Soil and water conservation as a starting point for rural forestry: The OXFAM Project in Ouahigouya, Burkina Faso

This paper is a case study of the agroforestry program also known as the Microcatchment Project, funded by OXFAM in the Yatenga region of Burkina Faso. The area has a history of overuse of land resources leading to a decrease in the arable surface and severe degradation of the environment. Past efforts to improve the farmers' situation have met largely with failure, while traditional methods of adapting were innovative but insufficient. The project, by relying on the farmers' participation to develop techniques of water conservation, has shown that land degradation can be reversed and food production increased by the farmers themselves.