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M.IDEA News and Events

Guest Lecture by Chris Reij of the Sahel Re-Greening Initiative

On Friday 15 August, M.IDEA hosted a presentation by Chris Reij entitled ‘Developing another Green Revolution in Africa: Some Lessons from the Poorest Country in the World (Niger).

According to Chris Reij, there has been a remarkable turnaround of positive vegetation changes in Niger Republic, a country generally considered to be ‘lost’ to the advance of the Sahara desert. Over the last 20 years, Niger has experienced a net gain in tree cover, despite being one of the poorest and most drought-prone countries in the world. Chris spoke about how this occurred in the absence of any significant government or foreign aid interventions in the forestry sector, based on the successful Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration model that has spread throughout the Niger Republic. Chris then discussed how this initiative got started, its current status and what is happening in neighbouring Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, and Chad.

About the Speaker

Chris Reij is a human geographer by training, who began working in the Sahel in 1978 as a regional planner. Since 1982 he has been with the Center for International Cooperation of VU University Amsterdam. He has been involved in numerous consultancies for multilateral and bilateral agencies (World Bank, IFAD, UNSO, OECD/Club du Sahel, EU/CTA) as well as for NGOs mainly in, but also outside, Africa. In the last 10 years Chris has been coordinating research programs on indigenous soil and water conservation practices in Africa (13 countries), on farmer innovation in Africa (7 countries) and on long-term trends in agriculture and environment, as well as impacts of investments in natural resource management (4 countries). He is coordinator of the Sahel Re-Greening Initiative, a coalition of NGOs promoting revegetation in four countries of the Sahel region of North Africa. 

Development Internships

In their final semester most M.IDEA students undertake an internship- with an international development or environmental agency. The- internship allows students to gain hands-on experience working with- other development professionals and begin networking with individuals- and organisations within the industry. Students undertake the- internships with organisations both here in Australia and overseas. Here- are some recent internship reports.

Sharna Nolan – M.IDEA Alumnus Extraordinaire

Sharna Nolan completed her M.IDEA course in November 2005 in Alice Springs, where she was working on a community development project. Prior to joining the course, Sharna was already no stranger to development – she was an Australian Youth Ambassador to China, where she worked on agricultural research and training in Ganzu, the second poorest province in the country.
Sharna then joined the joint Monash University Central European University Master Course in Environmental Policy, spending a semester in Budapest, Hungary before traveling across Europe and Morocco. She then applied for a position with the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU), in Kabul, Afghanistan. Sharna works as Research Support Officer, liaising between senior AREU researchers and partner NGOs to assure the quality of data, and contributes to report writing and various information dissemination activities. She is also the driving force behind a capacity building program for land conflict management.

While noting that Afghanistan is a dangerous place to work, Sharna points out that most of the population are very supportive of NGOs and NGO workers. Mainly, she just has to use common sense, and be wary of being ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’.

Sharna hopes to remain in Afghanistan for another year, before perhaps moving to Africa to  work in the conservation biology arena - perhaps in eco-tourism or developing co-management strategies for biologically diverse areas. Most of all, she wants to keep meeting interesting people and experiencing other cultures.  

 

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