U.S.
Peace Corps
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May 4, 2000
Peace Corps and USAID: Working Together to
Preserve Guinea’s Natural Resources
U.S. Peace Corps and USAID sign inter-agency
agreement
A five-year , $493,000 Interagency
Agreement for an Environment Initiative was
signed on May 4, 2000, between USAID and Peace
Corps to implement the following projects:
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TERRE (Travaux de l’Education
Rurale et de l’Environment), an agroforestry
and environmental education project in which
the messages from the lessons learned from
initial work done in the three watershed
areas are taken into other regions of Guinea.
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Enhancement of synergy among
sectors, in which Education and Health volunteers
are made aware of environmental issues,
and include environmental education in their
classroom and health center work, collaborate
with community groups to celebrate Earth
Day, and carry out secondary activities
that have a positive impact on Guinea’s
natural resource base.
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The GLOBE (Global Learning
and Observations to Benefit the Environment)
program, an international environmental
science and education program will be implemented.
The program brings students, teachers, and
scientists together to study the global
environment. GLOBE has created an international
network of students at primary, middle and
secondary levels to study environmental
issues, take environmental measurements,
and share useful data with one another as
well as the international science community.
Volunteers from Peace Corps/Guinea
have played a pivotal role in USAID financed
natural resource management projects since 1992.
Working in collaboration with the National Directorate
of Water and Forests (DNEF), and with support
from USAID, Peace Corps Volunteers worked form
1992 to 1997 in three targeted watersheds of
the Fouta Djallon highlands, Diafore, Dissa,
and Koundou. The PCVs’ primary purpose
was to build the capacity of communities to
better manage their own natural resources.
A feasibility study conducted
in 1997 by a third-year NRM volunteer substantiated
evidence that environmental issues in Guinea’s
rural areas will continue to take high priority
for some time to come. Starting in 1999, Peace
Corps initiated an Environment Initiative, which
built upon the work of several generations of
NRM volunteers, as well as the work of volunteers
in Health and Education.
The recent signing of the Peace
Corps/USAID Inter-Agency Agreement, which runs
through April of 2005, will serve to further
strengthen and develop the long-time collaboration
between the two agencies.
The NRM collaboration is also
in keeping with the Government of Guinea’s
long-range socioeconomic plan, which has decreed
that agricultural production and environmental
protection will be the government’s highest
priorities for the next 15 years. The assistance
that Peace Corps volunteers can provide the
Government of Guinea in its efforts to improve
the management of natural resources for profitable
and sustainable agricultural production is highly
valued and actively solicited at the local,
regional, and national levels in Guinea.
Story by Laura Lartigue
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