Protecting forests through forest governance phase two

The project

Since 2007, Tree Aid has been working with communities across Burkina Faso to manage, protect, and use forests. This is known as our forest governance programme. Following the success of phase one, we are now rolling out our work into more communities across the country.

Through this work, we are supporting people in rural areas to manage and protect trees and use them to earn an income. We are also helping to build water-conserving pits — known as boulis — to provide a stable source of water, all year round.

Learn about phase one of this project

Why is this project needed?

Over 70% of people in Burkina Faso live rurally and rely on the land and trees to get food to eat and products to sell for an income. But the effects of the climate crisis and deforestation are causing the land to rapidly lose its fertility. As a result, poverty and hunger are major issues here.

To make matters worse, communities that rely on the forests don’t always know who is in charge of them. This means people are often unable to manage and protect forests in the way that they need.

Learn about the risk of wildfires in Burkina Faso, and how this project is helping

An aerial shot of a large pit of water in the land surrounded by trees - this is a bouli.

Our aims

Through this project, we will provide people with the tools and training they need to restore and protect 25 forest areas. They will be supported to develop forest management plans which will help them to protect the forests for years to come. We will also build 145 water-conserving boulis, each of which will hold on average 2,500m³ of water. That's the same amount of water as an Olympic swimming pool!

We will support over 13,000 people to form enterprise groups and learn how to process tree products into products like shea butter and how to market them to earn an income.

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sustainable forest management plans will be established
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water-conserving boulis will be built
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enterprise groups will be supported

Mouni, a volunteer forest guard, smiling in front of his local forest.

"It’s great to work with Tree Aid. Thanks to the project, everybody is involved in protecting the environment. Trees are no longer being destroyed and the forest is even being restored.” Mouni, volunteer forest guard, Burkina Faso

Learn how Mouni is protecting his local forest from fire

Our partners

We would like to thank the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) for supporting this project. We are also working with other local partners including MEEVCC.