The conservation of natural resources and gradual increases in agricultural productivity are essential for Mali. However, advancing soil depletion and desertification are threatening the natural basis for production. To counter this trend, GTZ is intervening at both the policy advice level and at the local level.

The cooperative project “Mali North Programme" (combining technical and financial cooperation inputs) is making a decisive contribution to development in the former civil war area in the low rainfall region of Timbuktu. Specifically, it is promoting the expansion of irrigation farming along the Niger, securing the livelihodd for much of the population there. The programme is also assisting approaches to self-administration in the rural communities set up in September 1999.

A government advisor is supporting the environment ministry in designing, coordinating and implementing a national environmental action plan. This advisor is also responsible for donor coordination in the environmental sector: “Assistance in implementing the desertification convention”.