Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL)

The development objective of the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) Project for Nigeria is to increase the implementation of sustainable landscape management practices in targeted watersheds in northern Nigeria and strengthen Nigeria’s long-term enabling environment for integrated climate-resilient landscape management. The project comprises of four components. The first component, dryland management will implement integrated watershed management planning and addresses challenges of large-scale watershed degradation in northern Nigeria. It consists of following sub-components: (i) strategic watershed planning; (ii) landscape investments; and (iii) special ecosystems. The second component is community climate resilience. It consists of following sub-components: (i) community strengthening; and (ii) community investments. The third component, institutional strengthening and project management includes investments to improve the enabling institutional and policy foundation for multisectoral integrated landscape management and climate resilience, as well as support to project management. The fourth component, contingent emergency response (CERC) is a financing mechanism available to borrowers in investment project financing (IPF) operations to enable quick deployment of uncommitted funds to respond to an eligible crisis or emergency. In terms of NBS, the project's landscape-level investments include riverbank restoration, stabilization of sand dunes, vegetation management, reforestation, as well as investments to restore wetlands, forest reserves, and oases.