of biochar briquettes

210

beehives have been installed in shea farms managed by women, in order to improve the productivity of the farms while helping to diversify women producers' sources of income