Module 5 - Egypt: Matruh Resource Management to Ensure Sustainable Livelihoods for Remote Bedouin People

Egypt’s poverty rate remains approximately 20 to 25 percent, and poverty is a disproportionately rural phenomenon. Given Egypt’s limited potential for expanding irrigation, NRM issues are critical to sustainable economic development, especially in the more marginalized Bedouin areas along the northwestern Mediterranean coast.

The Bedouin people who make up 85 percent of the population in the area rely on rainfed agriculture and herding. Given that population in this area was expected to increase by more than 20 percent from 1992 to 2002, the sustainability of these livelihood systems is in question. The Government of Egypt has sought to maximize the agricultural potential in dryland areas while managing natural resources in a sustainable manner, but problems have arisen, as the tribes have tended to remain isolated and the government has had little experience addressing Bedouin concerns.

Project Objectives and Description

The Matruh Resource Management Project I was aimed at (1) conserving water, land, and vegetation resources in the project areas and (2) alleviating poverty and improving the quality of life among the local Bedouin population. The following project components were designed to achieve these objectives:

• Water harvesting and watershed management, which would introduce several environmentally sound water-harvesting interventions.
  
  
• Rangeland and grazing management, which would focus on improvement and effective utilization of rangeland and vegetative cover.
  
  
• Adaptive research implemented on a demand-driven basis.
  
  
• Extension and training, which would provide funding for establishing an effective agricultural extension service.
  
  
• Rural finance, which would give special attention to promoting on-farm income-generating activities targeted to small-scale farmers, the landless, and rural women.

All activities are implemented within the framework of traditional tribal organizations, resulting in a demand-driven development process. This tribal framework ensures that government personnel become sensitized to Bedouin needs and concerns, and it mobilizes local populations to manage natural resources in a sustainable manner. To incorporate tribal systems into their management framework, community groups (which determined their composition and structure) were established.