“My name is Finda Lompo and I was born in around 1946 in Niaktiré, in the rural commune of Makalondi in the Tillabéri Region of Niger.
The forest has lost its soul. It used to be full of gum arabic and wild fruits of inestimable value to the local people. Today, everything is gone. Worse still, the medicinal plants we use have also disappeared. It has brought despair to us women because we have lost our livelihood. The forest is disappearing and we call for it to be saved.”
SPECIES LOSS DUE TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Heavy rainfall, floods, sudden flash floods, and reduced precipitation—all these aspects of climate change lead to the loss of tree and wild plant species, resulting in ecosystem degradation. In Niger, around 100,000 to 120,000 hectares of forest disappear each year. The decline in forest cover forces a quarter of the population and their livestock to live on degraded land, worsening their living conditions. Niger is among the 15 countries most severely threatened by climate change.¹
Over the past 10 years, biodiversity in Niger has been declining increasingly. It is estimated that more than 70% of protected areas in Niger have already lost significant portions of their biodiversity.³
