Abstract

In southeast Niger, the degradation of the environment led to the reactivation of moving dunes that threatens infrastructure, fields, and river with silting. To stabilize the dune cordon of Namaro, which is heavily cultivated and grazed, anti-erosion devices: living hedges and grassland has been developed. The objectives of this work are then to characterize the impact of grassland and hedges on floristic diversity and to highlight the herbaceous species that are most induced a better ecological restoration in this dune environment. The soil cover, floristic diversity, and phytomass yield were determined on the control surfaces (rangelands), as well as on a grassland and living hedges areas. It appeared that the highest biomass yield was recorded in the hedges areas (61.74 kg.ha^-1 of dry matter). The density of herbaceous in the hedgerow and grassland is increased of at least 2 times of the relative to the rangeland. The inventory of herbaceous families showed that Corchorus Tridens Incidentally Schwenckia americana marked a decrease in pressure and an improvement in the conditions for the development of vegetation on the dune. Evolvulus alsinoides and Zornia glochidiata are the most resilient species and marked the adaptation of the vegetation on the heavily grazed dune. 

Key words: Namaro, dune cordon, vegetation, land use.