Objectives

The interaction indicators concept is set up during the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Agenda 21, adopted by the Summit, set out the objectives to attain sustainable development calling for the harmonization of efforts to allow the construction of sustainable development indicators. The regional programme makes use of this tool in six biosphere reserves of West Africa in order to reach three main objectives:

• improve the understanding of the interactions "societies-savannas" through the applied research;
• conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity;
• building scientific and technical capacities.

Improve the understanding of the interactions "societies-savannas"
Component 1 of the project "applied research" aims to improve the understanding of interactions between savannas ecosystems and societies. This component is divided into three research actions on the impact of human activities on savannas ecosystems, namely:

• Dynamics of land occupation and its impact on ecosystems;
• Impact of collecting activities (fishing, pastoralism, firewood, tourism, hunting) on ecosystems and interaction indicators construction;
• Local communities and ecosystems.

At regional level, in 2005 the scientific teams began conducting studies such as eco-functional zones (Amadou BOUREIMA of the University of Abdou Moumouni of Niamey, Niger) and property rights to natural resources and decentralisation policy in West Africa (Martin YELKOUNI of CENAGREF).

The interaction indicators construction process has been finalized in 2004 in three biosphere reserves: Mare aux Hippopotames, Burkina Faso, Boucle du Baoulé, Mali and W du Niger.

Conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity
Ministerial Declaration (English / Français), signed in January 2004, promotes the use of biosphere reserves as operational sites of the sustainable development. In this respect, interaction indicators, built within the framework of the Component 1, will be tested through the Component 2 in the demonstration sites which have been identified by each country in 2005.

The Component 2of the project aims to find economic and social development strategies likely to reach the objective of conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

Building scientific and technical capacities
The objective of the Component 3 is to strengthen technical and scientific capacities of the individuals and institutions in each biosphere reserve. Trainings, technical workshops, forums and exchanges at national and regional levels take place regularly since the beginning of the MAB-GEF Project. Thus, training on dialogue and concertation in biosphere reserves has been organized in May 2003 in Benin, while in February 2006 France received six mediators for training in using role-playing.