Short-Term Evolution of Provision and Regulation Ecosystem Services in the Early Stage of Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration-Based System in Niger

Thousands of hectares have been treated with Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) over many decades to reverse the adverse effects of land degradation. Many studies have attempted to evaluate the effect of this Soil Land Management (SLM) practice a posteriori. The aim of this study is to assess the evolution of Ecosystem Services (ES) in the first stage of FMNR based agroforestry system in Niger. We, therefore, monitored the evolution of Ecosystem services in sixty farmers (30 practicing FMNR and 30 without practicing FMNR) over three years (2017, 2018 and 2019). The year 2017 was considered as the reference year. Provisioning ecosystem services (agricultural production, fire, wood, service wood) and regulating services (Carbone sequestration) where quantified each year from the same farmers and in the same fields. All crop yields were quantified by biophysical measurements using a plot yield (10m x 10m) included in a larger plot (50m x 50m) for dendrometry measurements. Carbone sequestration was measured by soil carbon analysis and allometric equation for vegetation Carbone. The evolution of financial benefit is measured using Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA). The results showed that the increase in yields in FMNR fields compared to non-FMNR fields was not regular for all crops. Furthermore, the FMNR system improves the regulatory service, and hence, it stores a higher amount of organic carbon (605.5 mg / kg) than the systems without FMNR (432.5 mg / kg). The results of the CBA showed that the incremental cost is negative in 2017 but positive in 2018 and 2019. Therefore, the FMNR practice makes farmers wealthier. Soil Land Management Practices are financially profitable when all ecosystem services are quantified and valued.