rapid RESCUE in Niger

The Termit and Tin-toumma National Nature Reserve (TTNNR) in the southeast of Niger is the largest terrestrial protected area in Africa. It brings together four remarkable ecosystems: the Termit massif, the Tin-Toumma desert, the Sahelian Acacia savanna and the Saharan steppe. The reserve is the last refuge for many of the endangered species that live in the Sahelo-Sahara region, harboring populations of species that are now rare or have vanished from the rest of the region.

Between 3,000 and 5,000 nomads are using the Termit and Tin-toumma National Nature Reserve for livestock herding. Due to increased insecurity around the border, more and more people and pastoralists are fleeing the area with their livestock. This influx of people in and around the reserve puts high pressure on the ecosystem as the result of overuse of natural resources (like using trees for houses and fuelwood), growing human-wildlife conflicts, the intrusion of pastoralists into undisturbed wildlife habitat, and transmissions of pathogens from livestock to wildlife and humans.

The Rapid RESCUE Fund is supporting Noé’s efforts to mitigate conflicts between livestock and wildlife, and between different communities, to maintain wildlife populations and assure food security in one of the poorest countries in the world, helping to take pressure off the reserve.

Total project costs: $900,000 ($300,000 Rapid RESCUE funding; $600,000
co-financing)