Title: Criteria and approaches for evaluating the impact of land restoration projects and their applicability to Niger

Increasing knowledge about the extent of land degradation and its alarming consequences for human well-being has led to continuous efforts to combat this global phenomenon. Land restoration, which is one of the most commonly adopted responses to land degradation, has received increasing attention. The importance of evaluating restoration activities has also been gradually understood; and this understanding has resulted in the development and continuous improvement of approaches for the evaluation of restoration, as well as the criteria used for that purpose. This paper describes and discusses criteria and approaches for evaluating land restoration and examines which of these are appropriate for use in the Sahel region, especially in the Niger Republic. Two main kinds of criteria are used for evaluating restoration success: ecological and socio-economic. These diverse criteria can be applied through different approaches, which fall into two broad categories, technical and participatory, that differ mainly by the degree of stakeholders’ involvement in the evaluation process. The study concludes that a participatory approach is more appropriate for this purpose, both in general terms and in the specific context of Niger.