On the 16 August, 2013, UNHCR, with the participation of CONAREF, the NGO HELP-Germany, OCADES and the Direction Régionale de l’Environement et du Développement Durable, launched the beginning of a re-forestation exercise in order to improve the environment of the host population that have so warmly welcomed the refugees in the Sahel Region of Burkina Faso in the beginning of 2012.

Since the launch of UNHCR’s re-forestation exercise on 16 August, HELP has already reforested 25 ha of land in the Sahel, including in the refugee camp of Goudoubo itself where 900 seedlings have been planted. At the end of the exercise, UNHCR’s project would have reforested 25 ha and recuperated 60 ha of degraded land.

The partnership of UNHCR with HELP in Burkina Faso is exclusively for the benefit of the host population of the Sahel Region. The project involves planting of seedlings, reforestations, and construction of boreholes for host villages among others. Since the start of the year, 54,000 seedlings have been produced by the host population under this project and will be used in re-forestation throughout the Sahel. Other activities included in UNHCR’s Environmental Action Plan are the monthly distribution of firewood for the refugees and training refugees and the host communities on how to construct improved cooking stoves, which reduces the use of firewood and carbon emissions. In the coming months, more than 4,887 solar lanterns will also be distributed to refugee households that have children of school-going age.

The ongoing reforestation was undertaken within the context of the National Plan for the Environment, which promotes reforestation in all thirteen regions of Burkina Faso each year.

UNHCR Burkina Faso