Yallahs/Hope River Watershed Management Project To Receive $12.4 Million

Efforts to shore up the country’s integrated management of the Yallahs/Hope River watershed management area have been bolstered with the injection of $12.4 million.

The undertaking, being implemented by the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), aims to reduce the pressure on natural resources in the Yallahs River and Hope River Watershed of the Blue Mountains, by increasing the practice of Sustainable Land Management (SLM).

This is expected to yield improved management of biological diversity and enhanced flow of ecosystem services that sustain the livelihood of local residents.

Some of the activities that are expected this year are: procurement of hardware and software for data development; conducting capacity development programmes for communities; conducting on-farm demonstration projects on agro-forestry; as well as developing data protocols.

As at February 2014 technical documents in relation to agro-forestry and biology, biodiversity, economics of natural resources, rural development, hydrology, and carbon sequestration were prepared. Also, the project document is being prepared to be approved by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and submitted to Global Environment Facility (GEF) for final approval.

The programme, which began in September, 2012 is slated to end in August 2016. It falls under the Ministry of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change.