Harnessing benefits for climate change mitigation through irrigation-free indigenous tree restoration: sharing knowledge and building capacity. BEST PRACTICE GUIDELINES MANUAL Version for smallholder farmers, women's groups and extension officers

Northern Nigeria is subject to land degradation, driven by climate change and unsustainable land use practices. Poverty in the region is high, with land degradation exacerbated by migration, conflict and low recognition of the rights of women, who are disproportionately impacted by poverty and land degradation and engage largely in unskilled, labour intensive agricultural work, lacking access to finance, training and decision-making. The Nigerian government prioritises uptake of farmer managed natural regeneration of vegetation and non-irrigated indigenous tree restoration to mitigate climate change and deliver livelihood and poverty reduction benefits to smallholder farming communities.

To inform indigenous tree restoration, this training manual collates best practice guidelines covering the most appropriate approaches to irrigation-free indigenous tree species regeneration across northern Nigeria. It draws on desk-based literature review of material from peer-reviewed literature, alongside reports and experiences from northern Nigeria. The manual was developed during two co-creation workshops held in Kano and Jigawa states in August 2021 - attended by different stakeholder groups including smallholder farmers and women associations, policy-makers - followed by one expert review workshop held in September 2021, in which the manual’s guidelines were reviewed and further validated across stakeholder groups

Two versions of this manual were produced. This version targets smallholder farmers, women groups and extension officers by focusing on the practice-oriented lessons. An extended version targets the institutional stakeholders – i.e. donors, government agencies, international organisations and NGOs – and it includes two Annexes summarising the costs and benefits of selected tree restoration practices, and the financing mechanisms to support implementation and upscaling of restoration.