Enhanced climate resilience of rural communities in central and north Benin through the implementation of ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) in forest and agricultural landscapes

Most of Benin’s rapidly growing population lives in rural areas, where agriculture supports about 70 percent of population’s livelihoods, and provides about 80 percent of export income to the economy. This strong dependency on agriculture is heavily impacted by environmental degradation and climate change. The project objective is to halt the negative cycle of climate change, agricultural yield depletion and natural resource degradation in central and northern Benin to build resilience of local communities, using an Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) approach. The EbA will integrate climate-resilient agriculture techniques with the tailored restoration of degraded forest ecosystems. Thus, the project will address current and future climate change impacts through three components focusing on restoration of degraded forest ecosystems, enhancing agricultural productivity and improving technical and institutional capacity of governments and communities. This project has an estimated lifespan of 15 years.