Living Lab Tunisia | Trans-Sahara

Living Labs in Tunisia

1. Living Lab Siliana – El Krib

Details:

Key Challenge:
Approach:
Impact:

• Severe water scarcity: with limited storage infrastructure and low groundwater exploitation.
• Erosion-prone slopes and degraded landscapes.
• Low agricultural returns: dominated by cereal cultivation on marginal lands and olive.
• Land indivision: restricting investment and long-term agroforestry development.
• Rural exodus: especially youth migration, leading to labour shortages.
• Weak rural services and credit access: preventing uptake of improved practices.
• Gender and youth inequalities: in land access, decision-making, and benefit sharing.

The Siliana Living Lab promotes agroforestry and diversified production systems as pathways toward climate resilience and landscape restoration.

The El Krib Living Lab in the TRANS-SAHARA project uses a participatory, nexus-based approach, engaging farmers, authorities, and researchers to co-design solutions. It promotes agroforestry adapted to semi-arid conditions, integrates water and energy management with agriculture and ecosystem restoration, and emphasizes capacity building, demonstration, and monitoring to generate results that can be replicated in similar regions.

Agroforestry Systems:
• Olive-based systems (“noble tree”): intercropping with legumes and annual crops; supplementary irrigation where possible; grafting and propagation to accelerate productivity; cereal–legume rotations to maintain soil fertility.
• Carob agroforestry (“chocolate of Tunisia”): drought-resilient, nitrogen-fixing, and offering multiple commercial uses including feed, flour, gums, and honey production.

Complementary Components:
• Opuntia ficus-indica for income, forage reserves, and soil stabilisation.
• Eucalyptus species for energy, melliferous purposes, and windbreaks (with performance limitations in semi-arid conditions).
• Mulching, soil conservation, and cereal–legume rotations.
• Integrated crop–livestock systems providing manure and tree fodder.

Stakeholder Collaboration: the living lab involves community organizations, government institutions, universities, private processors, and development partners in co-designing pilot interventions.

• Transition from marginal cereal production to tree-based agroforestry systems.
• Lower income risks and improved nutrition through diversification.
• Increased climate-change awareness and adoption of adaptation practices.
• Persistent water scarcity limiting scale-up.
• Adoption challenges due to risk aversion, rental insecurity, and slow-growing species.
• Infrastructure and service gaps limiting farmer investment.
• Labor shortages linked to youth outmigration.
• Gender inequities, with women active in processing and value addition but limited in land ownership and decision-making.
• Peer-to-peer learning spaces emerging as important for women’s and youth inclusion.

2. Living Lab Sidi Amor

Details:

Key Challenge:
Approach:
Impact:

• Frequent wildfires due to extreme heat and drought, threat to pine forests.
• Severe water scarcity affecting agriculture and ecosystems.
• Degraded ecosystems requiring restoration and improved management.
• Limited access to reliable water sources for irrigation and household use.
• Water scarcity and irregular rainfall make conventional irrigation unreliable, highlighting the need for alternative water sources.
• Low awareness and limited adoption of sustainable agroforestry practices, especially integrating water reuse, create a knowledge gap.
• Technical complexity of combining treated wastewater with agroforestry requires hands-on demonstration for learning and capacity building.
• Health, safety, and risk perception concerns around wastewater use need controlled, educational environments to show safe practices.
• Monitoring, evaluation, and knowledge transfer challenges in the field call for a dedicated site to test, observe, and teach effective methods.

The GDA Sidi Amor Living Lab serves as a practical demonstration site for integrating treated wastewater in agroforestry systems. It addresses challenges such as water scarcity, limited adoption of sustainable practices, and technical complexity by providing a safe, hands-on environment for farmers, students, and stakeholders to learn, observe, and test innovative solutions. The site also facilitates knowledge transfer, monitoring, and capacity building, promoting climate-resilient and resource-efficient agroforestry practices that can be replicated in similar semi-arid regions.

Strengthening and repurposing the DGA Sidi Amor site as a demonstration and experimentation hub for agroforestry solutions using a WEFE Nexus approach.
Integration of treated wastewater reuse as a core strategy for addressing water scarcity.
Combining agroforestry practices with treated wastewater to:
• Improve water conservation
• Increase biomass production
• Support soil restoration
• Enhance ecosystem services

Key Techniques:
• Water reuse through nature-based treatment solutions.
• Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) for groundwater replenishment.
• Solar-powered water systems to ensure year-round water access.
• Protection and diversification of cork oak landscapes to reduce wildfire vulnerability.

• Contribution to water security through treated wastewater reuse and MAR.
• Fire risk reduction through ecological diversification and better forest management.
• Enhanced soil and vegetation health via combined agroforestry and water reuse interventions.
• Strengthened ecosystem services, including carbon storage and biodiversity support.
• Model for climate adaptation: the site functions as a demonstration of climate adaptation in semi-arid Tunisia through integrated water and land management.