The Turkana community in northwestern Kenya severely punishes anyone who cuts a tree from Moru Anayeche, the sacred forest that is believed to be their place of origin. The community also protects forests associated with the spirits of the dead and has age-old rules that help to preserve plants and trees found near riverbanks and houses. Forests are owned by elders, and forest preservation is the responsibility of the entire community.

Similarly, in Burkina Faso, some desert communities plant trees, such as Acacia albida, on their farms because they observed that the presence of such trees helped to increase crop yields. They also encourage the plowing of crop residues. The communities do not allow certain plant species such as Panicum laetum (wild fonio) and Cenchrus biflorus (known locally as cram-cram) to be used for firewood, because their grains are eaten during the dry hungry season when there are no more household stocks of millet and sorghum.

These are some of the valuable findings of a survey on traditional methods of natural resource management used by farmers and pastoralists living in the desert margins of sub-Saharan Africa. The survey was conducted by the Desert Margins Program an effort launched by the CGIAR to enhance food security and reduce poverty by promoting innovative dryland management research.

The wisdom of desert communities is unfortunately fast disappearing. The rules and systems that once helped the resilient people of the desert margins to live in harmony with nature in a fragile ecosystem are increasingly being violated, not deliberately, but because of lack of alternatives. The Program was launched to preserve this wisdom.

Until recently, the Sahelian pastoralists and livestock followed rains north during the rainy season and retreated to greener pastures in the south during the dry season. Crops were planted, but fields were allowed to lie in fallow to regenerate the soil. But now with the growing population, there are no longer any vast rangelands, nor is there enough farmland to leave in fallow.

The desert communities have not only been forced to abandon their nomadic life for a sedentary one, but have had to resort to overcultivation, overgrazing, and deforestation in order to survive in these stark regions. The delicate balance of life in the desert margins is snapping everywhere, bringing in its wake desertification and the specter of famine, the loss and degradation of human life and the environment.

These problems became even more acute when a long drought gripped the African continent from 1968 to 1973. Cultivated lands turned into deserts and thousands of people and cattle died of starvation. Worldwide concern led to a plan of action launched at the United Nations Conference on Desertification in 1977. Leading scientists and policymakers firmly believed and continue to believe that if natural resources are sustainably managed, land degradation can be halted and the devastating effect of drought can be mitigated.

A series of international events culminated in the Earth Summit and the signing of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. In response, the CGIAR created a systemwide Desert Margins Initiative, with ICRISAT as the Convening Center. In 1998, the Initiative became a full-fledged Desert Margins Program with endorsements from various donors, in

cluding the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Eco-Regional Fund, the World Bank, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Global Environment Facility (GEF), France, Israel, and Norway. It now operates in nine countries of Africa: Botswana, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Mali, Namibia, Niger, Senegal, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

Drawing strength from this consortium of organizations, the Program focuses its work on selected environments. It is participatory in spirit and emphasizes on-farm research and demonstrations, taking into account social issues, local needs, and institutional options. Research is carried out by multi-disciplinary teams of scientists in each member country in close association with national, regional, and international programs, NGOs, and local communities.

The Program uses an ecoregional approach which combines physical, biological, and sociological dimensions of the production environment. The philosophy underpinning all activities is that the physical mechanisms leading to desertification are natural phenomena, but these are driven by social and economic forces. The Program is seeking to blend natural sciences and socio-economic research, while giving due importance to the wisdom of the small farmers and the nomads who have fine-tuned their survival to the vagaries of the land.