New Perspectives on Natural
Resource Management in the Sahel
Simon Bolwig, Kjeld Rasmussen, Ced Hesse, Thea Hilhorst and Malene
Kauffmann Hansen
SEREIN - Occasional Paper N
o
21
Sahel-Sudan Environmental Research Initiative
SEREIN Occasional Papers publish original research undertaken by
SEREIN researchers and associated researchers. In addition, the series
includes proceedings of symposia arranged by SEREIN researchers and
later works addressing issues within the thematic area of the original
research program.
The issues, continuously numbered, appear at irregular intervals.
SEREIN 2000 - The Sahel-Sudan Environmental Research Initiative - was
a multidisciplinary research centre made up of individual researchers at
different institutions. It was originally financed as a part of the Danish
Environmental Research Programme (SMP) and from 1999 continued on
more limited funds from RUF (Danida’s research council). Use and
potential of natural resources in the West-African Sahel was the main topic
for SEREIN research.
Editorial address:
Professor Anette Reenberg
Institute of Geography and Geology
University of Copenhagen
Oster Voldgade 10
DK-1350 Copenhagen K
DENMARK
Phone: +45 35 32 25 62
Fax: +45 35 32 25 01
E-mail: [email protected]
Copyright: Authors, 2011
New Perspectives on Natural Resource
Management in the Sahel
Simon Bolwig
Kjeld Rasmussen
Ced Hesse
Thea Hilhorst
Malene Kauffmann Hansen
July 2011
Preface
Denmark has through the Danish International Development Assistance (Danida) a long
tradition for providing support to the countries in the Sahel region, starting with considerable contributions to the United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office (UNSO) under United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) during the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s,
but since then mainly as bilateral support to Burkina Faso and Niger and now Mali. The
assistance to Burkina Faso is continuing, the assistance to Niger was increased in 2006,
and in 2006 Mali was selected as a new Programme Country with agriculture and natural
resource management as priority sectors. Senegal has been the focus of support to the ecological monitoring centre, Centre de Suivi Écologique. In addition, Danida has supported
regional organisations under the Comite Permanent Inter-Etats de Lutte Contre la Secheresse dans le Sahel (CILLS) umbrella, such as the AGHRYMET agro-meteorological research and training centre in Niger. Furthermore, considerable Danish (and Danish
funded) research has been carried out within natural resources management in the Sahel,
e.g. the Sahel-Sudan Environmental Research Initiative (SEREIN), the People, Trees and
Agriculture project (PETREA) and International Institute for Environment and Development’s (IIED) Drylands programme, and several Danida-funded Enhancement of Research Capacity in Developing Countries projects (ENRECA) have contributed to capacity building in research.
Harvesting the experience from development and research activities in the Sahel can be
expected to inform the updating of the Danish development assistance programmes in the
region. This is already done as part of the regular review activities and targeted reviews
like the recent ‘lessons learned’ exercise of the Danish assistance within natural resources
management (NRM) in Niger. Adding to these efforts, Danida decided to commission a
study to the Department of Geography and Geology (DGG), University of Copenhagen,
with the aim of establishing an overview of the lessons learnt from Danish (and to some
extent international) activities within development assistance, capacity development and
research within the broad field of natural resource management in the Sahel, focusing on
Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali. The study objectives were to:
i)
ii)
Identify the most important operational experiences from two decades of Danish assistance to natural resources management in the Sahel.
Extract from research findings recent trends as well as key problems and drivers related to natural resources management of relevance to development assistance.
The study was carried out by Simon Bolwig (DTU Climate Centre at Risø, Technical
University of Denmark) and Kjeld Rasmussen (DGG), with inputs from various individuals (see below). The steering group of the study consisted of Hanne Carus and Henning
Nøhr (Danida), Anette Reenberg (DGG), Henrik Secher Marcussen (Department of Geography and International Development Studies, Roskilde University) and Michael Mortimore (Drylands Research, UK).
i
The study has two written outputs: The first is the present publication, which reviews research evidence and issues relating to natural resources management in the Sahel while
making some references to operational experiences. It was edited by Simon Bolwig, Kjeld
Rasmussen and Malene Kauffmann Hansen (DTU Climate Centre at Risø, Technical University of Denmark) with editorial assistance from Lars Jørgensen (Global Land Project,
International Project Office, DGG), and reviewed by Anette Reenberg and Henrik SecherMarcussen. The individual chapters were written and peer reviewed by the following individuals:
Chapter 2
Author
Simon Bolwig
Kjeld Rasmussen
Kjeld Rasmussen
Chapter 3
Simon Bolwig
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Ced Hesse 1
Simon Bolwig
Thea Hilhorst 2
Simon Bolwig
Chapter 1
1
Peer reviewer
None
Anne-Mette Lykke, Aarhus University
Anette Reenberg, University of Copenhagen
Michael Mortimore, Drylands Research
Simon Batterbury, University of Melbourne
None
Lars Engberg Pedersen, Danish Institute for International Studies
None
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED). 2 Royal Tropical Institute (KIT).
The second study output is a discussion paper, which focuses on selected issues within
NRM in the Sahel, using material from this publication, reviews of other written material,
and the results of an expert opinion survey carried out by the authors (See, S. Bolwig, S.
Cold-Ravnkilde, K. Rasmussen, T. Breinholt and M. Mortimore, DIIS Report 2009:07,
www.diis.dk). Furthermore, the results of the study were discussed at a seminar on 6 October 2008 at DGG, University of Copenhagen, organised together with the Danish Development Research Network (the meeting minutes are available at www.ddrn.dk).
ii
Abbreviations
ACE-RECIT
l'Association Construisons Ensemble – Recherche sur les Citoyennetés en Transformation
ADDR
Projet Appui Danois au Développement Rural de Zinder et Diffa
AGRHYMET
Centre Regional de Formation et d'Application en Agrométéorologie et Hydrologie Opérationnelle (Niger)
AMMA
African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses
ANICT
Agence Nationale d’Investissement des Collectivités Territoriales
ASEF
Appui à la Sécurisation Foncière
AVHRR
Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer
CARE
A private international humanitarian organization
CCC
Centre de Conseil Communal or Municipal Advisory Centre
CCN
National Unit for the Co-ordination of Local Governments
CDM
Clean Development Mechanism
CFA
Currenzy zone which consists of two monetary unions between
different African states.
CGIAR
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
CHARM
Collaborative Historical African Rainfall Model
CILSS
Comite Permanent Inter-Etats de Lutte Contre la Secheresse dans le
Sahel
CIRAD
La recherche agronomique pour le développement
CIVGT
Commissions Inter Villageoises de Gestion de Terroir
CNRST
Institut d’Economie Rurale; Centre National de Recherche Scientifique et Technologique
COFO
Commission Foncières
COFOCOM
Commission Foncière Communale (Niger)
CVD
Commission Villageoise de Développement (Burkina Faso)
CVGT
Commission villageoise de gestion de terroir (Burkina Faso)
iii
Danida
Danish Agency for International Development
DGG
Department of Geography and Geology
ECOWAS
Economic Community of West African States
ENEA
Ecole Nationale d'Economie Appliquee
ENRECA
Enhancement of Research Capacity in Developing Countries
EROS
Earth Resources Observation Systems
FAO
Food and Agriculture Organization of United Nations
FAOSTAT
FAO Statistical Database
FCFA
Franc CFA.
FINNIDA
Finnish International Development Agency
GCM
Global Climate Models
GDP
Gross Domestic Product
GHG
Green House Gas
GRAF
Groupe de Recherche et d’Action sur le Foncier
GTZ
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit
IIED
International Institute for Environment and Development
ILRI
International Livestock Research Institute
INRAN
Niger’s National Agricultural Research Institute
IPCC AR4
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Report 4
IRD/LASDEL
Institut de Recherche pour le Développement/Laboratorie d’Etude
et de Recherches sur les Dynamiques Sociales et le Développement
Local
ISFM
Integrated Soil Fertility Management
ISH
Institut de Sciences Humaines
IUCN
The World Conservation Union
LDCs
Least Developed Countries
LOA
Loi d’Orientation Agricole (Mali)
iv
LPDRD
Lettre de politique de développement rural decentralise
MDGs
Millennium Development Goals
MMD
Mata Masu Dubara
NDVI
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index
NGO
Non-governmental Organization
NOAA
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NPP
Net Primary Productivity
NRM
Natural Resource Management
NUTMON
Nutrient Monitoring
PAGCRSP
Projet Appui à la Gestion Conjointe des Ressources Sylvopastorales
PAGRNAT
Programme d’Appui à la Gestion de la Réserve Nationale de l’Aïr
et du Ténéré
PETREA
People,Trees and Agriculture
PGRN
Projet de Gestion des Ressources Naturelles
PNGT
Programme National de Gestion des Terroires
PRSP
Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers
RAF
Reforme Agraire et Foncier (Burkina Faso)
RATIN
Regional Agricultural Trade Intelligence Network
RCM
Regional Climate Model
RUE
Rain Use Efficiency
SEREIN
Sahel-Sudan Environmental Research Initiative
SFM
Soil Fertility Management
SOM
Soil Organic Matter
SP/CNCPDR
Secrétariat permanent du cadre national de concertation des
partenaires du développement rural décentralisé
TAC
Technical Advisory Committee
UGVO
Union des Groupements Villageois de l’Oudalan
v
UNCCD
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
UNDP
United Nations Development Programme
UNEP
United Nations Environment Programme
UNFCCC
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
UNFPA
United Nations Population Fund
UNSO
United Nations Sudano-Sahelian Office
USGS
U.S. Geological Survey
vi
Table of contents
Preface ........................................................................................................................................ i
Abbreviations ........................................................................................................................... iii
Table of contents ..................................................................................................................... vii
Chapter 1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1
1.1 The Sahel ......................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Study objectives .............................................................................................................. 2
1.3 Visions for the Sahel ...................................................................................................... 2
1.4 Natural resource management and the ‘sectors’ ........................................................... 3
1.5 Approach and limitations of the study .......................................................................... 4
Chapter 2. Trends in natural resources and the environment ........................................ 6
2.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 6
2.2 Climate change ............................................................................................................... 6
2.3 Climate change mitigation and adaptation .................................................................... 8
2.4 Desertification/land degradation .................................................................................. 11
2.5 Climate change, desertification and security .............................................................. 15
2.6 Bush fires ...................................................................................................................... 15
2.7 Vegetation cover and biological/species diversity ..................................................... 16
2.7.1 Changes in vegetation cover ................................................................................. 17
2.7.2 Equilibrium and disequilibrium ecosystem theories ........................................... 18
2.7.3 Implications for management ............................................................................... 18
2.8 Water resources and water management ..................................................................... 18
2.8.1 Water resource characteristics .............................................................................. 18
2.8.2 The significance of water management ............................................................... 19
2.8.3 The large river basins ............................................................................................ 20
2.8.4 Water management and governance at the river basin scale .............................. 23
2.9 Conclusions and policy implications ........................................................................... 24
Chapter 3. Natural resource management in farmlands ................................................ 26
3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 26
3.1.1 Population growth in the Sahel ............................................................................ 26
3.2 Soil nutrient depletion at a continental scale .............................................................. 27
3.3 Soil degradation and soil management........................................................................ 28
3.3.1 Fundamental soil constraints ................................................................................ 28
3.3.2 Soil degradation ..................................................................................................... 29
3.3.3 Sustainable soil management ............................................................................... 31
3.3.4 Summary ................................................................................................................ 32
3.4 Livestock interactions in farmlands............................................................................. 33
3.5 Changes in natural vegetation in farmlands ................................................................ 34
3.5.1 Historical transition from grazed woodlands to farmed parklands .................... 34
3.5.2 Deforestation and biodiversity loss ...................................................................... 35
3.5.3 Forest regeneration since the mid-1980s ............................................................. 35
3.5.4 Causes of natural vegetation change .................................................................... 37
3.5.5 Summary ................................................................................................................ 39
3.6 The economic performance of farmlands ................................................................... 40
3.6.1 Farmland productivity ........................................................................................... 40
3.6.2 National food production and food self-sufficiency ........................................... 42
3.6.3 Income and investment ......................................................................................... 43
3.6.4 Summary ................................................................................................................ 43
3.7 A new perspective on sustainable farmland management ......................................... 44
3.7.1 The African drylands success stories ................................................................... 44
vii
3.7.2 The central role of markets ................................................................................... 45
3.7.3 Critique of the success stories .............................................................................. 45
3.8 Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 46
3.8.1 Desertification as an anomaly .............................................................................. 46
3.8.2 Farm management responses ................................................................................ 47
3.8.3 Changes in farmland components ........................................................................ 48
3.8.4 Changes in economic performance ...................................................................... 48
3.9 Policy implications ....................................................................................................... 49
Chapter 4. Natural resource management in pastoral systems ..................................... 51
4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 51
4.1.1 Defining pastoralism ............................................................................................. 51
4.2 The importance of pastoralism in the Sahel ................................................................ 53
4.3 Research findings ......................................................................................................... 56
4.3.1 Efficiency ............................................................................................................... 57
4.3.2 Resilience to environmental shocks ..................................................................... 58
4.3.3 Pastoral land tenure ............................................................................................... 59
4.3.4 Markets .................................................................................................................. 61
4.3.5 Research gaps ........................................................................................................ 63
4.4. Pastoral development interventions............................................................................ 64
4.4.1. Sustainable management of the commons.......................................................... 65
4.4.2 Good governance and pastoral civil society empowerment ............................... 70
4.4.3 Pastoral credit ........................................................................................................ 71
4.5 A changing policy and legislative environment ......................................................... 71
4.5.1 New pastoral legislation........................................................................................ 72
4.5.2 Regional transhumance agreements ..................................................................... 73
4.5.3 Decentralisation, PRSPs and agricultural sector reforms ................................... 73
4.6 Key issues and priority intervention areas .................................................................. 74
4.6.1 Political will and concerted effort ........................................................................ 74
4.6.2. Strengthening civil society .................................................................................. 75
4.6.3 Developing appropriate institutions and tools for subsidiarity and flexibility .. 76
4.6.4 Protecting livelihoods, promoting resilience and improving
market integration ................................................................................................. 78
4.6.5 Capitalising and building on experience .............................................................. 79
4.7 Conclusions and policy implications ........................................................................... 79
Chapter 5. Markets and natural resource management................................................. 82
5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 82
5.2 Inclusive and equitable market institutions ................................................................. 82
5.3 Growing demand for food staples and wood products ............................................... 83
5.4 Local and regional market opportunities..................................................................... 85
5.4.1 Local urban markets .............................................................................................. 85
5.4.2 Coastal markets ..................................................................................................... 86
5.5 International niche markets for sustainable products ................................................. 86
5.6 Conclusions and policy implications ........................................................................... 86
Chapter 6. Local governance institutions and natural resource management ........... 89
6.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 89
6.1.1 Overview of research on natural resource governance ....................................... 89
6.2 Governance in relation to type of natural resource..................................................... 90
6.2.1 Institutions governing farmland ........................................................................... 90
6.2.2 Institutions governing common forest lands ....................................................... 91
6.2.3 Expected changes in natural resource governance .............................................. 92
6.2.4 Policy implications ................................................................................................ 92
6.3 Current local governance institutions for NRM ......................................................... 93
viii
6.3.1 Customary authorities ........................................................................................... 93
6.3.2 Village land management commissions .............................................................. 95
6.3.3 Conventions locals (local by-laws) ...................................................................... 96
6.3.4 Policy implications ................................................................................................ 97
6.4 Democratic decentralisation......................................................................................... 98
6.4.1 The emergence of local governments .................................................................. 98
6.4.2 Local governments and NRM ............................................................................ 100
6.4.3 Local governments and delegation..................................................................... 101
6.4.4 Conflict prevention and management by local governments ........................... 101
6.4.5 The role of local governments in unsustainable NRM ..................................... 102
6.4.6 The potential of decentralisation in relation to NRM ....................................... 103
6.4.7 Policy implications .............................................................................................. 104
6.5 Conclusions and policy implications ......................................................................... 105
Chapter 7. Conclusions ...................................................................................................... 107
Endnotes ................................................................................................................................ 109
References ............................................................................................................................. 116
Annex A. Trends in crop yields and farmland economic performance indicators ........... 129
ix
Chapter 1. Introduction
1.1 The Sahel
The ’Sahelian’ countries of West Africa – Senegal, Mauretania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger
and Chad – are located on the southern edge of the Sahara on a steep rainfall gradient
from less than 100 mm/year to more than 800 mm/year of mean annual rainfall (Figure
1.1). Other countries such as Gambia, Ghana and Nigeria may be added to the list because
they include areas that fall under some definitions of the Sahel. This study focuses on four
countries: Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and, to a lesser extent, Senegal, which have been the
focus of Danish development assistance to ‘the Sahel’.
Figure 1.1: West Africa, with the 150 mm/year and 700 mm/year annual isohyets
shown.
Note: The rainfall data are annual average rainfall for 1996 to 2007, based on a combination of rain gauge
measurements, satellite-based estimates and numerical model outputs, drawn from the RFE data-set (Xie &
Arkin, 1997).
The ‘Sahel proper’ may be defined and delimited in a number of ways, e.g. as the area
between the 100/200 and 600/800 mm/year isohyets. For the purpose of this study we
mainly use the term to denote the six countries mentioned above, even though large parts
of them fall outside the standard definition because they are either too arid or too humid.
While these countries differ widely in many respects, it is meaningful to consider them as
a ‘region’ based on their climatic similarities: in the Sahel the potential for rainfed agriculture is limited by the low mean annual rainfall, the short rainy season and the great spatial
and temporal variability of rainfall. Because of the heavy reliance on rainfed agriculture,
the climate gives rise to a common set of environmental conditions that influence local
livelihoods as well as national economies in the Sahel. The climate also determines the
1
zonal distribution of many natural ecosystems in the region, even though other factors
such as soil conditions and terrain also give rise to important differences.
The common environmental conditions are reflected in similarities in production and land
use throughout the region. In general one finds a dominance of pastoral systems in the arid
north and greater relative importance of crop production towards the south; yet this zonal
pattern is not uniform: population densities and the intensity of agricultural land use vary
greatly, with particularly high values found in the ‘Peanut Basin’ of Senegal, around Bamako in Mali, in the ‘Mossi Plateau’ of Burkina Faso and the Zinder area of Niger, not to
mention the ‘Kano close settlement zone’ of northern Nigeria.
The four ‘study countries’ also share important socioeconomic characteristics: they are by
any standard very poor, they rely heavily on the primary sector (in particular crop production and animal husbandry), they are with the exception of Senegal landlocked with difficult access to international markets, and regional and domestic trade likewise suffer from
scattered populations and poor marketing infrastructure. The Sahel includes population
groups of many ethnicities, and some groups such as the Fulani and the Touareg are found
in several countries. The study countries are all francophone and formerly French colonies. To some extent they also share their policy efforts in: seeking to decentralise the
management of the natural resources within broader decentralisation efforts; the drafting
of environmental strategies from the national to district and local levels; the adoption of
regulatory frameworks for the access to and management of natural resources; and in the
establishment of conflict resolution mechanisms. At national levels, such policies are
framed within broadly shared visions and attempts to improve governance, democratisation and empowerment, allowing the more active political involvement of the institutions
and organisations of civil society.
1.2 Study objectives
The interlinked environmental, economic and policy characteristics of the Sahel are thus
sufficiently similar to warrant a joint analysis of natural resources management (NRM)
across the region, which can help inform strategic planning of development assistance.
Denmark provides bilateral assistance to three of the Sahelian countries – Mali, Burkina
Faso and Niger – and it is worth considering how knowledge and experience from research and development assistance projects in the whole region can inform future development efforts in these countries. Against this background, the objective of the study was
to analyse recent trends as well as key problems and drivers related to NRM in the Sahel
of relevance to Danish development assistance, emphasizing changes reported over the
last couple of decades. The study reviewed mainly the research literature.
1.3 Visions for the Sahel
The Sahel has been subject to many ’gloom and doom’ visions over the last three to four
decades, i.e. since the onset of the ‘Sahel drought’ in the late sixties or early seventies.
The region has, with some justification, been portrayed as one of the poorest in the world,
hit by the strongest and most persistent climatic anomaly observed globally over the past
2
50 years, and threatened by devastating desertification. To this may be added other disadvantages, such as high illiteracy rates, a general the lack of non-agricultural economic
opportunities (aside mining in some areas), and difficult access to the world market due in
part to poor infrastructure (with Senegal as an exception). All this adds up to a ‘narrative’
of the Sahel as a region with little promise of economic development, with few competitive advantages, and placed in a ‘Malthusian trap’ of increasing human pressure on a
scarce natural resource base causing irreversible environmental degradation.
A ‘counter-narrative’ exists as well, however: it portrays the Sahel as a region recovering
surprisingly rapidly after the long drought that lasted up to the mid eighties. This process
is characterized by improved management of water and land resources as well as by increases in vegetation productivity and crop yields. Compared to other parts of Africa, the
political situation has been relatively stable, while inflation in the CFA currency zone –
including Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – has been low over a long period. Urbanization takes place at a high rate, causing slower growth in the rural population and a
rising urban demand for agricultural and wild harvested products. The latter contributes to
improved market incentives for agriculture, including livestock production, which may in
turn contribute to the intensification, diversification and specialization of production.
1.4 Natural resource management and the ‘sectors’
In this report NRM refers to the sustainable utilization of major natural resources such as
soils, water, air, minerals, forests, fisheries, and wild flora and fauna (biodiversity). Together, these resources produce the goods and the ecosystem services that underpin human
existence and welfare. This study focuses on the management of renewable resources –
soils, water, forests and biodiversity for the purpose of food and income generation. NRM
is intrinsically linked with poverty alleviation in the Sahel, where the majority of the poor
depend on a combination of rain-fed crop farming and extensive livestock rearing, supplemented with the harvesting of wild biodiversity (wood, grasses, fruits, wild grains etc)
and non-farm work. Fisheries are a key source of income in some areas, while small-scale
mining (mainly of gold) is a common source of non-farm income. Hence, reducing food
insecurity and raising income among the rural poor in the Sahel will necessarily involve
changes in the use of natural resources, often as intensified use, with related risks of degradation.
Danish bilateral development assistance is mainly given to selected partner countries and
– for each of these countries – to selected ‘sectors’. One problem of the sector approach is
that sectors overlap and are closely interlinked: agriculture in the Sahel is limited by water
availability; hydropower production interacts with both water resource management, agriculture and environment; and environmental concerns may conflict with agricultural and
energy interests. The theme of this publication, natural resource management, cuts across
most of these sectors, and addressing NRM rather than sector-specific questions may provide a means of avoiding certain pitfalls associated with a sector approach.
Looking at things from a NRM perspective implies a focus both on questions related to
natural resources as such and on questions of how to manage these resources. This in turn
3
implies that the NRM approach must include both natural, technical and social science
elements. This challenges the traditional academic division of labour, which is still clearly
visible both in research and among development practitioners. We are aware of this problem and have tried to span the wide spectrum of competences required to the best of our
abilities; yet there are obvious differences in the depth of their knowledge of subjects
within this spectrum.
1.5 Approach and limitations of the study
The study has adopted a multi-sectoral perspective to better reflect the realities of rural
peoples’ lives, based on the synthesis of work from different disciplines. It was inspired
by the grand inter-disciplinary studies of West Africa (OECD, 1998; Raynaut et al., 1997)
but we did not attempt to match the thematic coverage and analytical depth of these
works. Instead we tried to bring in new perspectives and to draw upon new research
within a variety of fields. Emphasis was placed on linking analyses of trends in climate,
vegetation, agriculture (the rearing of crops, livestock and trees), local governance, and
markets to produce a coherent and up-to-date picture of natural resource management in
the region. Inevitably this involved questioning some of the assumptions underlying the
‘gloom and doom’ visions of the Sahel against the most recent evidence, while also putting the more optimistic ‘counter narrative’ to an empirical test. We hope that the result of
this exercise will contribute to a more realistic and less dogmatic view of NRM in the Sahel.
The role of local governance in promoting sustainable NRM is a key theme of the study,
which reflects the view that it is of great importance to NRM in the region and at the same
time amenable to policy and project interventions. It also mirrors current trends in development policy and it is a key element in Danida’s assistance to Mali, Burkina Faso, and
Niger. Another important factor of sustainable NRM in the Sahel is markets, including
those for agricultural products, inputs, services and labour. The role of markets in sustainable NRM has generally been neglected by researchers, policy makers and development
practitioners in the Sahel. We address this question to some extent, particularly in relation
to urbanisation, but it is a subject that warrants more attention in future work. There are
specific NRM issues related to pastoral systems, which often get inadequate attention or
are inappropriately dealt with in policy and project design. It was therefore decided to
place emphasis on this aspect of NRM in the present study.
The study has some limitations. Firstly, it is based mainly on a review of research findings, although the chapters on pastoral societies and local governance, also discuss operational experiences. Secondly, only natural resource management pertaining to farmlands
(land dominated by crop production) and pastoral systems (dominated by livestock grazing) are considered, since these are the most important rural economic activities for the
region as a whole. Hence NRM related to inland fisheries and mining are not discussed,
while wild harvesting of natural resource-based products receives only limited attention.
Systems dominated by export crops, in particular cotton, were omitted as they play a very
minor role in Danish development assistance to the region.
4
Thirdly, the management of water resources poses a special problem of delimitation. The
‘water sector’ is often dealt with independently from ‘natural resource management’, yet
the two are of course closely linked, especially in the case of the Sahel. Since it is beyond
the scope of the study to produce a thorough review of water resource management issues
on all scales, we decided to take up the issue wherever appropriate, and to devote a section
to it in Chapter 2. Here the emphasis is on the ‘macro scale’, related to water resource
management at the scale of the large river basins, Senegal, Volta and Niger. We are aware
of the inconsistencies that this choice involves, but have found no better alternatives
within the given limitations.
Fourthly, economic development and poverty reduction remain preconditions for achieving an environmentally sustainable use of natural resources, but they are not the focus of
this study. Migration, whether seasonal labour migration or more or less permanent relocations of households, is recognised as a key factor for NRM but was not analysed in
depth. Finally, gender relations are recognised as being a key aspect of NRM in the Sahel
and it is an important focus of Danish development assistance to the region. The large
scope and scale of the present study, however, did not allow us to give this issue special
treatment.
The remainder of the publication is structured as follows. Chapter 2 discusses the biophysical aspects of natural resources, focusing on recent trends in climate, land quality
(degradation), vegetation and water resources. It also examines the validity of the ‘desertification’ concept and links it to the emerging issues of climate change and security. Chapters 3 and 4 examine natural resource management in Sahel’s two most important production systems, respectively, i.e. farmlands (where land use is dominated by crop production) and pastoral systems (where livestock grazing dominates land use). In chapters 5 and
6 we then zoom in on two of the most important factors of sustainable NRM in the Sahel,
markets and local governance. The latter factor is treated in more depth than the former,
due mainly to time limitations. Each chapter ends with a brief discussion of the policy
implications of the analyses presented. Chapter 7 concludes.
5
Chapter 2. Trends in natural resources and the environment
2.1 Introduction
The Sahel-Sudan has traditionally been portrayed as a region characterized by scarce and
vulnerable natural resources, haunted by drought and desertification, and with a high and
rising pressure on key natural resources, such as vegetation, soils and water. This picture
of the Sahel-Sudan became the ‘acquired wisdom’ during the ‘Sahel crisis’ in the seventies, and it has tended to stick to the region ever since. Much development assistance, Danish as well as from other donors, has been initiated on the basis of this perception. In the
following we investigate whether this is still a valid description of the region, asking the
following specific questions:
•
What are the current trends with respect to climate change, and what can be expected from the future?
•
Is desertification, or preferably ‘land degradation’, a process still ongoing, has the
trend been reversed or are the realities of the region more complex than can be
captured by such generalizations?
•
Is agriculture in the Sahel-Sudan unsustainable, causing depletion of soil nutrients
and accelerated soil erosion?
•
Are vegetation resources being depleted through unsustainable use of woody resources for firewood and of herbaceous vegetation as livestock grazing?
•
Is indiscriminant burning of vegetation causing land degradation and loss of biological diversity?
•
Are water resources scarce and/or being over-used?
•
How do the answers to these questions impact on development assistance strategies?
Some of these questions will be taken up in later chapters on crop production and pastoralism. In this chapter the focus will be on climate change, land degradation, changes in
vegetation cover and biological diversity, the effects of burning and water resources.
2.2 Climate change
The Sahel-Sudan zone has experienced one of the most significant and persistent climatic
anomalies observed globally over the last half Century: The drought period, which started
in the late sixties or early seventies and lasted at least up to the mid-eighties, is very well
documented and caused great economic losses as well as dramatic environmental change.
An interesting and widely debated question concerns whether the recent increase in rainfall may be interpreted as a return to earlier levels or whether it represents just natural
variability not associated with an increase in the average. Since around 1986 rainfall has
generally increased compared to the 1970-85 period (OECD, 2006). Further, a comparison
6
of the 1998-2003 period with period 1968-97 showed that rainfall had recovered with respect to the preceding period in the southern parts of the Sahel zone (12-16°N), but in the
northern part (16-20°N), the drought appears to have intensified. In the ‘southernmost
Sahel’ (12-14°N) conditions in the 1998-2003 period seem to have been particularly favourable and comparable to the very wet period in the 1950s and 1960s (Nicholson,
2005).
Several alternative datasets for rainfall, covering the Sahel region, exist, and there are significant differences between them. The number of reliable rain gauge stations, functioning
over a long period, in the Sahel is surprisingly low, and instead various methods, based on
satellite data, from optical as well as microwave sensors, and a variety of analysis methods are being used to produce these data sets. We have applied the CHARM (Collaborative Historical African Rainfall Model) dataset, (Funk & Verdin, 2003), based on a combination of optical and microwave satellite data, calibrated by use of ground data, to identify trends in rainfall over the period 1996 to 2006. The result is illustrated in Figure 2.1. It
is evident that the Sahel and northern Sudan region has generally experienced increases in
rainfall.
Figure 2.1: Trends in the development of rainfall in the period 1996-2006, derived
from the CHARM dataset.
Note: Green colours denote a positive trend, red colours a negative trend.
Even more interesting is the question of whether rainfall may be expected to increase in
the future as a consequence of global climate change. IPCC’s’ Fourth Assessment Report
(4AR) (Christensen et al., 2007) is inconclusive on this point. The West-African region is
actually one of the regions of the world where different global climate models (GCMs)
agree the least in their predictions, and currently large research efforts are invested in understanding the West-African monsoon better and in representing the geo-bio-physical
mechanisms better in the climate models. One example is the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (AMMA) project (www.amma-eu.org). Further, attempts are made to
obtain more detail in the projections by increasing the spatial resolution of the climate
models, which involves developing regional climate models (RCMs) for the region. The
EU project ENSEMBLES presently works on developing ‘probabilistic’ projections of
future climate change in the West-African region, by combining output from many GCMs
and RCMs. At this point, what can be said is that while the overall future trend in rainfall
remains uncertain, it is very probable that weather extremes will become more frequent
and more extreme 1 (Tebaldi et al., 2006).
The scientific literature on the causes of drought in the Sahel is large. In the seventies several hypotheses, relating drought to changes in local land surface conditions, were put
7
forward. The interesting characteristic of these theories is that they involve bio-geophysical positive feedbacks, implying that once surface conditions have changed, e.g. due
to human action, this could in itself lead to drought, which would further accelerate
changes in land surface conditions. None of these hypotheses have, however, been shown
to be able to explain climatic variations in the region fully. More recently it has been suggested that industrial pollution in Europe may have caused the drought. While this hypothesis cannot be said to be verified, it does have the attractive property that it provides an
explanation why the drought has gradually faded out, since the industrial pollution has
gradually decreased from the eighties and onwards. Other possible ‘explanations’ have
been based on statistical correlations between rainfall in the Sahel-Sudan and sea temperatures in the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. While such correlations are interesting, and
possibly useful as a basis for seasonal forecasting, they do not necessarily provide neither
an explanation nor a basis for long-term climate change forecasts.
Seasonal forecasts of rainfall are of considerable potential utility, since they can provide
farmers with information allowing them to choose the right time of sowing as well as the
optimal crop variety. Also they can feed into early warning systems for crop failure and
food insufficiency. In addition, rainfall forecasts may be useful for managing water resources in the large river basins, not the least management of the reservoirs behind the
large dams, such as the Manantali on the Senegal River. As mentioned, IPCC’s AR4 (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Report 4) suggests that both
droughts and extreme rainfall may become more frequent. The latter implies that flooding
in the big river valleys may become an increasing risk, seriously aggravated by the fact
that during the decades of lower rainfall, and following the construction of dams like Manantali, much infrastructure and many villages have been constructed in the river valleys.
In the context of projects like AMMA, the improvement of seasonal forecasts is high on
the agenda. It should be noted that farmers make their own forecasts, and that local knowledge may be combined with scientifically based forecasts (Ingram et al., 2002; Roncoli et
al., 2002).
In conclusion it may be stated that annual rainfall seems to have increased somewhat since
the mid-eighties, even though trends differ much across the Sahel, yet little can be said
about the future trends. However, variability is likely to increase, and both prolonged
droughts and extreme rainfall may become more frequent. Whether changes in land surface properties in the Sahel-Sudan will have significant feedback on climate is still uncertain.
2.3 Climate change mitigation and adaptation
The Sahel has contributed relatively little to the increase in the atmospheric concentration
of Green House Gas’s (GHG). The small contribution comes from many sources:
•
Reduction in carbon storage in vegetation and soil due to clearing of woodlands
and forests, cultivation and grazing (Elberling et al., 2003; Touré et al., 2003).
•
Emissions of non-CO 2 GHGs from bush fires.
•
Emissions of CH 4 from livestock and irrigated rice fields.
8
•
Burning of fossil fuels in transportation and industry.
The per capita emission, measured in tons of CO 2 -equivalents, remains far below the
global average, and the Sahel countries are not subjects to emissions caps. Efforts to reduce emissions are therefore either fully voluntary or organized as Clean Development
Mechanism (CDM) projects. No CDM projects are presently approved, yet several are
being validated, including one on reducing emissions from landfill in Senegal, one on
replacing fossil fuels with hydropower in Mali and on village-scale tree planting in Burkina Faso. All three projects are relatively small, and exactly the small size of projects appear to constitute a problem, because transaction costs are high in the CDM system. It has
been claimed that there are huge potentials for increasing carbon storage in vegetation
and, even more so, in the soil in African savanna areas, yet it appears that this potential is
not being utilized because the costs of increasing carbon storage are relatively high,
whereas carbon credits are presently very inexpensive. As the inexpensive options for
cutting GHG emissions – the so-called ‘low-hanging fruits’ – are gradually used up, and
major increases in demand for credits may be expected, this situation is likely to change.
However, other parts of the world, e.g. areas where tropical rainforest is the natural vegetation type, may well have the comparative advantage for carbon storage relative to savanna areas. One issue, presently being debated, is the proposition that CDM projects
may, in the post-Kyoto period, include such non-actions as ‘avoided deforestation’, implying that developing countries may be paid not to cut down forests that would otherwise
have been cut. This may also have effects in the Sahel, where agriculture is still expanding
into woodland/forest. Generally, speaking CDM projects involving afforestation, reforestation and, possibly in the future, avoided deforestation all involve many problems, not the
least associated with social and economic sustainability (Tschakert, 2004; Perez et al.,
2007).
Globally, one mitigation option is to replace fossil fuels by (more or less) CO 2 neutral biofuels. This option has been decided upon both by the US and the EU, and the decision
may have considerable, yet still largely unknown, consequences in developing countries.
As already evident, the result will be considerable increases in prices of all biomass products which may be converted into bio fuels. Currently, maize prices have been strongly
affected. The extent to which this will have an impact on agriculture in the Sahel remains
to be seen, and trade barriers and import taxes may influence the result profoundly. Nevertheless, a higher demand for, and world market prices on, biomass for bio fuel purposes
will, all other factors even, have stimulating impacts on Sahelian agriculture. On the other
hand, it may lead to increases in food prices in urban areas, and cause unsustainable expansion of agriculture into marginal areas. Several crops, e.g. sorghum, maize, cassava
and sugar cane, presently grown in the region are suitable as feedstock for ethanol production using existing technology, and others will become relevant as ‘2nd generation technologies’ become available. Production of biodiesel from plant oils may be equally feasible. In particular, the cultivation of Jatropha carcus (henceforth Jatropha) is considered
to have large potential, even though the current state of knowledge of its yield potential
and requirements with respect to water and nutrients is insufficient. Danish development
assistance funding presently supports a Jatropha project in Mali, and a project in Burkina
Faso is underway as well. The development of both ethanol and biodiesel production in
9
the region is still in its infancy, and there are good reasons to monitor closely the economic, social and environmental aspects of the sustainability of bio-fuel production systems. It should also be noted CDM projects and bio fuel expansion interact: Both are climate change mitigation activities, yet they may act synergistically or be in conflict, since
expansion of crop production for bio fuel purposes may cause a decrease in the carbon
stock in vegetation and soils. On the other hand, the cultivation of certain bio fuel crops,
such as Jatropha, on poor and depleted soils may actually increase carbon stocks.
Adaptation to climate change has recently risen to the top of the agenda in the development assistance arena and in international negotiations in the context of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It is widely acknowledged
that the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), including the Sahelian countries, are the most
vulnerable to climate change. Irrespective of the efforts to mitigate climate change, there
will be considerable climate change taking place over the next Century, and developing
countries should be assisted in developing National Action Plans for Adaptation, as well
as in implementing them. However, adaptation to climate change remains relatively low
on the agenda of many countries, mostly due to the time horizon, stretching far beyond the
next election period. In the first generation of PRSPs (Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers),
references to climate change and other environmental issues are few. Long-term planning
taking climate change into considerations is likely to be an issue pushed by donors, rather
than driven by governments of the Sahel countries, unless win-win options, involving both
adaptation to climate change and other benefits may be identified. One candidate for such
co-benefits may be found in the domain of disaster preparedness, which overlaps considerably with climate change adaptation, and which is generally higher on national agendas.
The problem of bringing climate change adaptation into the forefront is shared by many
LDCs, yet it may be particularly pronounced in the Sahel, since it is linked to the uncertainty of climate change. As long as climate change forecasts for the next Century are as
diverging as they are for the Sahel, a ‘wait-and-see’ attitude is likely to develop, not the
least in a situation where many other economic development issues appear more pressing.
The farmers themselves have always coped with climate change and variability, and any
understanding of how they may adapt to future changes can be based on studies of how
they have acted in the past. Adaptation and coping strategies are deeply embedded in local
production systems and cultures. Strategies include elements related to local land use and
crop choices as well as non-local elements, such as migration (Roncoli, 2006; Mertz et al.,
2009). In the context of the AMMA project, a major comparative study of farmers’ adaptation strategies is underway.
Seen from a development assistance perspective, donor agencies could review the activities supported by development assistance funds to make sure that they are ‘climate proof’.
This process is underway in the Danish ‘partner countries’ in West Africa. It could be
extended to actively promote activities related to adaptation to climate change, and in particular those that represent win-win options by furthering other national and donor objectives as well.
10
2.4 Desertification/land degradation
While the theme of desertification in the Sahel-Sudan has a long story, both in research
and development circles, it has become a widely discussed issue after the ‘Sahel drought’
of the 70s and early 80s and the UN Conference on Desertification in 1977. It was brought
to the top of the agenda once again by the Rio Conference in 1992, followed by the signing of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in 1994.
While it has become a global issue, it is still often associated with the Sahel-Sudan zone,
and statements concerning its continued significance in the region occur frequently in both
policy and scientific literature (Adeel et al., 2007; Millenium Ecosystem Assessment,
2005).
The contemporary UNCCD definition of desertification is as follows (UNCCD, 1994; pp.
4-5):
“"Desertification" means land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas
resulting from various factors, including climatic variations and human activities;
"Land degradation" means reduction or loss, in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas,
of the biological or economic productivity and complexity of rainfed cropland, irrigated
cropland, or range, pasture, forest and woodlands resulting from land uses or from a
process or combination of processes, including processes arising from human activities
and habitation patterns, such as:
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
soil erosion caused by wind and/or water;
deterioration of the physical, chemical and biological or economic properties
of soil; and
long-term loss of natural vegetation;”
This definition, effectively equating desertification and land degradation, may be the most
widely accepted, yet it is by no means the only one used. The great variation in meaning
and interpretation of the terms may cause considerable confusion (Rasmussen, 1999;
Mortimore & Turner, 2005).
Geist & Lambin (2004) summarizes 42 case studies of desertification in Africa, a considerable part of them from the Sahel-Sudan, in order to identify causal patterns. Most of
these studies report land degradation and supports the idea, that land degradation is a
widespread phenomenon in the region. Geist & Lambin (2004) suggest that the analysis
may serve as a basis for generalization to the regional level, policy formulation and planning of interventions.
Since land degradation is generally perceived as involving processes at time scales of decades or longer, it is obvious that methods of monitoring the environment in a consistent
manner over long periods are in demand. Few such methods and data sets are available in
the Sahel-Sudan, yet satellite data offer certain possibilities. The recent availability of data
sets, produced on the basis of satellite images from the NOAA/AVHRR (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) satellite/sensor system, covering the period 1982 to date and with near-global spatial coverage,
11
has allowed analysis of trends in vegetation productivity. Several papers (Eklundh & Olsson, 2003; Anyamba & Tucker, 2005; Olsson et al., 2005) have over the last years reported the results of such analyses. They generally agree that vegetation productivity has
increased in the Sahel-Sudan zone over the period mentioned. The output from an analysis, similar to the ones mentioned, is shown in Figure 2.2a and 2.2b 2.
Trends in the ‘integrated Normalized Difference Vegetation Index’ (iNDVI), which is
an indicator of ‘net primary productivity’ (NPP).
Figure 2.2a: Period 1982-2006.
Figure 2.2b: Period 1996-2006.
Note: Green colours denote a positive trend, red colours a negative trend.
In relation to the results shown in Figure 2.2 it should be noted that there are many uncertainties involved, the most important being that the time integral of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) over the growing season is an imperfect proxy for net primary productivity (NPP), among other things because the relationship between integratedNDVI (iNDVI) and vegetation productivity depends on vegetation type and species. Many
attempts to improve the estimation of vegetation productivity using various types of satellite images are presently being made. Further it should be noted that NDVI does not say
anything about the quality of the vegetation and thus about its ‘economic productivity and
complexity’.
It is apparent from the definition on desertification/land degradation given above, that
vegetation productivity is a key indicator of land degradation – yet not the only one because biological productivity may differ from economic productivity, also referred to in
the definition. Thus the gloomy picture of persistent land degradation in the Sahel-Sudan,
found in research papers as well as policy documents, seems to be contradicted by these
findings, as exemplified by Figure 2.2. While Figure 2.2a covers the entire period from
which data is available (1982-2006), this is from the end of the drought period. Figure
12
2.2b covers only the period from 1996, the same period for which rainfall data are shown
in Figure 2.1. It appears that the ‘greening of the Sahel’ continues over the last decade.
The above-mentioned meta-study on desertification by Geist & Lambin (2004) has as its
aim to extract information on 'immediate causes' and 'driving forces' of desertification
from each of these, and use this as a basis for generalization. The meta-study approach
employed is seen as a means of allowing generalizations to be made from numerous case
studies, carried out using different methodologies and with different objectives. Briefly
summarized the study reaches the main conclusions that;
1. most case studies observe land degradation,
2. this is mostly due to overgrazing, in combination with increased aridity, and
3. a combination of climatic, demographic, economic and institutional factors are the
most prominent ’underlying driving forces’.
The satellite-based studies, mentioned above, do not provide an explanation of the causes
of the observed increase in vegetation productivity. However, the spatial scale of the observed phenomenon points in the direction of 'underlying driving forces' which have a
similar 'operational scale'. It is difficult to imagine that other factors than rainfall change
and increase in the atmospheric concentration of CO 2 , so-called CO 2 fertilization, can live
up to this requirement. Other suggested causes include demographic change, improved
NRM and land use changes, yet they hardly have the ‘operational scale’ required to produce the observed general ‘greening’.
It is obvious that the conclusions, at the sub-continental scale, extracted from the metastudy and from the macro-scale analysis of satellite images, appear to be contradictory.
This may have a number of different explanations: Either the meta-study or the macroscale studies may give a false picture, or they may actually deal with different things, use
different definitions of key concepts, use different indicators and/or relate to different spatial or temporal scales. We suggest that two factors are the most important;
1. biased selection of study areas and research design of micro-scale studies, overrepresenting areas where land degradation processes occur, and
2. differences in the use of indicators of land degradation, reflecting different definitions or emphasizing different aspects of the definition, given above.
The observed discrepancy would not be of great practical significance if it were not the
basis for differences in practical approaches and policies, aimed at 'combating' desertification, to use the UNCCD term. It is clear, however, that such differences are likely to occur. Much rhetoric, both by national governments, by UNCCD and by donors rely on the
assumption that land degradation is an ongoing process in the Sahel-Sudan, and policies
and projects are being designed on this basis. One example of a project building largely on
this perception is the revived ‘green belt project’, proposing that one or two green belts
should be planted across the Sahel from the Atlantic coast in Senegal or Mauretania and to
Lake Chad. We are not going to debate the overall costs and benefits of this project; rather
we will question whether its rationale may be justified. Its rationale is that green belts are
supposed to stop the threatening advance of the Sahara. This may (or may not) be justified
13
by the results of the meta-studies referred to, strongly suggesting that widespread land
degradation is actually taking place, but it is obviously in conflict with the findings of the
macro-scale studies.
As indicated above, alternative definitions and indicators of land degradation have been
suggested. One indicator directly related to figure 2.1 and 2.2 is the ratio of annual net
primary productivity (NPP) to annual rainfall, the so called rain use efficiency (RUE)
(Prince et al., 1998; Hein & de Ridder, 2006; Prince et al., 2007). The logic behind this
measure is that it represents the ability of the vegetation cover to make efficient use of the
rainfall. It is obviously only relevant in cases where the vegetation productivity and thus
‘greenness’ is supposed to be limited by water availability, which is generally the case up
to at least 700 mm of mean annual rainfall. The difference here is that changes in rainfall
should not, from the outset, be expected to influence RUE, and any change in RUE may
therefore be expected to reflect other factors, such as increased CO 2 -fertilization, change
in land use, change in grazing pressure etc. This is questioned by Hein & de Ridder
(2006), yet Prince et al. (2007) maintains that RUE may be used as an indicator of the
effect of other variables than rainfall. Further, Prince et al. (2007) find that trends in RUE
do not indicate non-rainfall related land degradation in the Sahel. This is further supported
by Fensholt & Rasmussen (2011). This conclusion is, however, sensitive to several assumptions: Firstly, the calculation of a meaningful and robust RUE assumes that NPP can
be accurately estimated by using the iNDVI, determined from the NOAA AVHRR sensor,
as a proxy for NPP, as discussed above. Secondly, a reliable rainfall dataset with sufficient spatial resolution is required. The CHARM data on annual rainfall, used above to
analyze trends in annual rainfall, is one such dataset, yet the scarcity of ground data on
rainfall makes it difficult to assess the qualities of various datasets objectively. We have
used the data on iNDVI, illustrated in Figure 2.2b and the rainfall data, from the CHARM
data set, used to produce Figure 2.1 to calculate RUE values, and to identify trends in
RUE. The result is shown in Figure 2.3.
Figure 2.3: Trends in the ‘Rain Use Efficiency’ (RUE) over the period 1996-2006.
Note: Green colours indicate an increase, red colours a decrease.
Figure 2.3 shows that the observed increase in iNDVI, representing NPP, has, over the 11
years studied, not been able to keep up with the increase in annual rainfall. The result is a
general decrease in RUE, in contrast to what is found by Prince et al. (1998, 2007), however for a different time period. The main reason for the discrepancy appears to be differences between the rainfall data sets used. Thus, if RUE is seen as an indicator of nonrainfall related land degradation, we arrive at the exact opposite conclusion of Prince et al.
14
(2007). It should be noted, however, that the use of RUE as a general land degradation
indicator does not conform to the standard UNCCD definition.
2.5 Climate change, desertification and security
Climate change, as well as other major environmental changes in drylands and water resource scarcity caused by climate change, are to an increasing extent described as international ‘security problems’. This may be exemplified by the recent session of UN’s Security Council dealing with climate change. It may be discussed if this ‘securitization’ of
climate change is justified (Deudney, 1990; Barnett, 2003), and whether it serves to contribute to the long-term solution of the problem. Considering climate change as a security
problem is suggested to be especially relevant in parts of the world where the livelihoods
of a large fraction of the population depend on climate dependent activities, such as in
drylands exposed to rainfall decrease or increased rainfall variability and in coastal areas
likely to be affected by sea level rise and greater risks of flooding. Increased frequency of
climate change related disasters, as well as gradual decrease in resource availability, is
thought to cause massive migration, leading to large flows of environmental refugees.
These are, in turn, argued to constitute a security problem, both within the regions concerned and at global scale. Current refugee flows from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe are
argued to be precursors of much greater pressure on Europe. The fact that it may be argued that these refugee flows are caused by an environmental problem created by wealthy,
western, industrialized and post-industrial countries, e.g. European countries, adds to the
perception of climate change as a security problem. The extent to which this threat is real
has not been thoroughly researched, yet there is little to suggest that present refugee flows
are directly caused by climate change and associated environmental changes. The largest
refugee problems remain those associated with international and civil wars, and whether
or not some of these wars are partly caused by resource conflicts related to climate change
is unclear.
2.6 Bush fires
Burning of savannah areas is extremely widespread across West Africa in a belt stretching
from the southern Sahel to the Guinean savannah. Bush fires are considered to be a major
environmental problem in all countries in the region, and are claimed to cause loss of fodder and forest resources, degradation of soils, reductions in soil organic matter (SOM) and
thus in carbon storage, loss of plant nutrients (in particular plant-available N), loss of
species diversity and health problems such as respiratory diseases. Consequently fires
have generally been banned, even though the enforcement of the ban has not always and
everywhere been equally fierce (Wardell et al., 2004; Laris & Wardell, 2006). There are a
number of noticeable exceptions from the general ban: In national parks, the park managers often use fires, typically very early in the dry season, to reduce the danger of later,
more destructive fires, to promote visibility of wildlife and to fight poachers. The same is
sometimes the case in ‘protected forests’.
It is widely acknowledged, however, that fires are also a tool in natural resource management. The great majority of fires, in cultivated areas as well as rangelands, are set by local
15
people, and in most cases it is done for a reason. Possible rationales for setting fire include:
•
Burning, mostly by herders, of dry grasses at the start of the dry season as soon as
burning is possible to promote re-growth of new, more nutritious grasses/herbs.
•
Burning used a tool in hunting and honey collection.
•
Burning of fallow vegetation, often in the late dry season, by cultivators as a
means of preparing fields for sowing.
In the northern Sahel few fires occur, while further south almost the entire land surface is
burnt annually. The reason is suggested to be that in the northern pastoral zone herders do
not see a benefit from burning, since annuals dominate and no/little re-growth will occur
after burning (Mbow et al., 2000; Nielsen et al., 2003). While benefits are in all these cases harvested by those deciding to set fire, the fires may have negative impacts on other
groups and activities. The balance of benefits and costs associated with the use of fires is
difficult to assess, and it is likely to differ between places and will depend on the timing of
the fire. The optimal timing of fires, seen from the point of view of a specific fire use, is
well-known to farmers and pastoralists. As indicated above, most uses demand early burning, which is also easier to control, since the soil and vegetation are still humid.
Due to the ban on fires outside national parks and protected/managed forests, few attempts
to optimize the use of fires and few development projects focusing on management of
fires exist. Two examples from the Sahel-Sudan are the FINNIDA (Finnish International
Development Agency)-funded ‘Bush Fire Management Project’ in Burkina Faso and the
ECOPAS project in the W-Park in Niger, Burkina Faso and Benin.
2.7 Vegetation cover and biological/species diversity
Almost by definition the natural vegetation cover and productivity in the Sahel is controlled by water availability, yet human utilization pressure, both associated with pastoralism /livestock production, with crop production, with harvesting of wood fuel and with
the use of fire, certainly plays a great role as well. While the uncultivated parts of the Sahel may appear to be ‘natural vegetation’, it is a cultural landscape, shaped by millennia of
human use. Since climate has been extremely variable, at all time-scales from few years to
millennia, the natural ecosystems are likely to be undergoing continuous change, rather
than being in some state of equilibrium. Nevertheless, analysis of pollen records from
sediment cores from lakes in the region shows that that the main elements of the vegetation cover have been present at least 7,000 years. A number of questions may be raised,
concerning the question of persistence versus change of the vegetation cover:
•
Are there significant changes in the extent of the woody and herbaceous cover,
and, if so, why?
•
May be the ecosystems of the Sahel be considered unstable and vulnerable, or,
on the contrary, very resilient, and what are the impacts of livestock grazing?
16
•
What are the lessons learnt with respect to management of the vegetation cover,
and protected areas specifically?
2.7.1 Changes in vegetation cover
With respect to woody cover, the general picture has been one of ‘deforestation’ and/or
gradual reduction in the crown cover percentage, and this suggested trend is most often
attributed to
•
Expansion of the cultivated areas, involving clearing of savanna woodlands and
replacing them with fields with very sparse populations of specific ‘field trees’,
such as Faidherbia albida.
•
Logging forest and woodland areas to produce timber, wood fuel and/or charcoal,
either for local use or for supplies for major cities.
•
Excessive browsing by livestock, not the least goats.
•
Climate change, or prolonged drought, causing widespread mortality of tree stands
fed by secondary water tables, which are sensitive to drought.
A number of in situ botanical and ethno-botanical studies have reported consistent declines in numbers of trees and shrubs for a large number of species in several countries in
the Sahel (Lykke, 2000; Gonzalez et al., 2004; Kristensen, 2004; Wezel, 2004; Wezel &
Lykke, 2006). It appears that the economically most important species are generally those
mostly affected by the decrease, while less useful species, such as certain invasive shrubs,
are reported to increase. It is acknowledged that the causes of the decline, and in certain
cases disappearance, of woody species may be related both to climate change and to overuse, the human causes appear to dominate. The fact that Sudanian species are replaced
with Sahelian ones speaks in favor of the climatic explanation, while the general decrease
in numbers may be expected to be caused by human factors. The authors generally point
to excessive browsing by goats, logging, collection of fuel wood, and excessive use of fire
as the immediate causes. Also, they suggest that improved systems of management of
woody species are required in order to avoid further losses.
The changes in herbaceous cover appear to be less researched from the botanical side, yet
there is no doubt that in the drier parts, there has been a distinct change in species composition from the pre-drought period until today. Perennial species used to play a much
greater role, while annuals have now taken over. This transition is certainly a direct effect
of the lower rainfall during the seventies and eighties, yet also increasing grazing pressure
may have played a role. Many of the annuals have a short lifecycle, making them less sensitive to rainy-season grazing pressure, and they therefore have a competitive advantage
during droughts and under high grazing pressure. The short lifecycle implies that they
may not be able to make full use of rainfall late in the rainy season. The dominant species
may vary greatly from year to year, due to differences in the start of the rains. Certain
species are well adapted to multiple ‘false starts’ of the rainy season, while others are not.
These inter-annual differences have considerable implications for the grazing resources
available, adding to the purely rainfall-related variability.
17
2.7.2 Equilibrium and disequilibrium ecosystem theories
Traditional ecological and rangeland science accounts of dryland ecosystems have emphasized the notion of equilibrium, implying that ecosystems are in a steady state, which may
be temporarily ‘disturbed’ by fire, grazing, drought etc, but will return to the steady state
once the disturbance is gone. In practical terms, this may involve the concept of a ‘carrying capacity’ or ‘optimal stocking rate’ for livestock. In recent decades this view has been
challenged by ‘disequilibrium theories’, as will be elaborated upon in chapter 4. The apparent ‘recovery’ of the vegetation cover and productivity of the Sahelian ecosystems,
discussed above, may be interpreted as indicative of a system in disequilibrium: While the
NPP may increase to pre-drought levels, the species composition and ecosystem function
are fundamentally altered. However, the consequence of this, suggested by Behnke et al.
(1993), that the ecosystem is not affected in the longer term by grazing, and that a opportunistic livestock management strategy, aiming at maximizing herd sizes, is preferable,
may not be entirely valid: Certain components of the vegetation, and in particular the
woody species may be quite sensitive to grazing/browsing pressure, due to the impact of
grazing/browsing on regeneration (Lykke et al., 2004).
2.7.3 Implications for management
The management strategies suggested to counteract the loss of valuable woody species
include the following:
•
Reliance on natural regeneration rather than planting (Gonzalez et al., 2004).
•
Involvement of the local people suffering from the losses of valuable species.
•
Modification of burning practices and active fighting of fires, not the least in protected areas and national parks.
The strategies may, however, be expected to vary greatly from place to place, reflecting
the different causes of vegetation degradation. In grazing areas where browsing by goats
can be a major factor, active herding of goats and fencing may be the only options, both of
which imply considerable costs, both in terms of labour and capital. As mentioned above,
modification of burning practices is hampered by the fact that burning is in most cases
illegal altogether.
2.8 Water resources and water management
2.8.1 Water resource characteristics
The availability of water in the Sahel is characterized by extreme spatial and temporal
variability, which have a particularly strong influence on natural resource management,
including soil management, as well as on livelihood strategies (Mortimore, 1998). Firstly,
rainfall is low, it is distributed over a short period of typically 3-4 months, and it falls as
thunderstorms of limited spatial extent. This results in a low biological productivity, an
extreme seasonality in productivity and thus in derived incomes and labour demands, and
a high spatial variability in crop yields and fodder availability. Moreover, because water is
such a dominant constraint (up to an average annual rainfall of about 700 mm), variations
18
in topography and in the water retention properties of soils give rise to a pronounced spatial variability in biological productivity at landscape scale and even within individual
fields. Secondly, a few thunderstorms are responsible for the major part of the annual precipitation in any particular location in the Sahel. This means that rainfall is highly unreliable, resulting in high production risks, especially for rain-fed crops. It also implies that
livestock production is in one sense less risky than crop production, since livestock can be
moved to compensate for the spatial and temporal variability of rainfall – provided that
the livestock management system allows for this mobility.
2.8.2 The significance of water management
The ‘Sahelian’ countries are almost by definition characterized by water scarcity. On a
monthly basis, precipitation only exceeds potential evapotranspiration (the maximum
amount of water which could evaporate from the Earth’s surface and transpire from the
vegetation cover) in between zero and four months of the year. This implies that rain-fed
agricultural activities are limited to a very short period of the year, and that groundwater
and surface water resources are subject to competition between different uses. Proper
management of these scarce resources is therefore extremely important. Technological
development and population growth have intensified this competition over the last 100
years. An example may illustrate this: the expansion of irrigated agriculture in the valleys
of the large river systems (e.g. the Senegal, Niger and Volta systems), the building of
dams for hydropower production and the increasing demands for urban water supply all
impact on river water resources, giving rise to changes in both total discharge and its distribution over time. These changes may be detrimental to ‘traditional’ economic activities,
such as ‘recession agriculture’, grazing on dry season pastures in the river valleys, and use
of the river for fisheries.
Management of water resources interacts with other NRM issues: the establishment of
deep wells, providing water to livestock in rangelands that were not usable outside the
rainy season before, allows the utilization of hitherto unused vegetation resources. It may,
however, cause overuse of vegetation resources around the wells as well as conflicts over
access to water and vegetation resources, if proper management systems are not established.
Increased use of water resources may also have considerable environmental effects.
Firstly, the overuse of groundwater may cause groundwater tables to subside, which in
turn may result in death of woody vegetation relying on such water tables. Secondly, reduction of the maximum discharge in rivers, caused by the building and operation of
dams, may alter riparian ecosystems fundamentally, causing loss of species and ecosystem
services.
It is not only the amount, but also the quality of water resources that may be altered. The
increase in the use of river water for irrigated agriculture, relying on massive inputs of
mineral fertilizers and pesticides, inevitably influences water quality downstream. Also,
the sediment loads of rivers are increasing because of increased erosion caused by
19
changes in land use/cover and possibly by higher rainfall intensity. This causes problems
of siltation of reservoirs behind hydropower dams.
2.8.3 The large river basins
The wet period in the 1960s, the drought in the 1970s and early 1980s, followed by an
increase in rainfall over the last couple of decades are to some extent reflected in the discharge of the major river systems. The major part of the West-African Sahel-Sudan belt is
drained by three river systems, the Senegal, the Volta and the Niger systems. The two
largest ones, the Senegal and Niger systems, both have their sources in the highlands of
the Fouta Djalon mountains in the border region between Guinée, Mali and Senegal, and
both pass through semi-arid and arid areas where they lose water before reaching the sea.
Water from all three river systems is used extensively for irrigation purposes. Only the
upper parts of the Niger and Volta basins are, strictly speaking, relevant in a Sahelian context. Some of the largest irrigated areas within the Sahel-Sudan zone in West Africa are
found in the middle and lower valleys of the Senegal River and in the inland delta of the
Niger River in Mali. Dams have been built on tributaries to the Senegal River (the Manantali Dam in Mali) and to the Niger River (the Selingue Dam). Further south (and outside
the zone considered here) in Ghana the Akosombo dam has been constructed on the Volta.
All three dams produce significant amounts of hydropower, while Manantali is a multipurpose dam that also serves the needs of the expanding irrigated agriculture in the Senegal River valley.
The water resources of the three basins are subject to increasing competition between different water uses, the quantitatively most prominent being irrigated agriculture. Yet also
urban and industrial water supply are of increasing importance, and national capitals such
as Dakar and Niamey are sensitive to variations in discharge and water quality in the major rivers. In the Senegal River the losers in the competition for water resources are, however, ‘traditional’ recession agriculture and natural ecosystems, of which some provide
ecological services and vegetation resources to the livestock production (Rasmussen et al.,
1999). Figure 2.4 shows the annual discharge measured at five stations along the Senegal
River (Bakel) and its Bafing (Manantali and Dakka), Faleme (Gourbassa) and Baoule
(Qualia) tributaries over the period 1986-2005. It is evident that in the period from 1994 to
date the Senegal River has had substantially higher discharge than the period 1986-1993.
20
Figure 2.4: Annual discharge at five stations in the Senegal River basin.
30
Dakka
Manantali
25
Bakel
Gourbassa
Qualia
15
3
km year
-1
20
10
5
0
1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Note: Bakel is on the main river in the middle valley, Manantali and Dakka are on the Bafing branch, Gourbassa on the Faleme branch and Qualia on the Baoule branch. The discharge at Manantali is measured just
downstream from the dam, while the input to the reservoir in represented by the discharge at Dakka. The
calculation of annual discharge is for the hydrological year, i.e. from May 1st in the year given to April 30th
the next year.
Source: Simon Stisen, on the basis of data from Organisation pour la Mise en Valeur du Fleuve Senegal
(Organisation for the Development of the Senegal River - OMVS).
21
Box 2.1. Competing water uses in the Senegal River basin
The Manantali Dam is built on the Bafing tributary and the discharge at Manantali, shown in Figure 2.5 is the outflow from
the dam, while Dakka is just upstream and represents the ‘natural flow’ in Bafing. The discharge at Bakel is the sum of contributions from the regulated Bafing and the un-regulated Faleme and Baoule tributaries, as shown in Figure 2.4. (Box 2.1 continues on the next page.)
Figure 2.5. Daily discharge at the Bakel station on the main river in the middle valley and Manantali and Dakka stations on the Bafing branch in Mali. The discharge at Manantali is measured just downstream from the dam, while the input
to the reservoir in represented by the discharge at Dakka.
Dakka [m^3/s]
3000
2000
1000
0
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
Manantali [m^3/s]
3000
2000
1000
0
1986
1987
Bakel [m^3/s]
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
1986
1987
Source: Simon Stisen, on the basis of data from OMVS.
22
Box 2.1. Continued
It should be noted that the dam was completed in 1986, but it did start to produce hydropower until 2001.
In the period 1987-1990 water was retained to fill up the reservoir. The management of the dam has attempted to balance conflicting interests, associated with (1) hydro-power production, (2) irrigated agriculture in the lower valley, (3) recession agriculture in the middle valley, (4) flooding of pasture areas, making them useful as dry-season grazing reserves, (5) conservation of wetland ecosystems of international
significance, (6) all-year navigation on the river and (7) water supply for urban areas (including Dakar), as
described in more detail in Rasmussen et al. (1999). It is clear from Figure 2.4 and 2.5 that the discharge
varies greatly from year to year and within the year. The peak flow in 1999 gave rise to the largest flooding in the middle and lower valley for several decades. Careful analysis of Figure 2.5 discloses the balancing of the competing water uses: the elevated minimum flow at Bakel in recent years is a consequence of
the need to have a continuous power production, water availability for irrigation all year, and all-year
navigation. The need to flood the lowest parts of the river valley annually is catered for by controlled
‘flushing’, as seen in the Bakel-curve for 1995-2003, yet in 2004 and 2005 no such ‘flushing’ took place
(as can be seen in the Manantali curve). It is estimated that at least six consecutive days with a flow of at
least 2500 m3/s is required to obtain flooding, supporting recession agriculture to a significant extent. Thus
dam management criteria is a critical issue, determining to a great extent the losers and winners in the
competition for scarce water resources. While located in Mali, Manantali is under the authority of the
OMVS, of which Mali, Mauretania and Senegal, but not Guinée, are members.
In the Niger basin, the reduction in rainfall in the post-1960s period combined with the
increase in irrigated rice production, especially in the inland delta, have caused the downstream discharge in dry years to be critically low, with negative consequences for both
ecosystems and urban water supply. In the Volta basin, discharge has been going down as
well, with great consequences for the power production at the Akosombo Dam. The
causes of the decrease in discharge are claimed to be climatic as well as the increase in
use of water for irrigation and other economic purposes (Rodgers et al., 2007).
2.8.4 Water management and governance at the river basin scale
Water resources may be managed at a range of different scales:
a. At the scale of the large river basins, involving four states in the case of the Senegal River, two states in the case of the Volta and four states in the case of the Niger River, transnational institutions are required to avoid international conflicts
and to assure a balanced allocation of water and energy resources between countries.
b. At the national scale, the elaboration of ‘water master plans’ has been the approach
taken. These plans obviously interact and overlap thematically and geographically
with planning and management at the river basin scale; but they also emphasize
other issues, such as the provision of water for urban centres and villages, and the
use of water for irrigation at the local level.
c. At the local scale (at the levels of village, farm or field), individual farmers and
pastoralists manage water for household use, for the provision of drinking water to
livestock and for increasing crop yields. Again, water use at the local scale is af23
fected by water management decisions at the coarser scales, and also feedback on
them.
‘Good water governance’, including legislative frameworks and appropriate institutions, is
required at all scales. At the transnational river basin scale, which is the focus of the below discussion, ‘river basin authorities’ have been established for the three basins mentioned, yet their political, administrative and technical powers may not be sufficient to
guarantee a fair allocation of water resources. The result may be international disagreement or even conflict. Examples of actual and potential conflicts on water allocation may
be found between Senegal and Mauretania. The scarcer the water resource is, the more
likely such conflicts become: if rainfall is reduced in the region or part of it, causing a
reduction in river discharge, allocation conflicts will obviously be sharpened, both because less resources will be available and because the reliance on irrigated farming will
increase, causing an increase in demand, all other factors even. Water management at
river basin scale involves prioritizations, potentially causing conflict beyond those between states: as discussed above, the management of the Manantali Dam on the Senegal
River involves a trade-off between the interests associated with power generation, with
year-round provision of water for ‘modern’ irrigation systems downstream, with assuring
that navigation on the river is possible, and with assuring a yearly flooding which is a prerequisite for maintenance of natural ecosystems in the valley and the ‘traditional’ recession agriculture. Strengthening such river basin authorities, and assuring that they have the
capacity to manage scarce water resources in a just and balanced manner, is therefore very
important. Similarly, at the national and the local scales, there is potentially competition
and conflict between different uses of water, and appropriate institutions, capable of balancing conflicting interests, need to be in place. However, the distance from such supranational institutions to the farmers affected by their decisions is great, and the top-down
approach inherently associated with river basin water management needs to be combined
with a bottom-up approach, based on the decentralized NRM institutions gaining increased strength.
2.9 Conclusions and policy implications
The prolonged drought of the 1970s and 1980s has been followed by a certain increase in
rainfall, accompanied by increasing variability; yet the outlook for the future is quite uncertain. Some climate models predict increasing, others decreasing rainfall over the next
50-100 years, but it is very likely that drought periods will become longer and rainfall
events more intense at the same time. This implies that the future trend in the potential for
both rain-fed and irrigated agriculture is uncertain, and increased variability of production
may be expected. Thus, ‘climate proofing’ of development assistance activities should
focus on risk and uncertainty. In the Sahelian case there may be considerable synergies
between activities contributing to adaptation to climate change and activities to improve
disaster preparedness.
Climate change mitigation activities may have significant impacts on the Sahel countries:
This is true both for CDM projects and expansion of bio fuel production. There may be
problematic sustainability issues associated with both categories. It is too early to say
24
whether the Sahel will prove to be attractive for such projects, yet careful monitoring of
the development is suggested.
The reduction in NPP associated with the drought in the 1970s and 1980s appears to have
been reversed: over the last 20-25 years, a general and quite substantial increase in NPP
may be inferred from satellite data. This conclusion applies to the region as a whole; yet
the spatial variability is large, and in certain areas there is no observable trend and in some
places even a negative trend.
While trends in the populations of economically important tree species in the Sahel vary
between areas, this resource is often under pressure for a variety of reasons, including
rainfall decrease as was the case up to the mid-80s or early 90s, cutting wood for timber
and fuel, excessive burning, excessive browsing by livestock (especially goats) and expansion of the cultivated area. Since improved management of woody species will also
increase carbon storage in the vegetation and soils, there is a basis for synergies when
combining conservation and carbon management objectives, e.g. in Clean Development
Mechanism projects.
Water resources are subject to increasing competition between uses: recession agriculture
in river valleys, traditionally sustaining high population densities, generally loose out
when dams are constructed to facilitate modern irrigated agriculture or for hydropower
generation. Increases in the irrigated areas in the river valleys, consuming large quantities
of water, threaten downstream water uses that are sometimes of greater economic value
than the upstream uses. These conclusions point to the need for water management at the
highest relevant level, that of the entire river basin, in order to avoid inefficient water allocation that favour specific local or national interests. This applies particularly to large
scale dam projects and expansion of irrigated agriculture. Transnational institutions, such
as ‘river commissions’, are required to take this responsibility. The expected increase in
very intense rainfall events, causing flooding in river valleys, adds to the necessity of establishing means of predicting river discharge. This river basin water management approach is, however, top-down and does not cater for local autonomy in NRM or for democratic involvement in decision making on competing water uses. Reconciliation of
these two NRM approaches is needed in water management. This requires the development of a hierarchical institutional framework that combines overall river basin scale consistency and local democratic involvement.
25
Chapter 3. Natural resource management in farmlands
3.1 Introduction
In the Sahel the expansion of cropland onto pastures and forests followed by agricultural
intensification means that the management of farmland is of increasing environmental and
economic importance to the region. Farmland is here defined as areas where land use is
dominated by crop cultivation, while other land uses, particularly livestock rearing and
tree cultivation, also frequently occur in farmlands, and often integrated with cropping.
An increasing share of the region’s natural resources are being managed by sedentary
smallholder farmers, although often shared with semi-nomadic herders who themselves
cultivate land. Likewise, an increasing share of the region’s livestock is owned by sedentary farmers and livestock densities have been observed to rise as agricultural land use
intensifies (Mortimore et al., 2005). And as grazed woodlands are being transformed into
farmed parklands, an increasing share of Sahel’s trees is being managed by farmers for
economic purposes, in close interaction with crops and livestock.
On this background this chapter asks whether agriculture in the Sahel is associated with an
unsustainable use of natural resources, as suggested by the desertification narrative, or
whether there is basis for more optimistic views? Relatedly, how does agricultural intensification affect the management and productivity of natural resources – soils, water, trees
and herbaceous vegetation? Lastly, what are the level and trends in the economic performance of Sahelian farmlands in terms of yield, food security and income? From the
answers to these questions we derive some general lessons for policy and project design.
3.1.1 Population growth in the Sahel
Population growth is an important driver of changes in farmland management as it affects
both agricultural expansion, the land: labour ratio and the demand for agricultural products. A brief overview of population growth is therefore given here. Looking at the last
decade of the last millennium and the first couple of years of the new as a whole, the Sahelian countries have had annual population growth rates ranging from 2.8% in Burkina
Faso to 3.3% in Niger on average (see Table 3.1). This means that the populations in these
countries will double within less than 25 years. As can be seen from the projections for
the 2004-2020 period, these rates are expected to stay within the same range in at least the
coming decade. The changes in the rates are too small to safely conclude that the situation
concerning population growth will tend to slightly improve or worsen in this period. Expecting a similar development as the one observed in the previous period therefore seems
reasonable. Note that the population growth rates shown in the table are not separated into
rural and urban figures. The difference between the population growth rates in rural and
urban areas is important in a NRM context. Projections of urban population growth rates
are given in Table 5.1.
26
Table 3.1: Average annual population growth rates in the Sahel.
1990-2004
2004-2020
2.9
2.9
Burkina Faso
2.8
2.9
Mali
3.3
3.2
Niger
Source: The World Bank Group (2006).
3.2 Soil nutrient depletion at a continental scale
Large-scale estimates of soil nutrient balances in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) were done
during the 1990s and they all suggest very high rates of soil nutrient loss 3. Stoorvogel et
al. (1993) found generally negative balances for 38 countries in SSA. On the basis of
small samples they estimated that the annual average nutrient loss per ha arable land in
1982-84 was 22 kg N, 2.5 kg P, and 15 kg K 4. Henao & Baanante (1999), based on the
work of Stoorvogel et al. (1993), calculated that the combined NPK nutrient depletion in
SSA as whole was 60-100 kg/ha/year and increasing (Mortimore & Harris, 2005). It is
important to note that these nutrient balances were less negative (although increasing) for
semi-arid countries due to their lower output, less intensive land use, gentle slopes, and
low initial nutrient stocks 5. In Mali, for example, the annual nutrient losses were only 8 kg
N, 1 kg P, and 7 kg K per ha (increasing to 11 kg N, 2 kg P, and 10 kg K in year 2000).
There has been much controversy about the validity of these nutrient budgets at different
scales and most observers now agree that they exaggerate nutrient losses (Mazzucato &
Niemeijer, 2000; De Ridder et al., 2004; Koning & Smaling, 2005; Schlect et al., 2006)
(see Box 3.1). The budgets have been used uncritically by authors such as Henao & Baanante to paint doomsdays scenarios of African agroecosystems, most especially desertification. And they have also been used to reinforce externally imposed solutions to a problem
that is popularly conceived to be rooted in mismanagement of the natural resources by
small farmers (Mortimore & Harris, 2005). The persistence of this prejudice was most
lately evident at the Africa Fertilizer Summit in Abuja in 2006 6.
27
Box 3.1. Critiques of large-scale soil nutrient budgets for Africa
The large-scale nutrient budgets for Africa estimated by Stoorvogel et al. (1993) and others (Koning &
Smaling, 2005) have been critiqued from different angles. One line of critique concerns the methods of
calculation of nutrient inputs and outputs. Færge & Magid (2004) show that the transfer functions in the
NUTMON (Nutrient Monitoring) model applied in the calculation of the budgets tend to overestimate
nutrient losses through leaching, denitrification and erosion, resulting in substantially exaggerated nutrient deficiencies. Similarly, Schlect et al. (2006) observe that community-level agronomic and interdisciplinary research published since the early 1990s has proven the large-scale nutrient budgets to be
too pessimistic. Moreover, in low inputs systems like those of the Sahel, the nutrient flows estimated
based on the aforementioned transfer functions are the most important ones, which makes the budgets
highly uncertain (De Ridder et al., 2004). Many have also questioned the validity of aggregating nutrient budgets at country and continental scales given the high spatial variability in soil conditions and
management systems.
The large-scale nutrient budgets have been used uncritically to reinforce assumptions about the widespread degradation of African agroecosystems. For example, economists have claimed that African
soils during the 30 years up to 1996 lost 660-700 kg N/ha, 75-100 kg P/ha, and 450 kg K/ha. They
came to this result by simply adding up the annual values estimated by Stoorvogel et al. (1993)
(Mortimore & Harris, 2005). The budgets were also used in the World Atlas of Desertification (UNEP,
1997) which shows that soil degradation affects 28% of Sahel’s land area. The exaggerated N loss
implied in the NUTMON model was also used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) to derive similarly inflated figures for ‘dramatically’ decreasing carbon stocks in African soils
(Færge & Magid, 2004).
3.3 Soil degradation and soil management
Since the early 1990s a large number of site-specific and community-level studies have
been done in the Sahel relating to soil fertility, soil erosion, and land management in general. These small-scale and in-depth studies were initiated partly in response to the sweeping statements about soil degradation in Africa discussed above. Several reviews of this
literature appeared recently, i.e. Bélieres et al. (2002), De Ridder et al. (2004), Geist &
Lambin (2004), Koning & Smaling (2005), Mortimore & Harris (2005), and Schlect et al.
(2006). They cover the agronomic (including soil science) literature that focuses on soil
fertility and soil degradation, and the broader, interdisciplinary writing on farmland management and farming systems dynamics.
3.3.1 Fundamental soil constraints
Sahelian soils are old, heavily leached (acid) and have a low clay content, all of which
contribute to their low inherent fertility. Research has demonstrated that above 250 mm
annual rainfall, plant production is primarily constrained by low SOM and by limited
availability of plant nutrients, especially phosphorus and nitrogen (Schlect et al., 2006)7.
The low physical and chemical quality makes soil fertility highly dependent on SOM content (Bationo et al., 1998; Breman et al., 2001)8. At the same time, high temperatures, low
rainfall, and a very long dry season combine to severely constrain plant growth and
28
thereby the development of SOM. In other words, the combination of soil and climate in
the Sahel is such that SOM status is the worst known for a major ecosystem, at the same
time that other soil characteristics make SOM indispensable for effective nutrient use
(Breman et al., 2001).
3.3.2 Soil degradation
Schlect et al. (2006) reviewed soils research conducted in the Sudan-Sahel since the
1970s. They conclude that ‘low soil organic matter and limited availability of plant nutrients, in particular phosphorus and nitrogen, are major bottlenecks to agricultural productivity, which is further hampered by substantial topsoil losses through wind and water
erosion’. This is allegedly related to ‘the low adoption of improved management strategies
and the lack of long-term investments in soil fertility’. Koning & Smaling (2005) came to
a similar conclusion.
Physical soil erosion has received wide attention, in particular the topsoil loss and redistribution processes caused by wind and water and their effects on soil nutrient status and
soil productivity (Schlect et al., 2006: 110). On sandy dune soils in southern Niger, Warren et al. (2001b) found very high rates of erosion, ranging from 26-46 tons/ha/year over
the preceding 30-year period (see Box 3.2). Wind erosion during the first storms of the
rainy season was the main form of erosion while water erosion occurred mainly at the
edges of the cultivated dune. There were short-term effects of wind erosion on crop yields,
while the long-term yield effects were relevant only for a small proportion of soils at the
dune edge 9.
Box 3.2. Wind erosion in southern Niger
An issue of ongoing concern in the Sahel is physical soil erosion, in particular the topsoil loss and redistribution processes caused by wind and water erosion and their effects on the soils’ nutrient status
and productivity (Schlect et al., 2006). In southern Niger, Warren et al. (2001b) studied the erosion of
sandy ‘dune’ soils by measuring changes in soil depth as a result of wind and water erosion or deposition. Average annual rainfall was 550 mm. Soil loss over a 30-year period was estimated on 16 village
fields using the 137Cs (caesium) method. They found very high rates of erosion, ranging from 26-46
tons/ha/year over the preceding 30-year period and a median value of 30 tons. Wind erosion during the
first storms of the rainy season was the main form of erosion of these loose sandy soils while water
erosion occurred mainly at the edges of the cultivated dune. The study moreover deduced that the rates
of erosion had accelerated during last 30 years with the expansion and intensification of cropping.
There were short-term effects of wind erosion on crop yields, related to the removal of organic matter
and some nutrients and the unearthing and destruction of seedlings. The long-term yield effects were
deemed relevant only for a very small proportion of soils at the dune edge in that “soil depth generally
does not have a significant effect on yield until the soil is so thin that its water holding capacity is no
longer sufficient to support the crop through the growing seasons” (ibid., p.10). The study did not
measure changes in soil fertility but the assessment, supported by a study of indigenous soil fertility
knowledge (Osbahr & Allan, 2002), was that fertility decline, if any, occurred only on outfields where
there was little manuring and where fallows had been shortening.
29
Assessments of soil degradation depend on the scale of observation
The assessment of soil degradation is not only related to disciplinary orientation, but may
also be a result of differences in the spatial and temporal scales at which soil processes are
studied (Marcussen & Reenberg, 1999). Regarding the spatial dimension, soil nutrient
budgets estimated at the field and village scales in Burkina Faso revealed a low level of
nutrient depletion, roughly of the same size as the large-scale estimates for semi-arid
countries (Krogh, 1997) (see Box 3.3). However, this was partly the result of low yields
and limited crop sales that caused low nutrient exports out of the system. Hence low farm
productivity contributed to a balanced system in terms of nutrients. This and other studies
also found that soil fertility near villages and homesteads is often strongly supported by
horizontal nutrient transfers of animal and green manures from pastures and bush fields
(Krogh, 1997; De Ridder et al., 2004) 10. This suggests increasingly negative nutrient balances further away from human settlements. Nutrient balances at the landscape level may
therefore be generally negative.
Considering the temporal scale, Koning & Smaling (2005) argue that long-term experiments under controlled conditions are the only way to derive a quantitative picture of
changes in soil fertility. The few such studies from Africa show that under continuous
cultivation with low external inputs, top SOM, a good proxy for soil productivity, tends to
decline to no more than half the value it had under natural conditions in a period of just a
few years (ibid). This in turn causes yields to decline. Yet others have argued that it is
virtually impossible to determine the long-term dynamics of Sahelian soils, particularly
changes in SOM (De Ridder et al., 2004) 11.
Box 3.3. Small and scale-dependent nutrient imbalances in Burkina Faso
The study reported in Krogh (1997) estimated soil nutrient balances at the field and village scale in
northern Burkina Faso on sandy and clayey soils that were permanently cultivated with pearl millet,
sometimes interplanted with sorghum and cowpeas. Average annual rainfall was 450 mm. The fields
were fertilised with animal manure collected on the rangelands or deposited directly by livestock corralling on the fields or feeding on millet residues. At the scale of individual fields, the calculated N and
P balances were generally negative but mostly small, but certain fields manured intensively maintained
a balance. However, when enlarging the nutrient circulation perspective to the scale of the village territory, the nutrient balances became less negative as part of the nutrients lost from the fields were redistributed and conserved within the village. Moreover, if the effects of fallows and N fixation by Acacia
trees and cowpeas were accounted for, both N and P balances would presumably be positive. This suggests that the production system is more sustainable than has been inferred from research conducted
under controlled conditions on research stations. The study underlines the importance of integration of
livestock in arable farming as rangelands used for grazing form a significant nutrient subsidy and to a
lesser extent the importance of N fixation by crops and field trees. Millet yields were low, ranging from
virtually zero to 500 kg per ha, with an average of 215 kg in the year considered. This was consistent
with the low fertility of the soils. Due to the influence of other soil properties and management factors
on yields, combined with the relatively low rate of nutrient depletion observed, the study could not
predict longer term changes in yields, but observed that “yields are not likely to increase” (ibid: 157).
30
3.3.3 Sustainable soil management
Since the early 1990s a large interdisciplinary literature has emerged concerned with
changes in the quality and management of farmlands in the Sahel. Many such studies
adopt an actor or livelihoods perspective to bring out the rationality, knowledge, skills and
adaptability of African farmers (Koning & Smaling, 2005) 12. They highlight the intricate
strategies and experimentation through which farmers cope with soil degradation, climate
variability, market fluctuations, changing policies and other pressures and risks. And they
emphasise the substantial investments of labour, and less so cash, that smallholders undertake to cope with these changes and risks, seize market opportunities, and build their livelihoods (e.g. Tiffen, 2003). These studies also place greater emphasis on low external input techniques, although few outright refuse the need for external inputs or for integrated
soil fertility management. Finally, they seek to understand long-term system dynamics by
studying entire production or livelihood systems on a larger time scale, often several decades, and, in some cases, how changes in markets and policies shape these systems (Bolwig, 1999; Warren et al., 2001a; Mortimore & Harris, 2005). In comparison, agronomic
research tends to focus on shorter term changes at the scale of fields and individual crops.
Some of the interdisciplinary research aimed at challenging the view that land degradation
is a result of local peoples’ unsustainable land management practices. This was done
through in-depth and often longitudinal case studies. In most cases they showed that farmers were able to maintain or increase the productivity of farmlands in the face of reduced rainfall, rapid population growth, adverse policies, and other risks and pressures
(Cline-Cole, 1998; Reenberg et al., 1998; Bolwig, 1999; Mazzucato & Niemeijer, 2000;
Warren et al., 2001a; Mortimore & Turner, 2005; Reij et al., 2005, 2006) 13. Farmers
achieved this through the experimentation, adoption, or intensified use of improved technologies and management practices, and through the labour and capital investments that
embody these technologies 14. The term ‘adaptation’ describes these processes, i.e. the
cumulative decisions of smallholders in allocating their resources of land, labour and capital (Mortimore & Turner, 2005).
The research also showed that intensification in smallholder farming systems mainly occurs as small and incremental changes on individual land holdings, which cumulatively
result in large-scale transformations in land use and cover (Mortimore et al., 2005). It
moreover revealed that the management practices applied by smallholders are very varied,
that they often generate multiple benefits (e.g. both soil and water conservation), and that
synergies are often achieved. Most studies concerned erosion control, soil moisture control, soil fertility management, and farm tree management (see Box 3.4). Pest and disease
management and post-harvest practices were given less attention. Livestock were found to
be a key part of smallholder systems, especially regarding the fodder-manure linkages, as
a source of traction power in some cases, and as an object of investment and source of
income. Farm trees were also a key element in land management as well as an important
source of income and savings, particularly in the more intensive systems.
31
Box 3.4. The devil is in the detail: sustainable land management practices
A number of case studies of relatively densely populated areas in the Sahel reveal that sustainable land
management is achievable through the employment of a number of relatively simple management practices,
although not necessarily cheap in terms of labour and cash. Whether their use is technically feasible or
economically desirable depends on the area, household and season in question.
Farm tree management Planting or assisted natural regeneration of selected woody plants species valued
for the goods and services they provide, i.e. food and income, fodder, firewood, soil fertility, wind erosion
control, etc. Assisted regeneration seems to be a more common practice than replanting, although a high
incidence of the latter has been observed in some areas. A study from northern Nigeria revealed that only a
minority of landholders did not plant trees and those who did planted between one and 20 per year (ClineCole, 1998). Two-thirds of landholders provided protection of seedlings that regenerate spontaneously,
most commonly from livestock. Farm tree management also involves pruning and lopping for multiple
purposes: harvest fuel or fodder; improve fruit yield; reduce shade on crops; prevent seed eating birds from
roosting; provide cuttings for wind and water erosion control or to improve burnings on fields.
Control of wind and water erosion Stone bunds, improved gully control, planted field boundaries, coverage of soils with branches and crop residues (reduces wind and water erosion and ‘traps’ sand and dust in
dry season and surface water in wet season), planting spreading intercrops (e.g. cowpea and groundnuts),
and maintaining adequate densities of mature farm trees.
Soil moisture control Improved planting pits (zaï), field ridging (by hand-hoeing or ox-ploughing), stone
bunds, increased cultivation of flat and lower lands, turning the soil before onset of rains rather than after
first rains, and more frequent weeding which reduces competition for water between weeds and crops.
Soil fertility management Intensified use of animal manure (collection on rangelands and in animal pens
and distribution on fields), improved management of animal manure (e.g. dry compost, manure pits and
stall feeding), intensified use of green manure, crop rotation and use of nitrogen-fixing intercrops such as
cowpea and groundnuts, protecting or planting leguminous trees, ‘trapping’ dust in dry season, and in a few
cases, chemical fertilizers. The availability of animal manure has increased through increasing livestock
numbers, especially of small ruminants, and especially after the devaluation of the CFA in 1994, and the
closer integration of livestock with cropping (i.e. manure and fodder linkages).
Sources: Cline-Cole, 1998; Reenberg et al., 1998; Bolwig, 1999; Mazzucato & Niemeijer, 2000; Warren et
al., 2001a; Mortimore & Turner, 2005; Reij et al., 2005, 2006.
3.3.4 Summary
The above review seems to suggest that the fertility of agricultural soils in the Sahel is low
and possibly also slowly declining, especially on lands further from human settlement that
tend to be less intensively managed. But one can argue that making such generalisations
has little value in the Sahel where soil properties are highly dynamic and variable and
strongly dependent on the history of use. Soils recently cleared naturally show a down
ward trend in nutrients, while those under cultivation for years are subject to annual fluctuations depending on inputs, rainfall, biomass harvested in the previous season, etc. No
evidence could be found of farming systems being irreversibly degraded; many had in fact
been able to support a rapidly growing number of people. Significantly, we identified
32
many examples where the productive capacity of farmlands had increased or been restored
to former levels. This seemed to be the result of farmer investments, innovations, project
support, and, possibly, better economic incentives induced by market development and
structural adjustment policies. The degree of soil degradation or rehabilitation was also
found to depend strongly on the temporal and spatial scales of observation. Lastly it is
important to note that most of the soil fertility assessments reviewed above depend on
measurements of a few macro nutrients. But soil productivity depends on several other
factors, particularly micro nutrients, soil biology and soil moisture and other physical
properties that are rarely considered (Uphoff, 2006).
3.4 Livestock interactions in farmlands
Livestock production contributes to nutritional and food security as well as to poverty
reduction in most of Africa. Livestock and poultry production represent an estimated 1520% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in West Africa (Nianogo & Thomas, 2004).
Livestock plays a very significant role in Sahelian production systems. They deserve attention not only in connection with pastoral production systems, which are dealt with in a
separate chapter, but also in terms of the role that the play in farmland production systems
as well as in forest and agro-forest systems.
A principal challenge facing agriculture in many parts of Africa is how to achieve sustainable increases in crop and livestock production with limited use of fertilizers and feed
supplements. The high cost of these external nutrient sources, combined with low rural
incomes among other factors, prevent their widespread use. The use of fertilizer is limited
to small land areas devoted to cash crops. Hence, animal manure is perhaps the most important soil fertility amendment.
For a large part, livestock interact with the environment within a production system, such
as grazing, mixed farming and industrial systems. In farmlands livestock and crop activities are often integrated, and for agriculture in general this integration has been a significant road for intensification. The principal linkages between crops and livestock are income, animal power, feed, and manure. Livestock’s role in nutrient cycling in farming
systems is specifically interesting for low input agriculture as it is practiced in the Sahel.
Most livestock derive their feed almost exclusively from natural rangeland and crop residues, and livestock manure is an important soil fertility amendment. Hence, the productivities of livestock, rangelands, and croplands are linked. Crop residues can be vital livestock feeds during the dry season, and manure enhances soil fertility for crop production.
Forage from rangelands and fallow lands provide important livestock feeds and, through
manure, nutrients for cropland. A farmer obtains manure either from his own livestock or
through exchange relationships with pastoralists. Manure contracts between farmers and
pastoralists are still important in many West African dryland areas.
Traditionally across the West African drylands, crops and livestock have been ethnically
and operationally separate but functionally linked activities. The specialized forms of agricultural production are under transition towards integrated crop-livestock systems. Al-
33
though many crop-livestock interactions continue to be mediated by separate crop and
livestock producers, they increasingly occur within closely integrated farm units.
As the pressure on land increases and more land is cultivated, many livestock are kept
away from the cultivated zone to avoid crop damage. There is also evidence to suggest
that beyond critical cultivation and livestock densities, competition increases between
crops and livestock for scarce resources, particularly labour and land. As these cultivation
densities are approached, it is expected that extensive crop-livestock production systems
will gradually give way to more intensive, integrated mixed farming systems.
Population increase in the Sahel has led to the expansion, intensification, and often closer
integration of crop and livestock production systems. The transition of crop and livestock
production from an extensive, low input/output mode of production to a more intensive
mode, however, challenges the achievement of required long-term production increases
from these farming systems. Approaches to improving the productivity of mixed farming
systems differ considerably. For example, grazing-based feeding operations make limited
use of external inputs and rely almost exclusively on pastures and crop residues for animal
feed, on manual labour for crop production, and on manure as the main soil fertility
amendment. For a sustainable future development it will be critical to strike a balance
between food and feed supply, nutrient input and output, and human and livestock populations (Powell et al., 2004).
3.5 Changes in natural vegetation in farmlands
An important dimension of land change is reduction in the density and composition of
herbaceous and woody vegetation, in short, natural vegetation degradation (or the reverse,
regeneration). There are four central issues related to the degradation of natural vegetation
on farmlands in the Sahel: feedback effects on other ecosystem components (e.g. reduced
infiltration and accelerated runoff erosion), the loss of biodiversity, the loss of standing
biomass, and the loss of plant productivity or recurrent biomass production (Mortimore &
Adams, 1999). Key factors in the regeneration of natural vegetation on farmlands are the
planting of commercial woodlots, the regeneration of trees on farmland through protective
measures, and the regeneration of woodlands on abandoned farmland. Below we review
the evidence on the degradation and regeneration of natural vegetation on Sahel’s farmlands, in respect of changes in biodiversity, woody biomass and plant productivity. The
focus is on woody as opposed to herbaceous vegetation.
3.5.1 Historical transition from grazed woodlands to farmed parklands
Considering the landscape as whole, longitudinal studies of areas of high population density suggest that agricultural intensification eventually transforms natural woodlands into
a ‘farmed parkland’ landscape characterised by permanent cultivation with evenly spaced
mature trees preserved for their economic importance (Pullan, 1974; Cline-Cole, 1998) 15.
These parklands are characterised by beneficial and close interactions between trees, soil
fertility, and livestock. It has been estimated that aerial biomass production of crops, fallows, weeds, and woody plants in farmed parklands may be similar or even higher than in
34
grazed woodlands or shrub grasslands (Mortimore & Adams, 1999). This suggests that
agricultural intensification does not necessarily result in reduced plant productivity 16.
3.5.2 Deforestation and biodiversity loss
Many small-scale studies spanning the period before and after 1970 (the start of the dry
period) conclude that there has been a general degradation in the woody vegetation. Wezel
& Lykke (2006) reviewed participatory surveys of changes over the last 20-50 years in
woody plants in 25 villages in Burkina Faso, Niger and Senegal. They found a significant
reduction in biodiversity. In total, 111 woody species were mentioned by local informants
as having changed compared to the past. Of these 79% had decreased in numbers or disappeared, while 11% was classified as increasing or new. The latter were mainly exotic
species 17. Scientific vegetation surveys largely confirm local peoples’ perceptions that
woody biodiversity is decreasing (Lykke, 2000) 18. Analyses of satellite images and aerial
photos covering the pre-1995 period also showed a general decrease in woody biomass at
the local scale, but they did not assess changes in species diversity (Lykke et al., 2004).
Several studies show that deforestation was more pronounced in valley bottoms than on
the flat plateaus and dune areas. It is important to remember, however, that quantitative
assessments are rare, and that crude species frequencies irrespective of growth stage may
not tell us all. More significant by far than numerical species scoring would be an assessment of the regeneration status of species alongside an analysis of total tree densities and
timber volumes. Loss of biodiversity does not necessarily mean loss of woody status, and
anyway, species frequencies are bound to adjust to changes in rainfall. Some species of
sub-humid provenance that invaded the Sahel in wet periods before 1970 would be expected to retreat over the last two or three decades.
3.5.3 Forest regeneration since the mid-1980s
Studies of vegetation change since the mid-1980s suggest that a recovery of woody biomass may be taking place, at least within farmlands. Research from Niger suggests that
this could be a large scale trend: in the Tillaberi, Tahoua and Maradi regions, the promotion of natural regeneration of farm trees in conjunction with improved rainfall conditions
have been associated with an increase in tree density on more than two million has during
the period 1985-2005. In the Zinder region the increase in density affected about one million has (Reij et al., 2006; Wezel & Lykke, 2006; McGahuey & Winterbottom, 2007) (see
Box 3.5). Densities in these areas now range from 20-150 stems per ha (not all mature
trees), a 10-20 fold increase since 197519. On the Central Plateau in Burkina Faso, onfarm protection of natural vegetation, combined with investments in soil and water conservation, likewise contributed to increased farm tree density after the mid-1980s (Reij et
al., 2005). But outside the cultivated lands the vegetation continued to degrade. Contrasting the latter observation, Rasmussen et al. (2001) found that the vegetation cover in
northern Burkina Faso had recovered since the drought year of 1984. This study was
based on satellite data and covered both cropland and rangelands.
Large-scale assessments of changes in vegetation productivity exist for the period after
1982 where consistent satellite data became available. During the period 1982-2000 uniformly positive trends in vegetation productivity were observed across the Sahel-Sudan
35
(Olsson et al., 2005; Rasmussen et al., 2006). Yet most changes occurred in the northern
fringes of cultivation where rangeland rather than cropland dominates, suggesting that
improved farmland management was not a strong factor at this scale, although it cannot be
ruled out either. This important puzzle needs further investigation 20.
Box 3.5. Farm tree regeneration in Niger, 1985-2005
Famine and hardships in the 1970s and 1980s in Niger led to losses of livestock, erosion, and decreased
agricultural production. Experts even feared that the droughts had done permanent damage to the country’s fragile ecosystems. More recently, however, positive news has been surfacing from Niger. A recently completed study of three regions in Niger shows that 250,000 has of eroded, unproductive land
has been reclaimed since the mid 1980s by farmers and projects using soil and water conservation and
other natural resource management techniques. The study, sponsored by USAID/FRAME and the Swiss
Agency for Development and Cooperation, used satellite images and interviews with farmers to assess
the extent and impact of farmer-managed natural regeneration in the Tillaberi, Tahoua, and Maradi regions in Niger. The study was conducted by the University of Niger in collaboration with INRAN (Niger’s National Agricultural Research Institute), the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) Data Center for
EROS (Earth Resources Observation Systems), and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In interviews, the
farmers indicated that the environmental crisis of the 1970s and 1980s had triggered them to protect
natural regeneration on their fields. In difficult times, such as the recent drought in 2005, farmers were
able to cut trees and leaves and sell firewood and fodder, which allowed them to then buy grains on the
market. Improved rainfall conditions after 1985 were likely a conducive factor too.
Improved livelihoods
In addition to food security, the farmer-managed natural regeneration also increased agricultural yields
and fodder and livestock production; it reduced erosion and produced a much greener landscape. Overall, the farmer-managed natural regeneration has led to improved and more sustainable livelihoods and a
reduction of poverty in rural areas.
Local empowerment
One striking result that the researchers noted was the sense of empowerment among local farmers. A
feeling of helplessness and dependence on external projects had been replaced by an active management
of trees and land. Farmers expressed confidence that they have some control over their own livelihoods,
even in the light of a harsh climate and a political landscape characterized by powerful institutions.
Large-scale impacts
The scale of the development is spectacular. While initially supported by external projects, the process
turned into a spontaneous movement that spread through Niger, further supported by policy changes to
allow tree ownership and regulate decentralization. Conservative estimates suggest investments by farmers have increased tree density on more than two million has of agricultural land in the three studied
regions and on another one million has in the Zinder region in Niger. The most profound changes, in
fact, are noted in the Zinder and Maradi areas where the population density is over 100 people per square
kilometre. “More people” has indeed resulted in “more trees”.
Source: McGahuey & Winterbottom (2007)
36
3.5.4 Causes of natural vegetation change
The review of literature leads us to identify a number of factors and processes causing
changes in the natural vegetation cover in the Sahel. We discuss these below following an
important reminder about the problems of making generalisations in this area.
Up-scaling problems
There are serious methodological problems involved in generalising, i.e. up-scaling, the
findings of small-scale studies to larger spatial scales although the evidence from Niger
represents a medium-scale trend. The research that has attempted to synthesize these studies has tended to produce biased conclusions (see Box 3.6).
Cropland expansion
The conversion of ‘natural’ grasslands and woodlands into cropland is clearly the dominant cause of vegetation change in the Sahel and elsewhere. The spatial patterns of cropland expansion and intensification is important for the impact of agriculture on species
richness and biomass, implying that how these processes are regulated is a factor for conservation.
Management changes under agricultural intensification
A ‘U’ shaped relationship has been observed between the intensity of agricultural land use
and woody biomass. With land use intensity on the horizontal axis and woody biomass on
the vertical axis, the U shape represents first a decline in biomass under increasing land
use intensity, up to a certain level of intensity when biomass levels stabilize and start rising again. In the first phases of intensification, woody biomass declines dramatically as
pristine forests and secondary fallow vegetation are cleared to allow for the expansion of
cropland. At later stages, as permanent cultivation becomes established and natural vegetation and farmland get scarcer, farmers begin to conserve and intensify the management
of trees growing on farmlands, thereby reversing the negative vegetation trend (Bolwig et
al., 2006; Place & Otsuka, 2000; Wezel & Haigis, 2000). For example, in eastern Niger
the most profound positive changes were noted in the most densely populated areas
Zinder and Maradi with more than 100 people/km2 .
Economic incentives
Farmers manage and protect trees mainly economic reasons. As woody plant products and
services – firewood, timber, fodder, fruits, nuts, nutrients stored in leaves and branches,
shade etc. – become scarcer and thereby more valuable, the returns to investing in them
increases. Increased population densities also mean expanding markets for tree products,
which further induces conservation and management. These processes also result in a
change in tree composition towards species with higher economic value, many of which
tend to be exotic species.
37
Project support
Endogenous processes cannot explain everything. For example was project support a key
factor of the recent tree regeneration in both Niger and on the Central Plateau in Burkina
Faso (Wezel & Lykke, 2006; Reij, 2006; McGahuey & Winterbottom, 2007).
Livestock grazing
A review of 42 case studies from dryland Africa on land degradation by Geist & Lambin
(2004) concludes that extensive (over)grazing, in combination with increased aridity, is
the most prominent ‘proximate’ cause of desertification, followed by the expansion of
crop production (Rasmussen et al., 2006) 21. Conservation biologists often blame livestock
overgrazing for vegetation degradation, often without seriously analysing the former. For
example, among the many possible causes of the decline in woody vegetation in northern
Burkina Faso, Lykke et al. (2004) emphasise increased animal density and reduced herd
mobility, but they do not provide evidence of this causality. These factors, they argue,
combine to place a higher and more constant pressure on woody resources, which do not
get sufficient time to regenerate and rejuvenate.
Extraction of wood and other natural products
Wood extraction (e.g. cutting, lopping and collection) by local communities was mentioned as a cause of desertification by only by 40% of the 42 case studies reviewed by
Geist & Lambin (2004). In contrast, the commercial cutting of green wood for firewood
and charcoal production, often with the help of corrupt forestry officers, was identified as
a major factor by several studies from Niger and Senegal (Wezel & Haigis, 2000; ClineCole, 1998). Wezel & Rath (2002) and others have observed that certain tree species have
been degraded as a result of unsustainable harvesting of non-fuel forest products by local
people for food, income and other uses.
Climate change
It is worth noting that the time period studied by most ethno-botanic studies, scientific
vegetation surveys and remotely sensed data-based studies referred to above covers both
the very wet period (1950s and 1960s) and the following dry period (1970s and 1980s). It
would therefore seem that reduced precipitation has been a major factor in the negative
trends in some woody vegetation change indicators since the early 1970s. Increased aridity was also mentioned as a cause of desertification by 93% of the African dryland case
studies surveyed by Geist & Lambin (2004), although the validity of this study is highly
questionable (see Box 3.6). The large-scale evidence of a ‘greening’ of the Sahel after
1982 also suggests that rainfall is a dominant factor of vegetation productivity at the continental scale (Rasmussen et al., 2006). Thus, Olsson et al. (2005) found a positive correlation between increasing vegetation greenness and increased rainfall in the period 19821999, although rainfall did not fully explain this relationship.
38
Box 3.6. Problems of up-scaling evidence on vegetation change
Many local-level studies of vegetation change that span the period before and after the early 1970s,
which was the start of the dry period, found a general degradation in woody vegetation. Yet there are
problems of generalizing these findings to larger spatial scales. Firstly, the extreme spatial heterogeneity of biophysical and socioeconomic conditions in the Sahel poses general problems of making representative observations of environmental change. Secondly, no studies exist that use representative
samples covering larger areas. Thirdly, the locations of most local-level studies were often selected to
best illustrate a particular process or issue, typically strong environmental degradation or its opposite,
rather than to be representative of a particular geographical area. It is therefore not valid to make generalizations about the extent as opposed to the causes/processes of environmental change based on a
synthesis of these studies, as done for example by Geist & Lambin (2004) or Wezel & Lykke (2006).
The result will be invalid at best, or seriously biased due to selection bias in the choice of case studies.
The review by Geist & Lambin (2004) is in reality a poll; opinions scored may reflect staring assumptions, repetition and dogma and justify themselves. Fourthly, remotely-sensed data, particularly satellite images, do not suffer from the same problems of geographical representativity and selection bias
as do field surveys. However, consistent data for the Sahel as a whole are only available from 1982
onwards, so large-scale assessments of vegetation change before that period are not reliable/not available. Hence it is not possible to compare the positive trend in vegetation change over the 1982-2000
period with trends in previous periods.
3.5.5 Summary
In very general terms, it may be justified to talk about two overlapping trends:
(i)
A long term transition from natural (grazed) woodlands to farmed parklands
accompanied by a reduction in biodiversity but not necessarily in woody biomass. This dynamic is possibly driven by population growth and to a lesser extent market growth, which induce intensified management, although demonstrating this causality is beyond the scope of this study.
(ii)
A medium term shift in the vegetation dynamics from a general decline during
the period 1970-1985 to a general increase in plant productivity – but not necessarily biodiversity – after 1985. Improved rainfall has likely been the most
important driver of this dynamic at the regional scale. Improved management
has been a central factor in some farmland areas, induced by increased scarcity
and enabled by project support and in some cases improved tree tenure.
Whether improved rangeland management has contributed to the greening of
the Sahel is an open question worth exploring.
This characterization of the development trend is based on four major findings:
39
1. There is relatively consistent evidence of biodiversity and biomass loss at the local
scale, especially before 1985, but it is highly problematic to make generalizations
at larger spatial scales based upon this evidence.
2. Large-scale assessments show a consistent increase in vegetation productivity after
1982, while similar analyses from earlier time periods are ambiguous or nonexistent.
3. Vegetation dynamics seem to differ radically between rangelands and farmlands.
While biodiversity and woody biomass loss are nearly always observed for grazing
areas, many have observed positive or level trends in woody vegetation on cultivated lands 22.
4. Most of the Sahel, except the northern most zone and a few areas undergoing extensification, is being rapidly transformed into a more intensively managed
‘farmed parkland’ landscape as woodlands and grasslands are brought under permanent or nearly permanent cultivation. This large-scale transition in land use and
land cover does not necessarily reduce plant productivity, but it does seriously affect biodiversity. Significantly, the intensified management increases the economic
value of the vegetation. It also means that vegetation dynamics on, and at the frontier of, farmlands are getting increasingly important for biodiversity conservation,
relative to dynamics in grasslands and woodlands. The latter areas have so far been
the focus of attention of biologists and conservationists.
In other words, what we observe is adaptation – both that of natural ecosystems to
changes in rainfall and that of land use systems adjusting to both rainfall and ecosystem
change, with the added drivers of markets and population and technology change.
3.6 The economic performance of farmlands
Several indicators may be used to assess the economic performance of farmlands in the
Sahel, i.e. poverty, income, value of agricultural production, food security, employment,
etc. Yet data that allow for generalisations only exist for a few of these. Our assessment is
therefore limited to considering farm productivity, national food production and food selfsufficiency, and other economic performance indicators – mainly income and investment.
The evidence on these indicators are presented in Annex A and discussed below.
3.6.1 Farmland productivity
The productivity of Sahelian farmlands may be assessed through the following indicators:
The combined yield per ha of crops, livestock and trees; the monetary value per ha of
these outputs; and the share of the value of these outputs that is sold, i.e. the level of market integration. The increasing importance of livestock and farm trees in Sahelian farmlands implies a need for including the products of these assets in total productivity estimates. Unfortunately, insufficient data means that we could only consider crop yield, implying a general underestimation of the level and increases in farmland productivity.
40
Crop yields
Yield provides the link between the condition and the economic performance of farmlands. Yields in the Sahel are low by any standard, typically ranging from 300-800 kg/ha
and with very large spatial and temporal variations (see Annex A, Table A1) 23. Contrary
to the orthodoxy, yields per ha appear to have increased or remained constant since the
1960s. An analysis of national FAOSTAT (Food and Agriculture Organization of United
Nations Statistical Database) data for the period 1961-2001 revealed positive trends in
yield per ha for millet and maize for all Sahelian countries except for Niger (Mortimore,
2003) (see Annex A, Table A1). Long-term data at the sub-national level for millet/sorghum, irrigated rice, groundnuts and cowpeas likewise suggest that yields over the
last 20-40 years in most cases have increased or remained constant, and only rarely decreased (see Annex A, Table A1) 24. These trends obviously mask great short-term and
medium-term variations, mainly related to rainfall. The poor quality of FAO (Food and
Agriculture Organization of United Nations) and official government data for Africa have
been noted by many (e.g. Tiffen, 2003) so there is reason to treat these results with caution 25.
Disregarding for a moment data quality issues and the ‘noise’ from short-term variability,
we can conclude that the available evidence does not support the view that the productivity of Sahelian farmlands has decreased over the last decades, if productivity is assessed in
terms of food crop yields. This conclusion would likely be even more positive if tree and
livestock yields were taken into account, as their relative contributions to farmland production tend to increase over time.
The improved rainfall conditions after around 1986 may be part of the explanation. Another factor may be an improved policy environment related to structural adjustment policies starting from the mid to late 1980s. Lastly, increasing population densities may have
started to induce the positive intensification dynamics (falling land/labour ratio, market
development, institutional development) hypothesised by Boserup (1965) 26.
Crop yield potential
Research over the last 30 years has greatly increased our knowledge about the technical
options for increasing crop yields in the Sahel. It is now widely agreed that the most effective approach for raising yields in the Sahel, broadly speaking, is integrated soil fertility
management (ISFM). This involves various combinations of animal and green manure,
rotated or intercropped legumes, farm trees, and inorganic fertilizers, as well as the combination local and external knowledge. The results of agronomic experiments with these
technologies have been reviewed by several authors (Schlect et al., 2006; Kaboré & Reij,
2004; Breman et al., 2001; Boyd & Slaymaker, 2000; Bationo et al., 1998). A large literature moreover documents land management practices and land productivity in real-world
situations (e.g. Milleville, 1980; Reenberg et al., 1998; Mortimore & Adams, 1999; Bolwig, 1999; Mazzucato & Niemeijer, 2000; Reij et al., 2005). It is beyond the scope of this
study to discuss this work thoroughly, but it is clear that technologies already exist ‘on the
shelf’ to substantially raise yields in the Sahel. Breman et al. (2001) thus assess that agricultural intensification based on ISFM can easily raise rain-fed crop yields in the Sahel
41
from the current 0.5-1.0 ton to 2.5-5.0 ton per ha. This involves applying both organic and
inorganic fertilisers in a sequenced and targeted fashion.
Research also shows that simple, cheap and widely accessible technologies, especially
when intelligently applied and combined, can have a big yield impact, although not as
large as that predicted by Breman et al. (2001). For example, several on-farm trials with
improved planting pits (zaï) combined with animal compost or manure all showed systematic yield gains for millet and sorghum in the order of 400 kg/ha (Kaboré & Reij,
2004)27. The yield gain increased to 710 kg/ha when this technology was combined with
contour bunds 28.
3.6.2 National food production and food self-sufficiency
Food production per capita is an indicator of the extent of food self-sufficiency achieved
at the national or regional level. In the Sahel where the population is mainly grain consuming, 200 kg/capita is roughly the level required for average food sufficiency.
Mortimore (2003) examined trends in overall food sufficiency during 1961-2001 for
Senegal, Mali, Niger and Nigeria, using the FAO food net index 29. This analysis showed
that food sufficiency in Nigeria fell to a trough in the early 1980s and recovered thereafter
to levels above those in the 1960s. The positive trend was however strongly influenced by
sub humid and humid zone crops while trends for staple Sahel grains were more sluggish.
Senegal and Niger experienced a steep downward trend during 1961-1980 and stayed at
this lower level thereafter. Mali experienced a small decline after 1971 and displayed a
level trend thereafter. For the Sahel as a whole, there was an overall decline in food sufficiency during the 1970s and early 1980s but there is no discernible trend thereafter. However, a more recent analysis of population and production data in the CILSS (Comite
Permanent Inter-Etats de Lutte Contre la Secheresse dans le Sahel) countries reveals an
increase in per capita grain availability over the 1987-2004 period, and a nearly constant
share of grain imports in consumption, except for Senegal and Mauritania where imports
rose sharply (OECD, 2006) 30.
Mortimore (2003) also examined trends in the per capita production of individual crops
during the period 1961-1999 for the same countries. We focus here on recent trends
(1981-1999) for millet which is the major food staple in the region. Senegal experienced a
reduction in millet production, from around 100 kg to 50-70 kg, reflecting the effects of
competition from cheap imported rice. In Niger, millet production fluctuated around the
notional 200 kg/capita requirement, with several dips below 150 kg, indicating a high
threat of food insecurity in poorer households. In Mali, millet production increased after
1981 but declined again during the 1990s. Maize and rice displayed steady increases after
1981 and by 1999 they had recovered beyond the early 1960s level. In 1999 the four
grains contributed almost equal shares to Mali’s food sufficiency. Cowpeas, an important
source of cash and protein, showed impressive growth rates in Senegal and Niger, 33%
and 131% respectively, between 1961-63 and 1997-99 31.
42
The above analyses rely on FAO production data, which are the only ones available at this
spatial and temporal scale. While not completely reliable, these data do not support the
view that the productivity of Sahelian farmlands have been decreasing everywhere since
the early 1970s. Rather, the conclusion is that most countries reached a deep crisis in food
sufficiency in the early 1980s, but recovered during the 1990s to levels comparable to or
better than those of the early 1960s, with the exception of Senegal and less so Niger. The
causes of these trends were possibly related to policy and to the wider economic environment rather than to population trends. Great inter-annual fluctuations in food sufficiency
were observed and these were attributable to rainfall as well as to economic factors such
as cross-border trade in grain 32.
3.6.3 Income and investment
Changes in economic performance indicators for farming communities in the Sahel, focusing on trends after 1990 (see Annex A, Table A2) were assessed from a literature review 33. Firstly, it is striking that in only one instance – per capita output of millet and
groundnuts in Senegal – was there a clear negative change in an indicator after 1990 34.
Secondly, food self-sufficiency appears to have improved or remained stable in most areas
during this period. Thirdly, there are signs of an increased commercialisation of production and of increased farm investments. Increased sales occurred especially for high-value
farm products, i.e. livestock (fattening of sheep and goats), irrigated rice, cowpeas, fruits
and vegetables, and other products (e.g. hibiscus) for urban niche markets. Most of these
products are regionally tradable. This pattern is confirmed by national-level analyses
showing that fruit, vegetable and meat production increased substantially for the Sahel as
whole during the period 1987-2004 (OECD, 2006) 35, 36.
3.6.4 Summary
Farmlands in the Sahel seem to have sustained their level of economic performance over
the last twenty years, in terms of farm productivity, food sufficiency, and income and investment. While based on relatively weak and scattered data, this finding runs counter to
the orthodox view of a general failure of the region’s production systems. An increased
market integration can also be detected, particularly in respect of urban food markets for
high-value products. Seen over the last 40 years, there was a clear downward trend in
most indicators during the 1970s and early 1980s compared to the 1960s, followed by a
period of recovery or stabilisation after the mid 1980s. Groundnuts and food staples in
Senegal have performed worst in large part due to policy factors. The highest growth rates
were experienced by productions destined for higher-value urban markets – meat, milk,
fruits, vegetables, and cowpeas – although in absolute terms their value remains is small
compared to staples.
That said, the absolute level of economic performance is clearly low by any standard and
no significant improvements over the last 40 years can be detected. Average crop yields
remain far below those that can be obtained through modest improvements in management. That farmlands are now supporting many more people than 40 years ago is proof of
strong and positive dynamics, but they have not been sufficient to raise economic welfare
significantly.
43
3.7 A new perspective on sustainable farmland management
3.7.1 The African drylands success stories
A series of longitudinal studies of agricultural intensification in the Sahel and in Kenya
have been done over the last twenty years (e.g., Tiffen et al., 1994; Mortimore, 1998;
Mortimore & Harris, 2005; Mortimore & Turner, 2005; Reij et al., 2005, 2006). This research has improved our understanding of the characteristics and dynamics of farmland
management in African drylands. It argues that significant improvements in land management and land conditions have occurred over the last several decades, and in most
cases also during relatively dry periods. It further postulates a ‘U’ shaped relationship
between population pressure and land management, which in the longer term leads to improved land quality. The ‘U’ shape is a model for the temporal relationship between population density (a proxy for land use intensity) and land quality (indicated e.g. by output per
ha) where population density is along the horizontal axis and land quality on the vertical
axis (Mortimore, 1995). It represents first a decline in land quality (land degradation) as
population density increases up to a certain level, at which point the land quality stabilizes
and then starts increasing as the population density continues to rise (land regeneration).
The basic mechanism seen to govern the relationship is relative factor costs. In the studies
referred to above it is often observed that land degradation followed from rational farmer
choices in a first phase of human settlement when the land: labour ratio was high and
capital was scarce. But as population pressure increased and land became scarcer relative
to other production factors, farmers shifted to more sustainable practices thereby increasing the quality and productivity of their land. This process involves both the water and soil
properties of farmland as well as farm trees.
The studies suggest a long term development pathway where population growth and the
related expansion of product and, less so, factor markets are the key drivers of land use
change, which induce and enable farmers to intensify land management through investments and innovations, while conserving or restoring natural resources. They emphasises
the role of technology, private investments, the economic rationality of farmers – who
manage resources based on relative factor costs which depend strongly on population density – and market demand in shaping land management. By examining the long-term dynamics of these factors and mechanisms in specific areas many of these studies arrive at
more optimistic accounts of farmland performance than the conventional desertification
narratives. A central notion is human agency, often expressed as adaptive capacity – i.e.,
the ability of farmers to cope with risks and adapt to changes in institutional, economic
and natural conditions. Another key idea is the interactions over time between markets,
production system (including technology) and labour, all of which show strong temporal
dynamics. A third important argument is that economic incentives are a prerequisite for
land investments, and that such incentives are best provided through the development and
appropriate regulation of markets.
44
3.7.2 The central role of markets
While many studies have emphasised the role of population pressure in inducing intensification, an equally important lesson is that the prospect of ‘more cash’ through the engagement with product markets is a central incentive for investing in the land, as demonstrated for example by the Machakos study (Tiffen et al., 1994). Effective factor markets,
on the other hand, are key for enabling farmers to respond effectively to these incentives.
But effective markets that can support sustainable land management in a pro-poor manner
do not evolve automatically or overnight. This is particularly true in poor and sparsely
areas with relatively low levels of economic activity – still common characteristics in
much of rural Sahel – where markets are usually thin or absent (OECD, 1998). In the Sahel, public and private policies and investments are therefore critical for agricultural market development. A first step here is to identify the elements that make up ‘markets’, including transport infrastructure, access to market information and knowledge, physical
market access, barriers to regional trade, quality standards, quality control, price policies,
import policies, etc. A second one is to identify and help develop specific marketing arrangements of relevance and benefit to small producers.
3.7.3 Critique of the success stories
The ‘success’ stories of positive land change have been criticised on methodological
grounds and with respect to their limited geographical representativity (see Box 3.7). The
critique is largely misplaced, however. Firstly, it misses the point that these stories provide important lessons about the factors that enable or induce sustainable land management anywhere rather than about how common sustainable land management is. Secondly, and relatedly, the studies lend themselves to generalisations along the temporal
rather the spatial dimension because they represent areas with dense populations, high
land use intensity and proximity to urban centres. Rapid population growth and the development of infrastructure across the Sahel mean that these conditions are becoming more
widespread (Cour, 2001), although we emphasise that distance is only one of many factors
determining market access.
45
Box 3.7. Critiques of the success stories of land change in the Sahel
Recent studies argue that the evidence is insufficient to claim that endogenous processes and knowledge
alone can drive land use systems towards higher productivity and sustainability (Koning & Smaling, 2005;
Schlect et al., 2006). They criticise the optimistic interpretations of land change in the Sahel for being based
on a few success stories that represent very favourable conditions for sustainable agricultural intensification,
which few areas in the Sahel are likely to meet. These conditions are strong market incentives for land investments combined with high intensification pressures, and, in some cases, favourable access to off-farm
income.
Boyd & Slaymaker (2000) report on six ‘new’ case studies of intensification in Africa – of which four were
in drylands – designed to test the ‘more people, less erosion’ hypothesis. They conclude that “…there are
few examples of a reversal of natural resource degradation and no evidence of a wider trend towards environmental recovery. In most case, ‘success’ involves the adoption of soil and water conservation practices
designed to raise yields of high value crops on selected parcels of land” (ibid., p.1). It is questionable, however, whether the methods employed by these case studies were sufficient to adequately examine the complex and long-term dynamics that the ‘more people, less erosion’ hypothesis describes. Hence it is noticeable
that the study was never published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Several authors have also questioned the methodology applied by some of the successful case studies, which
they argue bias the results in favour of positive changes in soil fertility and yields. The study by Harris
(1998) from northern Nigeria has been criticised for ignoring nutrient exports through leaching, which other
research in an even drier climate found to be important (Koning and Smaling, 2005). The study by Mazzucato & Niemeijer (2000) has been criticised for partly basing their positive results on yield and soil fertility
changes over 10-15 years on an invalid comparison of soil samples taken at an interval of 30 years in the
same region but from lands with different uses (ibid; Schlect et al., 2006). It has also been observed frequently that farming systems in the Sahel rely on a horizontal concentration of nutrients around villages, socalled ’niche’ management, on small parcels for high value crops, and where livestock have been corralled.
This obviously means an export of nutrients from surrounding fields, fallows and rangelands, which must
also be taken account of in nutrient budgets. This could partly explain why, on the Central Plateau in Burkina Faso, soil fertility on cultivated fields has been increasing as a result of improved management, while the
vegetation outside the cultivated fields has continued to degrade (Reij et al., 2005). However, nutrients are
also exported from fields to adjacent fallows and rangelands. Krogh (1997) thus found that when enlarging
the nutrient circulation perspective to the scale of the village territory, the nutrient balances became less
negative as part of the nutrients lost from the fields were redistributed and conserved within the village.
3.8 Conclusions
3.8.1 Desertification as an anomaly
Returning to our discussion in the beginning of this publication, then the central conclusion is that the widespread idea that Sahel’s farmlands are on a Malthusian pathway towards irreversible land degradation and falling productivity simply does not stand the empirical test. It is true that many performance indicators showed negative trends during
1970-85 and that the several and severe droughts during this period, together with the
general climatic anomaly, caused serious crop failures and the loss of valuable livestock in
many farming communities. And droughts continue to be a major and constant threat to
46
rural livelihoods, as witnessed most lately in Niger in 2005. However, during the last 20
years, where rainfall has been closer to the long-term post-1930 average, on balance the
evidence suggests a more promising pathway of agricultural intensification with a general
stability in soil fertility and farm productivity and income.
3.8.2 Farm management responses
Feeding the rapidly growing population of the Sahel has been achieved mainly through
the expansion of intensive crop-livestock farming systems onto lands previously used as
pastures and bush fields, or through the establishment of bush fields on pasture lands.
These systems depend strongly on horizontal nutrient transfers from the surrounding landscape (aside in situ soil and water conservation), implying intensified pressure on the remaining grasslands and woodlands. The spatial dynamics of land use is thus central for
understanding changes in the management and performance of Sahelian farmlands (as
well as for crop-livestock interactions).
A notable exception to this dominant pattern is the highly populated areas such as northern Nigeria and the Central Plateau in Burkina Faso where the agricultural frontier was
closed long ago and with it the scope for ‘spatial’ management responses. Here production
increases in response to diminishing land holdings and market demand have been
achieved through the adoption of ‘deep’ intensification technologies on existing lands.
Successful farming is characterised by very close crop-livestock-tree interactions and very
high inputs of labour and, less so, cash per ha. It is also marked by a high level of integration in both input and output markets. Since the rest of the Sahel will soon face similar
conditions as found in these areas, there are important lessons to be learned from how
farmers here manage natural resources and from what determines their NRM strategies.
One important factor here is the important flow of remittances to the area earned in migrant work, formerly in Ivory Coast but now more widespread and including North Africa.
The other important exception is the irrigated lands of the Senegal River Valley and Office du Niger in Mali. In the latter area, farmers have in recent years successfully intensified and commercialised production on existing irrigated lands in response to improvements in the economic and institutional environment as well as technical support (Bélieres
et al., 2002). Improved urban market conditions for meat, rice, fruits and vegetables have
been an important driver that has induced increased farmer capital investments in for example canal rehabilitation and animal traction. Further development of this system now
depends on public support to the expansion of the irrigated area as existing plots are undergoing fragmentation. In the Senegal river valley in recent years, small rice farmers
have intensified production and raised productivity and income on a reduced or stable
irrigated land area (ibid). This was in response to recent improvements in institutions and
output markets as well as to reduced access to cheap credit. Changes in farm management
involved especially increased labour inputs, more efficient input use (e.g. of urea) and
other technical improvements (e.g. tighter compliance to cropping schedules).
47
3.8.3 Changes in farmland components
The last decades have witnessed important changes in the major components of Sahel’s
farmlands – crops, livestock and trees. The production of staple crops – mainly millet and
sorghum – has increased at approximate the same rate as the farming population, mainly
through area expansion, implying a doubling of the cultivated area in about 25 years. Expansion has occurred mainly on the heavier, low-lying soils, as opposed to the lighter
sandy soils, implying an increased importance of sorghum relative to millet. Overall there
are no indications of declining crop yields. Over the last 20 years significant yield increases for millet and sorghum have been observed in a few areas, such as on the Central
Plateau in Burkina Faso, partly due to project assistance within SWC. The other important
exceptions are the irrigated lands of the Senegal River Valley and the Office du Niger in
Mali (Bélières et al., 2002). But in most areas, it seems, the substantial yield potential
demonstrated in on-farm experiments remains largely untapped. The biggest qualitative
change in food crop farming seems to be the increasing production of high-value crops for
the growing urban national and regional markets – especially vegetables, cow peas,
groundnuts, sesame and tiger nuts. Improved water management, especially small-scale
irrigation, water harvesting techniques, and dry season cultivation of low-lands, has been
a central factor. This trend is in theory stronger in areas with ‘easier’ access to urban markets (in terms of travel time, costs and risks), but this assumption seems to be contradicted
by observations of high levels of commercialisation in quite remote – in distance terms –
areas. This suggests a need for a more nuanced view of market access.
As land use has intensified, farm trees have come to occupy an increasingly important role
for crop nutrients, livestock fodder, food and income. And in some areas fundamental
changes in tree management and tree cover have been achieved over the course of one
decade. Trees are also increasingly managed for cash income, earned e.g. through the sale
of fruits, shea nut, firewood and animal fodder. Sedentary livestock rearing has likewise
experienced high growth and an increasing share of the region’s livestock is reared within
farmlands. There has also been a qualitative change in livestock production; from a focus
on cattle as a long-term saving or investment – as well as a source of status and milk –
towards the short-term fattening of sheep and goats targeted at high-value urban niche
markets, serving as a regular source of income.
3.8.4 Changes in economic performance
Farmlands in the Sahel appear to have sustained their level of economic performance over
the last twenty years, in terms of productivity, food sufficiency and income generation.
Farmlands are now supporting many more people than 40 years ago and this suggests the
existence of strong and positive dynamics. An increased market integration can also be
detected, particularly in respect of urban food markets for high-value products. These
findings challenge the orthodox view of a general failure of the region’s production systems. There was a clear downward trend in most indicators during the 1970s and early
1980s, followed by a period of recovery or stabilisation after the mid 1980s. The highest
growth rates were experienced by high-value products for domestic markets. Despite the
positive trends of the last 20 years, the level of economic performance of Sahelian farm48
lands is still low by any standard, however. Average crop yields remain far below those
that can be obtained through modest improvements in management. And the extent of
recovery has not been sufficient to raise economic welfare significantly or compared to
the situation 40 years ago.
3.9 Policy implications
Redefining the ‘Sahel problem’
Rather than continue to discuss the direction of trends in the management and performance of Sahel farmlands, a more fruitful approach might be redefine these problems as a
question of how to design policies and interventions that are sufficiently flexible to respond to the great temporal and spatial variability in economic and environmental conditions, i.e. that are continuously tuned into adaptive processes ‘on the ground’. In other
words, policy targeted at improving poverty levels while safeguarding the ecosystems
must itself be an adaptive process. It should make use of indigenous achievement as well
as new knowledge and provide guidance on how to replicate past successes.
From regulation to incentives
It would also greatly improve our understanding of natural resource management in the
Sahel if the recent possible positive trend in farmland performance came to be seen as the
norm and the period 1970-85 as the anomaly due to a conjunction of several severe
droughts, below average rainfall and adverse policies that for a time interfered with a
long-term trend of sustainable intensification. This change in perception implies that
rather than combating land degradation through regulation, development policy should
focus on raising productivity and income in Sahel’s farmlands. This should be done
through the provision of economic incentives for investment and through the strengthening of productive capacities that induce and enable farmland intensification while raising
returns to labour. Building on and supporting diversity and resilience in rural livelihoods
as well as in ecosystems should be key underlying principles guiding policy making and
public investment decisions in this area.
Integrated NRM technologies and strategies
While many assessments of soil degradation are not empirically substantiated, it should
not be ignored that the inherent properties of Sahelian soils are very poor. We also emphasise that the productivity of Sahelian soils is not only a function of their nutrient status,
but depends strongly on biological and physical properties. Raising crop yields will therefore require an integrated approach to soil fertility management (SFM) that addresses all
these aspects. This means combining external inputs (synthetic fertilizers, rock phosphate)
with biologically-based methods (organic matter, biological fixation) and with measures
against wind and water erosion control. The project interventions and on-farm experiments discussed in this chapter show that such an approach can significantly increase both
yields per ha as well as labour productivity. However, for these technologies to pay, projects and policies must focus on providing incentives. Experiences also indicate that SFM
strategies should consider and seek to integrate all the major farmlands components –
trees, crops and livestock – rather than focusing on crops alone. When comparing the
costs and benefits of SFM strategies it is likewise important to take account of tree and
49
livestock production and not only crops (the relative importance of the former two tends
to increase with intensification). Finally, the substantial horizontal nutrient flows in many
farmlands means that SFM strategies should include all the major landscape elements involved in these flows – forests, pastures, fields etc – and not be limited to the field or farm
level.
Direct investment support
Sustainable farmland intensification in the Sahel clearly requires substantial investments
of cash and labour at the farm and community levels as well as the mobilisation of external knowledge and resources. Several of the dryland ‘success stories’ discussed earlier
suggest that project-type support can be a relevant and effective way of providing the
critical resources needed to raise farmland productivity sustainably. This must involve
both technical support as well as assistance that relax cash and labour constraints to farm
investments given that both resources are very scarce in rural households. It is moreover
central for adoption rates that the technologies – including new products – promoted by
projects are in accordance with local relative factor costs (roughly the land/labour ratio) as
well as with cost-benefit ratios for key products since both influence farmers’ investment
decisions. Most important perhaps, they must take account of the opportunity cost of labour in non-farm activities, as rural livelihoods in the Sahel are highly diversified – although this partly reflects poor alternatives within farming, which investment support is
meant to address. A note of caution is needed through: many NRM projects in the Sahel
have been mixed blessings or direct failures so realising the potential of direct investment
support requires careful design that avoids past mistakes. Finally, the use of government
or donor funds for project-type support, rather than more broad-based institutional and
infrastructural investments, must take account of broader considerations relating to public
sector resource allocation, including questions of subsidies versus services and public versus private good provision. Projects should also be designed in accordance with overall
poverty reduction and other national policies.
Market development
In recent years it has moreover become clear that broader economic and sectoral policies
can have significant and widespread effects on sustainable intensification by generally
increasing the returns to, and reduce the risks of, investment in agriculture. It is generally
accepted that market incentives are key for such investments to occur. But markets in
support of sustainable land management do not evolve automatically but must be promoted through public investments in marketing infrastructure and the development of
appropriate regulatory frameworks. Macroeconomic policies – especially the currency
devaluation – and general market liberalisation have already contributed to higher producer prices in some cases (e.g. rice and meat) but reforms alone are not sufficient. There
is now a need for more targeted policies and investments that reduce marketing costs and
market risks and that improve farmers’ access to market information on price and quality
for specific product groups. In other words, interventions are needed that support the development of specific marketing arrangements or value chains of relevance and benefit to
small producers.
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Chapter 4. Natural resource management in pastoral systems
4.1 Introduction
This chapter discusses NRM in pastoral societies and economies in the Sahel. Its purpose
is to ensure that NRM issues pertaining to pastoralism receive adequate attention in the
broader study. It specifically aims to;
(i)
(ii)
discuss from a NRM perspective research and interventions done on/in pastoral
societies and economies in the West African Sahel over the last 10 years or so,
focusing on Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali; and,
based on this review, identify and discuss the most promising NRM policies,
strategies and specific interventions for pastoral societies/groups in the region.
4.1.1 Defining pastoralism
Pastoral systems in the Sahel are highly diverse and dynamic as pastoralists have historically adapted to evolving environmental, social, economic and political conditions at local, national and regional levels. They include the highly mobile WoDaaBe of Niger
largely dependent on livestock, the more sedentary and agro-pastoral Fulani of the inner
Niger Delta in Mali or northern Burkina Faso practising regular seasonal transhumance,
the predominately camel-rearing Toubou of eastern Niger, the relatively sedentary Tuareg
of northern Mali and Niger involved in diverse livestock and other activities including
long-distance trade.
Defining pastoralism in the face of this diversity is problematic. It is also not helped by
the loose use of various terms, often interchangeably, to describe this form of livelihood
and the people who practice it – for example, nomads, nomadism, transhumants, transhumance, herders, pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, etc. Whereas in the past, there was in certain areas a degree of livelihood specialisation along ethnic lines, increasingly this is no
longer the case. Pastoralism and farming are now practiced to varying degrees by most
communities in the Sahel. Thébaud (2002) analyses the historical advance of agropastoralism over the 19th century in the Yagha in north eastern Burkina Faso with the Fulani taking up farming and the Gurmantche investing in livestock. Beeler (2006) describes
a similar situation in north-western Mali where Soninké farmers have been investing in
livestock since the beginning of the 20th century. The merging of these livelihood systems
has weakened former relations of interdependence between groups, and heightened competition for access to natural resources between them (Hussein, 1998). Conflict is increasingly a feature of their relationships exacerbated by national policies and laws that have
weakened pastoral tenure rights over land and water, resulting in increasing loss of pasture
land to agriculture.
There is a need to differentiate between different pastoral systems as well as the different
livestock keeping systems in terms of the relative importance of livestock to families’
overall livelihood portfolio, the objectives and manner of production, labour, access to
resources and decision-making institutions. The definition should allow for distinctions to
51
be made between those families or communities who depend to a significant level on livestock for their livelihoods with other groups who generally purchase livestock as a form of
insurance, investment or savings to complement other livelihood options.
There is also a need to recognise the dynamism of pastoralism as a livelihood system, particularly its gender and class dimensions that characterise significant differences in
wealth, status and power within pastoral communities 37. Though frequently viewed as a
archaic system locked in the past, there is evidence demonstrating how pastoralism does
adapt to the opportunities and constraints of present-day economies often while minimising environmental costs (Homewood, 1993).
A commonly used definition in the literature is that advanced by Swift (1988) in which he
defines pastoral production systems as those “…in which at least 50% of the gross incomes from households (i.e. the value of market production and the estimated value of
subsistence production consumed by households) comes from pastoralism or its related
activities, or else, where more that 15% of household's food energy consumption involves
the milk or dairy products they produce”. Baxter (1994) focuses less on economic criteria
and emphasises the ethnic dimension of pastoral communities, irrespective of whether all
members actually keep livestock or not.
Any definition is subjective to some degree. Hence, for the purposes of this study it is
proposed to use a set of characteristics, common to most pastoral systems in the Sahel (see
Table 4.1) rather than a single all-encompassing definition 38. By way of comparison,
some key characteristics of ranching, which though not a major activity in the Sahel is one
often perceived by government to represent a more effective use of rangelands than pastoralism, are also presented.
52
Table 4.1: Key characteristics of pastoralism and ranching in the Sahel.
Pastoralism
Ranching
• Families depend on livestock for a significant proportion of their food
and income.
• Livestock are grazed within defined and fixed boundaries (usually fenced).
• Many pastoralists cultivate crops and carry out other economic activities to meet their subsistence needs.
• Livestock are raised for a mix of subsistence (particularly milk) and
market needs (e.g. livestock sales to buy food, to pay taxes, etc.).
• Livestock herds are composed mainly of indigenous breeds.
• Natural resources are managed
through private regimes – resources within fenced boundaries
are privately owned.
• Livestock represent more than just economic assets. They are social,
cultural and spiritual assets too. They define and provide social identity and security.
• Ranching is commercially oriented
(mainly beef) for the national
economy (domestic, export markets).
• Livestock depend on natural pastures for their diets including crop
residues.
• Livestock represent an economic
asset.
• Pastoralism depends on the work and expertise of all family members, usually divided by gender and age.
• Livestock depend on natural pastures as well as purchased feeds.
• Key livestock management strategies include: herd mobility, raising
several species of animals, active management of age structure and
sex ratio, herd splitting, and maintenance of a high proportion of female livestock.
• Ranching mainly depends on hired
labour: both technical (e.g. vets,
range managers) and manual (e.g.
ranch hands, labourers).
• Natural resources are managed through a mix of common property
and private regimes where access to pastures and water are negotiated
and dependent on reciprocal arrangements.
• Pastoralism is characterised by adaptation and evolution to constraints
of climate, economic, political change and opportunities facing them.
• Pastoralism is also characterised by its ability to realise economic
benefits from otherwise marginal lands not suited to crop cultivation
due to climatic constraints (low opportunity costs).
• A key livestock management
strategy involves herd splitting
through separation using fences
and controlled stocking rates.
• In most of the areas where ranching is practiced, the rainfall regime allows for rain-fed cultivation (some opportunity costs).
Source: Author’s literature review and assessment
4.2 The importance of pastoralism in the Sahel
Determining the current status and trends in pastoral production and trade, its contribution
to local, national and regional economies, the levels of pastoral poverty, the degree to
which pastoralists engage with markets and have established links with farming communities is fraught with difficulty.
There are no official statistics on pastoral population numbers in the Sahel since national
census figures do not disaggregate by ethnic group or livelihood. Various attempts have
been made at estimating pastoral population numbers by using proxy indicators such as
agro-ecological zones and classifications of different livestock production systems (ILRI,
2002; Rass, 2006). Table 4.2 presents data from ILRI (2002) estimating the total number
of pastoral households by country on the basis of their production system in 2000 and
2050 39, while Table 4.3 disaggregates this data by degree of poverty according to different four different data sets.
53
Table 4.2: Estimates of total pastoral population by country and production system
in 2000 and 2050.
Total pastoral
population by
production system
(LGA)
Burkina Faso
845,042
Mali
2,182,947
Niger
1,627,132
Senegal
813,337
Source: ILRI (2002).
Countries
2000
Pastoralists as a
% of total population
(%)
7.0%
19.3%
14.4%
9.8%
Total pastoral
population by
production system
(LGA)
2,508,082
6,088,888
4,809,364
1,980,982
2050
Pastoralists as a
% of total population
(%)
7.0%
19.4%
14.4%
9.8%
Table 4.3: Estimates of the number of poor pastoral people by production systema.
Countries
Technical Advisory Committee
(TAC) defined
poverty threshold
447,872
1,178,791
862,380
431,069
World Bank rural
poverty threshold
Less than US$ 1/
day poverty
threshold
Less than US$ 2/
day poverty
threshold
Burkina Faso
380,269
517,166
725,046
Mali
982,326
1,589,185
1,977,750
Niger
1,073,907
999,059
1,387,943
Senegal
366,002
213,908
551,442
Source: ILRI (2002).
Notes: a Four different data sets and poverty lines were used: two international lines (less than US$ 1/day
and less than US$ 2/day) and two national lines, one from the ILRI priority-setting exercise based on Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR) data (Gryseels et al., 1997) and one for the rural.
Notwithstanding the accuracy or the pertinence of the data in both tables, they do demonstrate that a significant proportion of the population of the Sahel are pastoral, ranging
from 7% in Burkina Faso to almost a fifth of the population in Mali, and that the majority
are poor subsisting off less than US$ 2 a day 40. Although the PRSPs of Mali and Burkina
Faso do not make any specific reference to pastoralists, they do identify those areas with
large pastoral populations as being among the poorest. In Mali, for example, the regions
of Mopti, Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal are classified as having significantly higher levels of
poverty than the national average (Republic of Mali, 2002). In Niger the situation is less
clear cut where it is the western and southern regions of Tillabery, Dosso and Maradi that
are considered to have the greatest intensity of poverty. Although these areas are home to
many pastoral communities, they do not, with the possible exception of Tillabery, make
up the majority of the population.
National level statistics fail to capture pastoralism’s contribution to national economic
production and growth. This is largely because actual methodologies of data collection
and summation are not adapted to assessing a sector with a significant informal dimension
such as pastoralism (Hesse & MacGregor, 2006). For example, pastoral labour in the
maintenance of key resources such as livestock, wells or the environment is rarely recorded. Unreliable or inaccurate data on pastoral population numbers makes it difficult to
determine the value added of pastoralism and its contribution to national economic
growth. Obtaining a complete picture of the pastoral economy requires estimating house54
hold outputs produced for home use, sales in informal markets, barter exchanges and illegal or deliberately unreported activities.
However, governments do collect some data on the livestock sector as a sub-component of
the agricultural sector. Table 4.4 illustrates the relative importance of both sectors to GDP
in the Sahel, with agriculture contributing between 17.6% and 39.9% of overall GDP
while livestock represents between 24.7% and 41.6% of agricultural GDP. Although these
data fail to disaggregate the relative contributions of the different livestock production
systems, and do not capture the significant proportion of the pastoral economy that does
not pass through official channels, they nonetheless give some indication of the great importance of livestock to national economies in the Sahel. Work by Rass (2006) using
proxy indicators to try and establish the importance of pastoralism within the national
livestock sectors indicates great differentiation between countries in the Sahel 41. For example, while pastoral cattle only represent 16% of Burkina Faso’s national herd they
make up 76% of Niger’s total cattle population.
Table 4.4: Estimates of the contribution of pastoralism to national economies in the
Sahel.
Factor
Burkina Faso
Mali
Niger
Senegal
% Contribution of agriculture to GDP
31%
38%
40%
18%
Share of livestock as % of agricultural GDP
25%
42%
30%
37%
Pastoral cattle as a % of the national herd
16%
36%
76%
22%
Share of pastoral beef as a % of total production
18%
38%
78%
24%
2nd after cotton
3rd after
gold/cotton
2nd after
cotton
NA
Livestock as a source of export earning
Source: Data compiled by the author from different sources
Recent and comprehensive data on pastoralism is, however, lacking. That data which does
exist tends to focus on livestock failing to disaggregate between livestock systems. It also
ignores the wider livelihood dimensions of pastoralism, which though centred on livestock-keeping includes a diversity of other economic activities including farming, harvesting of non-forest timber products, trade, paid manual labour and migration. Data also
tends to focus on cattle ignoring or minimising the contributions of other livestock species
central to the different pastoral livelihood systems such as camels, donkeys and small
stock. And there is very little, if any, recognition of the indirect contribution of pastoralism to other sectors of the economy in the Sahel. A recent study carried out in Arusha
town, northern Tanzania, on the value added of the nyama choma (roast meat) informal
economy, over 90% dependent on pastoral meat, indicates that it supports 601 meat roasting businesses, employing 5,600 people with an estimated 25,000 dependents (Letara et
al., 2006). None of this contribution is captured in official data sets.
The absence of an appropriate system to track the dynamics of pastoralism and its contribution to local and national economies is one reason why governments continue to undervalue it and promote policies that seek to change or replace it with other land use systems.
55
Improving the conceptual and methodological framework and methods for the collection
of data on pastoralism is thus critical.
4.3 Research findings
Ecological research over the past twenty years has shown how rangeland dynamics in
dryland environments are very different to those in areas that are more humid. Seminal
work by Ellis & Swift (1988), Benkhe (1992), Benkhe et al. (1993), Scoones (1995)
among others show that in non-equilibrium environments where precipitation is unpredictable and highly scattered in time and space and where droughts are a normal feature,
rainfall has a greater influence on the dynamics of pastures in the rangelands than grazing
pressure. And that the determining issue when considering the risk of overgrazing is not
the number of livestock per se, but the intensity of grazing that can occur. In such environments, the value of such concepts as carrying capacity, imported from the USA and
widely used by governments in many African countries to regulate livestock numbers to
match biomass production, have been questioned particularly when applied to pastoral
production systems (see Box 4.1). This research has also confirmed the high level of resilience of dryland ecosystems and their capacity to adapt to changing rainfall patterns. For
example, in drier periods short-cycle annuals dominate pastures with perennial grasses
returning once rainfall conditions improve. Similarly, formerly degraded areas have self
re-generated under improved rainfall conditions as seeds lying dormant in the soil have
germinated as a result of the greater humidity. Mortimore (1998) through his work in
northern Nigeria has challenged the conventional view that Africa’s drylands are in a selfperpetuating cycle of increasing land degradation and desertification.
Livestock mobility is now increasingly recognised to be a far more effective strategy for
ensuring the sustainable use of the environment in dryland environments while making the
best use of dispersed and uncertain pastures with few other economic uses (Sandford,
1983; Niamir Fuller, 1999). It allows animal numbers to be regulated according to the
available fodder in an opportunistic and flexible manner, thereby reducing the risks of
overgrazing and environmental degradation. An experiment conducted by GTZ (Deutsche
Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit) in northern Senegal in which relative costs
and benefits of privatising the land and using carrying capacity as a tool to regulate livestock numbers on pastures confirmed the inappropriateness of such a tool in nonequilibrium environments (see Box 4.1).
56
Box 4.1. Controlled grazing scheme in Senegal
In the early 80s, GTZ collaborated with the Senegalese Forest and Water service to test a model for the
sustainable management of rangelands around the borehole of Widou Thiengoli in northern Senegal.
The model was based on trying to find the optimum carrying capacity of the range in this Sahelian
environment. In order to do this, the project privatised what had been common rangeland, and divided
the area into a number of grazing paddocks with direct water delivery in which different stocking levels were maintained. The project provided special benefits to those few families who were allowed to
use the pasture and water in the enclosed areas, protected by barbed wire fencing.
After over 15 years of implementation and a very rigorous process of scientific monitoring, the project
was deemed a failure. In environmental terms, the quality of the pasture for livestock within the paddocks was worse than at the beginning of the project and in comparison to the surrounding communal
land. In years of high rainfall, insufficient consumption and trampling of dry season biomass and soils
led to the disappearance of those grasses most sought after by the animals. Economically, the proposal
to sell animals soon after weaning (so as to maintain the fixed stocking rate) was found to be unprofitable, and that animals that had gained weight in good years by remaining within the paddocks were at
a distinct disadvantage in years of poor rainfall when there was no choice but to leave the controlled
rangeland behind. Socially, the fact of fencing some families in, and others out, of what had been a
common pool resource, created social tensions. Those herders who had benefited from the project in
good years when they could remain within the fenced paddocks, found themselves rejected by the
others in the bad years when they had to cut the barbed wire and let their animals pasture on the common land.
The project’s failure was largely a result of its desire to impose technical and infrastructural blueprints
designed for wetter and ecologically more stable environments on a non-equilibrium environment
characterised by high levels of spatial and temporal variability in vegetation production.
Source: Thebaud et al. (1995).
4.3.1 Efficiency
Mobility enables animals to be driven to where the most nutritious and abundant pastures
exist, thereby optimising weight gain and milk production in the wet season and limiting
weight loss in the dry season. Research conducted by Breman & de Wit (1983), De Vries
(1983), Boudet (1987) and Breman & De Ridder (1991) demonstrate how pastures found
in the northern Sahel though less abundant than those in the south, are far more nutritious
that the latter. This is well known to pastoral communities, who regularly move their animals north during the rainy season to fatten their livestock in preparation for the difficult
dry season. De Verdière’s (1995) research in Niger in which he compares the productivity
of livestock raised under sedentary, transhumant and nomadic conditions demonstrate
how sedentary livestock are 20% less productive than nomadic cattle in terms of annual
reproduction, levels of calf mortality, and annual milk production. Earlier research carried
out by Breman et al. (1978) confirmed that animals taken on seasonal transhumance from
the inner Niger delta in Mali to Mauritania (over 1,000 kilometres) generally were in better shape than those that remained throughout the year in the villages. Similar work carried out by Breman & de Wit (1983) and Wilson et al. (1983) in Mali demonstrate how
57
transhumant pastoral systems yield on average at least twice the amount of protein per ha
per year compared to both sedentary agro-pastoralists and ranchers in the USA and Australia (quoted in Scoones (1995)) 42.
4.3.2 Resilience to environmental shocks
Livestock mobility remains a key strategy in responding to drought, disease and other
natural crises. With no alternative policies to protect their capital base, particularly the
breeding animals that allow them to reconstitute their herd after a drought, families opt to
move, sometimes travelling hundreds of kilometres across several countries in search of
pastures and water. Research carried out by Thébaud in 1987 in the region of Diffa in
eastern Niger in which she contrasts the herd structures of 350 Fulani families found that
those that moved with their animals to Nigeria and even Cameroon during the 1984
drought, not only had on average much larger herd sizes, but also more viable herd structures (Thébaud, 2002). Fulani families who had not managed to move long distances during the drought had on average between two and seven cattle per family compared to the
more highly mobile WoDaaBe who had on average 44 cattle per family two years after
the drought (ibid).
Total herd sizes, however, do not reflect the full picture. A balanced herd structure is also
critical if families are to live off their herds in a sustainable manner. Adult cows are
needed to produce milk in the short-term term and give birth to calves that will grow into
adults, thereby ensuring the future survival of the herd and thus the family. Adult steers
are needed for sale to buy other foods and services or for major ceremonial purposes central to maintaining social capital. A bull is needed to inseminate the cows. Heifers are
needed to replace the cows while young steers need to be fattened for future sale 43. Thébaud’s research shows how herd structures among the more mobile WoDaaBe were also
far more balanced with a more even spread of male (40%) and female (60%) animals and
a good distribution of both sexes across the ages, than those among the Fulani who had
been unable or unwilling to move before or during the drought. Having access to adult
male cattle after the drought when livestock prices are high and grain prices low, allowed
the WoDaaBe to sell one or two steers to buy the grain they needed. This allowed them to
preserve their breeding females thereby ensuring a supply of milk and calves for the regeneration of the herd. At the end of the drought, the Fulani not only had fewer animals
but an imbalanced herd structure dominated by female stock – between 72% and 84% of
their total cattle herd (ibid). Consequently, the Fulani were being forced into distress sales
of their female stock thereby compromising their ability to reconstitute their herds after
the drought.
Although the long-term impacts of climate change are difficult to predict, most climate
change models agree that rainfall is likely to become increasingly erratic and unpredictable, with more severe weather events such as drought and floods. This will have a profound effect on the availability and distribution of natural pastures and water points, particularly during the dry season (Hesse & Cotula, 2006; WISP, 2007). In this changing and
ever more unstable environment, herd mobility will become increasingly important. In
this changing and ever more unstable environment, herd mobility will become an increas58
ingly important strategy in the drier regions of the Sahel. In more southerly regions (e.g.
northern Nigeria) other strategies such as stall-feeding of key reproductive stock may prevail as demonstrated by Mortimore et al. (2001).
4.3.3 Pastoral land tenure
Our understanding of how pastoralists view land and organise themselves in relation to
land has greatly improved over the past twenty years. Colonial and post-colonial government views that pastoralists have no land or that the areas they occupy are empty and sans
maître (i.e. without owner or master), which in part gave reason to their desire for mobility, have now been challenged. Work by Benkhe (1992), Lane & Moorehead (1995),
Turner (1999a; 1999b), Thébaud (2002) among many others show how pastoral land is
held under controlled access tenure regimes, often in communal form. Contrary to the
‘tragedy of the commons’ argument advanced by Hardin (1968), pastoral land is not open
access and thus open to all, but carefully managed by well-defined groups, according to a
set of rules and regulations in which everyone is aware of their rights and duties.
Pastoral land tenure is fundamentally different to the terms and conditions under which
agricultural land and resources are held and used. Not only are pastoral resources such as
grasslands, browse, water and salt pans shared and used by many pastoral communities,
but the land on which they are found may also be used by other people for different purposes at different times of the year. For example, millet and sorghum fields cultivated by
Gourmantche and RimaayBe farmers in northern Burkina Faso the wet season become
pastures during the dry season for both resident and transhumant livestock (Thébaud,
2002). Similarly, in the inner Niger delta of Mali, dry season pastoral grasslands become
wet season fishing grounds with the annual flooding of the river. Furthermore, because of
the spatial and temporal variability of natural resources, many pastoral groups use a spectrum of tenure regimes in which access to resources is increasingly restricted and subject
to greater levels of control depending on the prevailing environmental conditions and the
strategic value of that resource in any given year (Benkhe, 1992; Lane & Moorehead,
1995; Scoones, 1995). Thus, one finds access to traditional hand dug wells, a critical resource in the dry season, is very carefully managed by the family or clan that dug them;
limiting “outsiders” use of that water according to the availabity of surrounding pastures
and the amount of water in the well in any given year.
The work of Turner (1999b), Zeidane (1999) and Thébaud (2002) show how customary
land tenure systems, for all their apparent ‘messiness’, allow pastoralists to respond in a
very flexible and opportunistic manner to the unpredictable Sahelian environment where
pastures and water resources are highly dispersed in time and space. Social networks and
offers of reciprocal arrangements allow herders to negotiate access to a wide range of resources in any given year, while maintaining their social capital.
Recent research has clarified the critical relationship that exists between land and water
rights in pastoral systems (Cotula, 2006). For Sahelian pastoralists, control over water is
not only necessary to enable them to meet the basic needs of their livestock and families,
it is decisive in enabling them to manage the speed at which pastures are grazed by live59
stock during the dry season. By controlling access to water, pastoralists are able to manage the number of livestock that are watered and thus the number of animals that then
graze the pastures within the water point’s grazing circumference. In many respects, water
is the key to the management of pastoral resources. Thébaud (2002) shows how in eastern
Niger, Fulani families strictly control access of their hand-dug wells in their terroir
d’attache (home areas) dry season to non-resident livestock as a strategy of controlling
stocking rates. This enables them to manage the speed at which the surrounding pastures
are grazed thereby ensuring sufficient feed for their own livestock until the arrival of the
next rains. Controlling access to water is a critical feature of good range management.
The failure of modern water infrastructure programmes and national water and/or land
laws to recognise the interconnectivity of water and land rights, has meant that many wellintentioned water programmes have ended up undermining local resource management
arrangements, fostering resource conflicts and contributing to range degradation (Cotula,
2006) (see Box 4.2).
60
Box 4.2. Confusing legislation
The relationship between the Rural Code and the Water Code in Niger illustrates the confusion between
land and water rights. The Water Code governs water resources while the Rural Code governs all resources and socioeconomic activities in rural areas, including rangelands and water points.
The Rural Code states that herders have a right to use rangelands in common and have priority rights in
their home areas. This includes both land and water rights. Outsiders may gain access to water and grazing resources on the basis of negotiations with the right holders. These provisions imply that the creation
of modern wells must be associated with priority rights to water and grazing resources, and that openaccess wells are possible only in no-man’s-land situations or on transhumance routes.
On the other hand, the principles underlying the Water Code are:
•
Access to water for livestock is open to all, including outsiders such as transhumant herders.
•
Construction of water points with an output equal to or exceeding 40 m3 per day must be authorized
by the regional administration and follow a set of rules.
•
Public water points have to be managed by Management Committees, formally established by the
administration and composed of a President, a Secretary-General, a Treasurer and one person responsible for the hygiene of the well and its surrounding area. The total number of Committee
members should not be greater than nine persons.
•
Management Committees are responsible for the general maintenance of the wells and the collection
of users’ fees.
Such principles have created a number of problems. The Water Code does not establish a functional link
between access to water and access to grazing, as if these resources were independent of each other. The
role of Management Committees is limited to surveillance of the water infrastructure, excluding the use
of grazing resources or control over the number of livestock using the well. Their capacity to control
access to water and grazing resources is limited. When problems arise, the regional administration intervenes and, if necessary, closes the well. The Code gives almost no recognition to the controlled access
systems developed by pastoral communities, and traditional wells are not even mentioned. The texts do
not take into account the specific circumstances characterising pastoral life. For instance, mobile communities are not always in a position to maintain their members around the well throughout the year, and
the election of additional treasurers and committee members would often be necessary. But the law allows only nine members.
Source: Cotula (2006).
4.3.4 Markets
Work by Swift (1979; 1984; 1986) and Kerven (1992) show that contrary to popular belief, pastoralists in the Sahel and elsewhere in Africa have always been integrated with
local and regional markets, and have a long history of involvement in livestock trade outside their communities well before colonialisation.
61
Pastoralists are very dependent on markets, both formal and informal, to acquire a substantial portion of their food as well as other products (Swift 1979; 1986). Swift argues
that it is in their interests to exchange surplus livestock or milk for cereals when the terms
of trade are such that they can obtain more food energy by selling animals or milk to buy
cereals. This is usually the case in good years when cereal prices are low and livestock
prices high. In drought years, however, when food prices soar and livestock prices
plunge, the terms of trade swing violently against pastoral households (Swift, 1986). In
such years, pastoralists lose a significant proportion of their animals as they are forced to
sell more and more animals, in increasingly poor conditions, to meet their food requirements.
Kerven (1992) in her analysis of pastoral marketing in Niger describes how in precolonial times in addition to long-distance trade across the Sahara, pastoralists were also
heavily involved in regional trading networks between pastoral and agricultural economies where animals were largely exchanged for grain linking the arid north to the coastal
areas of West Africa. These links grew rapidly in importance over the 20th and 21st centuries as an urban-based consumer market developed alongside improved transport systems.
In the 1990s, the EU revised its subsidies policies for exports to West and central Africa,
and, as a consequence, cattle meat imports from Europe dropped substantially to be replaced by an increase in live animal imports from the Sahel. In 2003, the share of the Sahel’s exports in the regional livestock trade was 95% for cattle and 79% for small ruminants (OECD, 2007a). The devaluation of the FCFA in 1994 also contributed to the competitiveness of Sahelian reared beef, although with some undesirable consequences. In
Burkina Faso, for example, the devaluation of the FCFA led to an increase in beef exports
and a subsequent meat shortage on the domestic market (Hoffmann & Bernhard, 2007).
62
Box 4.3. Costs incurred in transporting 21 cattle by lorry from Dori to Ouagadougou in 1994
Costs
FCFA
Lorry hire (4,000 CFA/head)
84,000
Certificate of origin
88,200
Hire of patent
42,000
Mats (to act as sun-screen)
13,125
Laisser passer (travel document)
4,200
Police post at Dori
10,500
Gendarnmerie at Dori
21,000
Police post at Kaya
21,000
Police post at Ouagadougou
21,000
Watchman at the abattoir
21,000
An entry ticket at the abattoir
24,000
Costs of unloading the animals
21,000
Hay
10,500
Water
4,200
Total cost:
445,725 FCFA
Cost per head of cattle:
21,225 FCFA
Total cost of illegal ‘taxes’:
73,500 (16%)
Source: Rochette (1997)
The potential for regional trade in livestock to grow is huge. A 250% growth in demand
for livestock products is anticipated for the Sahel and West Africa region by 2025 due
largely to a growing urban population particularly in the coastal countries (Delgado et al.,
1999; OECD, 2006). Ensuring that pastoralists and agro-pastoralists from the Sahel rather
than imports from Europe and Latin America meet this demand is critical for West Africa’s economic growth and for local livelihoods. Competing imports need to be properly
regulated and cross border trade policies and practices need to be improved. According to
some estimates, transport, handling costs and illegal taxes represent 54% of the costs of
cross-border trade in live cattle (OECD, 2007b). Rochette (1997) reports on the actual
costs the Union des Groupements Villageois de l’Oudalan (UGVO) paid in transporting a
lorry load of 21 cattle from Dori to Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso (250 kilometres) on
their way to the coastal markets of Accra and Lomé (see Box 4.3).
4.3.5 Research gaps
Gender, class and resource tenure and pastoral economics are two key issues that have not
received the attention they deserve over the past 20-30 years.
There has been a tendency among researchers to assume a high degree of homogeneity
within pastoral communities, and a subsequent failure to distinguish between different
interest groups and classes of people within society. The impact of changing tenure rela63
tions on the social, economic and political status of pastoral women is not yet fully understood, nor is their role in natural resource management. There is some evidence, particularly from East Africa, that shows that the vulnerability of women’s access to resources is
compounded by the progressive alienation of rangelands away from community-based
structures, as privatisation tends to break up mutual support groups, particularly of women
(Horowitz & Jowkar, 1992). Furthering our understanding of these processes, particularly
in West Africa is an important area for future research.
While there has been considerable research on the advantages and difficulties associated
with common property resource management systems, relatively little economic analysis
has been done on the benefits and costs of this, compared with other tenure arrangements
or land use options in the Sahel. The one outstanding exception to this is the very detailed
monitoring carried out by GTZ on their project in northern Senegal, which has been
documented by Thébaud et al. (1995). As Sahelian governments seek to modernise their
agricultural sector as the pathway out of poverty, it is critical that we develop a better understanding of the links between productivity, incentives and investment in the rangelands
under common property regimes, versus more restrictive forms of tenure. This is necessary in order to test the widely held assumption that privatisation is essential to provide
the security required for investment and conservation management of the rangelands.
There is also need, as argued above, to develop an appropriate conceptual framework and
data collection system to identify and track the true and various contributions of pastoralism to local, national and regional economies in West Africa.
Although a long held belief by governments, the potential detrimental impact of livestock
on the environment is an area requiring further research particularly in countries with
growing livestock populations as a result of improved veterinary care and water provision.
Key questions that merit further investigation include: the extent to which changing patterns of ownership in livestock, particularly cattle, as civil servants, traders, rich pastoralists and business men increasingly invest in livestock for short-term investment, are resulting in changing management practices (e.g. reduced mobility) which are having a
negative impact on the environment as well the wider pastoral economy. Another key issue is the extent to which the premises underpinning the conclusions of a recent report by
FAO (Steinfeld et al., 2006), entitled ‘The long shadow of livestock’, are relevant to lowinput pastoral livelihood systems in the Sahel. The notion of ‘virtual water’ embodied in a
cow is another emerging issue in the context of growing concern about climate change.
Although Sahelian pastoralism has very low opportunity costs, questions are being raised
about the relative cost-benefits of using water for livestock versus other forms of economic production.
4.4. Pastoral development interventions
Environmental degradation and desertification narratives have informed and driven policy
interventions in Africa’s rangelands over the past fifty or more years. Despite the wealth
of empirical research on the dynamics of dryland ecosystems, conventional wisdom still
holds that the rangelands in the drylands of Africa are suffering land degradation and de64
sertification as a result of increasing aridity exacerbated by traditional land use practices
that promote overstocking and overgrazing. Although Hardin’s (1968) ‘tragedy of the
commons’ theory has been largely discredited 44, it has become “…the dominant framework within which social scientists portray environmental and resource issues” (Godwin
& Shepard, 1979) and continues to have tremendous influence in development policy discourse with respect to natural resources generally and livestock and range policy in particular.
Policy interventions seeking environmental sustainability and development in Sahel’s
rangelands have sought either to reform or modernise pastoral systems or to convert pastoral land to other uses (e.g. farming) deemed to be more productive and efficient. In either case, the policy interventions have undermined pastoral systems and institutions, and
compromised the security of pastoral livelihoods without offering any other significant
benefits. Attempts to limit overstocking and avoid overgrazing are now recognised to
have had little positive effect and in many cases to have exacerbated land degradation and
fuelled conflicts through ill-conceived and poorly implemented interventions (Sandford,
1983; Homewood, 1994; Niamir-Fuller, 1999; Oxby, 1999) (see Box 4.1).
In contrast to many other donors, Danida’s support to pastoral development and range
management in the Sahel has been innovative and broadly positive, and by and large informed by research findings on the dynamics of dryland ecosystems and pastoral livelihood strategies. Programme interventions have tended to be over a sustained period with
projects being implemented in a number of successive phases in recognition of the complexities of ecological systems and the dynamics and interconnectedness of social and
political processes in ensuring sustainable and equitable environmental management.
Danida support has combined a regional approach (e.g. Centre Regional de Formation et
d'Application en Agrométéorologie et Hydrologie Opérationnelle (Niger) - AGRHYMET)
with specific interventions at the local level that offer a high potential of replicability on a
wider scale (e.g. Projet Appui à la Gestion Conjointe des Ressources Sylvopastorales PAGCRSP).
Over the past ten years, programme interventions have focused on three broad areas: the
sustainable management of the commons, good governance and pastoral civil society empowerment, and pastoral credit. Table 4.5 presents a selection of key projects supported
by Danida, which have or have had a significant pastoral component. Below a number of
case studies on a few of these projects is presented to capture the key features of Danish
support to pastoralism in the Sahel.
4.4.1. Sustainable management of the commons
The Programme d’Appui à la Gestion de la Réserve Nationale de l’Aïr et du Ténéré
(PAGRNAT), the Projet d'Appui à la Gestion Conjointe des Ressources Sylvo Pastorales
(PAGCRSP) and the project L'Appui à la Sécurisation Foncière II (ASEF II) are three
projects that all present a number of very innovative features that offer huge potential for
ensuring the sustainable and equitable management of rangelands in the Sahel. Central to
these projects is the issue of land tenure, and promoting livestock mobility either within
65
pastoral areas (PAGRNAT) or between the pastoral zone and more southerly areas
(PAGCRSP, ASEF II), while securing pastoral access to and control over strategic resources, particularly in the dry season (water, grazing lands) both in the pastoral and agricultural zones on Niger. All projects have also sought to institutionalise decentralised
management with due regard to subsidiarity within the context of Niger’s local government reform programme.
A major achievement of PAGRNAT was to develop an approach to sustainable rangeland
management based on customary practice that promoted livestock mobility and thereby
the opportunistic tracking of resources in a highly unpredictable environment. Using the
Tuareg concept of echiwel 45, the project identified up to twenty terrain de parcours, i.e.
socially defined areas regularly used by a group of families and their livestock with priority rights of access over key resources (e.g. dry season water, grazing). The overlapping
and fluid nature of these areas’ boundaries as well as the practice of negotiated access by
the inhabitants of the different terrain de parcours enabled the local population to make
optimal use of the available resources and match livestock numbers to available forage in
most years. The project’s decision to base its operational approach on the notion of terrain de parcours ensured a high degree of appropriation by the local community as well
as a strong basis for the design of a model for decentralised natural resource management
and local development within the Aïr-Ténéré reserve (PAGRNAT 2001; 2002). A key
objective of PAGRNAT was to establish a management committee for each terrain de
parcours, which would in time form an umbrella group which responsibilities for the
overall management of the reserve within the context of Niger’s decentralisation reforms.
The project was actively working on the development of a series of local conventions to
institutionalise local natural resource management regulations when the donors withdrew
support due to internal political conflicts within the project area and poor project management.
Two projects currently being implemented with the Projet Appui Danois au Développement Rural de Zinder et Diffa (ADDR) programme in the regions of Zinder and Diffa in
Niger, PAGCRSP II and ASEF II, are experimenting with how best to secure common
property land and resources within the context of decentralisation. Both projects work in
the south of the country characterised by increasing land shortages, particularly fertile and
higher-potential land for rain-fed agriculture, as a result of rising population. Existing
common property areas such as rangelands and non-protected forests used by a range of
actors for different livelihoods are coming under increasing pressure and in many cases
are being converted into fields. The absence of an appropriate policy and legal framework
to protect grazing land and limited local capacity to implement those provisions within the
law that are favourable to pastoralism (e.g. provisions for giving herders priority rights
over land in their home areas), is exacerbating the situation, often leading to conflict between farmers and herders.
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Table 4.5: Summary of selected Danida projects in support of pastoralism
in the Sahel.
Location
Regional
Programme
Key features
Centre Régional AGRHYMET
Research and regional knowledge management on the dynamics
and trends of: climatology, hydrology, agrometeorology, agriculture, pastoralism, agricultural and animal statistics, demography. Mainteance of regional data bases, modelling of climate
and environmental trends using saterlite imagery.
Created in 1974, the Centre is a
specialized agency of the Comité
Inter-Etats de Lutte contre la
Sécheresse au Sahel (CILSS).
Danida funding:1998-2007
Making Decentralisation Work
Implemented by the International
Institutefor Environment and
Development (IIED)
Danida funding: 1999-2004
Burkina
Faso
Projet Sahel Burkina
Mali
No projects with a pastoral
focus
Danida funding: 1999-2000
Projet Appui Danois au
Développement Rural de Zinder
et Diffa (ADDR I and II)
Niger
Overarching programme in support of Niger’s agricultural development strategy composed of a
series of sub-projects implemented by national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and government
departments.
Danida funding:
Phase I: 1999-2002
Training on: monitoring agro-meteorological and hydrology
trends; collectionm of statistics on agricultural systemsand
yields.
Design and implementation of a training programme on Pastoralisme au Sahel in French and Pulaar. The training is designed to
to build the capacity of pastoral groups to understand, engage
with and ultimately challenge the overall policy framework
regulating their livelihood systems, and to enable policy makers
better understand the rationale underpinning pastoral systems.
Testing of the Gestion de Terroir approach in an agro-pastoral
setting in northern Burkina Faso.
The Projet d'Appui à la Gestion Conjointe des Ressources
Sylvo Pastorales (PAGCRSP) uses action-research to identify
how common property rsources can best be managed in a sustainable and equitable manner in the context of decentralisation.
L'Appui à la Sécurisation Foncière II (ASEF II) builds the
capacity of the Commission Foncière of Myrriah to clarify and
thereby secure rural land tenure holding, including critical pastoral resources such as livestock corridors.
Mata Masu Dubara (MMD) builds the capacity of women’s
groups to manage credit and savings to enable women to fund
income generation activities. Adapted the MMD concept to
pastoral areas.
Projet de Gestion des Ressources Naturelles (PGRN) builds the
capacity of local communities to manage key strategic resource
areas (e.g. wetlands) in a sustainable and equitable manner.
Phase II: 2003-2007 (extended till
2008)
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Location
Programme
Key features
Niger
Projet Hydraulique
Development of water points and the establishment of water
management comities in the agro-pastoral and pastoral zones of
Diffa and Zinder.
Village water supply programme
implemented by the Ministry of
Water.
Danida funding: 2001-2006
Programme d’Appui à la Gestion de la Réserve Nationale de
l’Aïr et du Ténéré (PAGRNAT)
Multiple land use programme
implemented by The World Conservation Union (IUCN) to conserve the wildlife of the AïrTénéré while providing sustainable livelihoods for local population.
Design and implementation of participatory pastoral land use
management systems based on customary institutions and practice – terrains de parcours. Developed a comprehensive database and tracking system to monitor pastoral land use, mobility
and social organisation.
Danida funding: 1990-2000
Centre Suivi Ecologique
Senegal
Created in the 1970s as a public
body within the Ministry of Environment.
Long-term environmental monitoring through staelite imagery
and on-ground truthing. Maintainence of databases and production of maps and other information on land use and environmental trends, including rangelands. Two key projects:
i)
Training and management of natural resources and food
safety
ii) Using new information and communication tools to enable pastoral communities to track transhumance.
Danida funding:1985-1999
Source: Author’s review of various project documents
PAGCRSP’s approach to addressing this problem rests on the principle of building the
capacities of all those with direct and indirect interests in the land to come together to negotiate on an equal footing and in an informed way on how best to reconcile their often
divergent interests over the use of common land (PAGCRSP I, 2004; PAGCRSP II,
2006). Using a process of social communication, the project has invested considerable
time and energy in facilitating meetings at various levels, ensuring through training and
the dissemination of information in local languages (e.g. local radio) that all the actors
attend and are at the same level of understanding of the stakes at play. PAGCRSP’s decision to invest first in building the capacities of negotiation of all stakeholders before funding any form of infrastructure (e.g. wells, demarcation of livestock routes, etc.) is in recognition that the greatest challenges of securing common land, including the rangelands,
is largely social and political in nature. And that in the long run, it is essential to invest
time and resources in such processes and establishing local institutions for their continued
management, if future capital investments are to be sustainable and conflict-free.
The project by facilitating the establishment of a number of local conventions for the
management of the commons by the actors themselves, while valorising local natural re68
source management knowledge has also contributed to building the capacity of stakeholders (local government bodies, customary chiefs, community associations, etc.) to develop rules and regulations on a consensual and continous basis, which respond to the
prevailing environmental, economic or social conditions in any given year. Building institutional capacity for flexible and opportunistic management of the environment is essential to reinforcing local coping strategies and increasing resilience to environmental and
institutional change, particularly in a context of global climate change.
The PAGCRSP has also been very effective in ensuring the participation of all actors including transhumant pastoralists. This reflects not only the project’s desire for equitable
resource management, but also demonstrates their recognition of the interconnectivity and
interdependence between the more northerly pastoral areas and southerly farming zones.
The future of Sahelian pastoralism lies in part on its continued access to the more southerly farming zones, particularly in years of drought. Ensuring the participation of transhumant pastoral communities in the management of common property resources in southerly farming areas is thus critical in securing their continued access over time. With the
support of the Commission Foncière of Myrriah (supported by ASEF II), the project has
successfully delimited and officially registered key pastoral resources such as livestock
corridors. The PAGCRSP and ASEF II offer valuable experience in how this can be done.
Building the capacity of local government to manage natural resources and secure common land in their jurisdictions is a major issue in Niger and the Sahel more broadly. This
capacity has to extend from communal level land boards (Commission Foncière Communale - COFOCOM) to higher-level land boards at the departmental level in order to
ensure subsidiarity when planning for pastoral development, particularly the facilitation of
livestock mobility across long distances. PAGCRSP’s and ASEF II’s experience of working both with local government bodies and higher level stakeholder committees at the
departmental level in securing common land provides important lessons in such processes.
Danish support to the water sector in Niger has largely focused on improving village water supply in the regions of Zinder and Diffa. Implemented by the regional government
water departments, the Projet Hydraulique while developing many water points failed
adequately to address the specificities of water development in pastoral areas. Not only
did the project fail to ensure the participation of pastoral communities in the water management committees established for the maintenance of the water points (BCD, 2006), but
it ignored the tenure implications of water development thereby undermining pastoral
resource management arrangements, which contributed to fuelling conflicts, particularly
in the Diffa region (Cotula, 2006). Danida’s new water programme in Niger, PASHEA,
specifically states it will not address pastoral water development for lack of a clear pastoral strategy (BCD, 2006). Yet, developing such a strategy in which the dynamics between land and water rights are properly addressed is critical given the water needs in
pastoral areas and the project’s central objective to improve water access in eastern Niger.
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Box 4.4. Key features of training on Pastoralism in the Sahel
• Multi-disciplinary The training capitalises the last 20-30 years of research that has been conducted on pastoral systems and dryland ecology. It explicitly brings together information on ecosystem biology and the social sciences. It demonstrates the close links between dryland ecosystem resilience and livelihood resilience, and how pastoral livelihood strategies (e.g. mobility) directly contribute not only to good environmental management but also improved pastoral production and productivity. It also addresses the policy environment in the Sahel analysing the impacts of past attempts to modernise pastoral systems and the current opportunities that decentralisation and pastoral legislation offer.
• Principle of self-discovery The training is not a lecture. It uses participants existing knowledge
base as its starting point, adding new scientific and legal information only once they have presented
their own analysis. In this way traditional knowledge and experience is validated when appropriate.
• Challenges enduring preconceptions By using evidence based arguments, the training builds the
capacity of pastoral participants to challenge government officials’ and others’ misperceptions of
pastoralism based more on ignorance or prejudice than scientific evidence.
• Visual aids Are central features of the training enabling non-literate participants to follow and
remember the line of arguments and data that is presented.
4.4.2 Good governance and pastoral civil society empowerment
The absence of a representative and effective pastoral civil society movement capable of
articulating its members’ vision of their development is a key factor explaining why policies for pastoral development continue to fail, and poverty and conflict still characterise
many pastoral communities in the Sahel. Development experience over the last forty
years has clearly shown that pastoral people tend to lack the knowledge, political clout
and resources with which to fight their own cause, and thus remain vulnerable to other
people’s interpretation of what is best for them. Improving policy makers’ understanding
of the rationale behind pastoralism could help improve policy design, although information alone is unlikely to bring substantial changes, since policy formulation is essentially a
state-driven political process that tends to favour dominant groups. In the eyes of the
state, pastoralists represent a minority vote, occupy marginal land of low economic potential and practice a livelihood system many consider economically inefficient and environmentally destructive.
Since 1998, the Drylands programme of the International Institute for Environment and
Development (IIED) has been supporting a process to build the capacity of pastoral
groups in the Sahel to understand, engage with and ultimately challenge the overall policy
framework regulating their livelihood systems. This process has focused on the design
and implementation of a training course on pastoralism and policy in French, which was
subsequently adapted into Pulaar (a language widely spoken in Sahel) within the context
of a regional programme, Making Decentralisation Work, jointly funded by Danida and
Sida (see Box 4.4) 46.
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An external evaluation of the programme in 2003 commended the training for its relevance and capacity to equip pastoral communities with the skills to argue the case for pastoralism within current policy debates and reform processes on land, natural resources,
decentralisation and private investment. The evaluation also found evidence of how certain participants had used the elements from the training to directly challenge some of the
deep-seated misunderstandings and prejudices widely held by policy makers on pastoralism. It is in this sense that the course is empowering..
4.4.3 Pastoral credit
The MMD project in Niger implemented by the international humanitarian organisation
CARE since 1991 is widely credited with successfully enabling women in farming communities to save and fund their own income-generating activities thereby improving their
incomes and status in society. Based on a traditional form of self-help known as tontine,
the approach consists of a group of women agreeing to form a credit and savings group
and to loan their collective savings to one member of their group for a specified time to
enable her to finance an income generating activity. While the MMD concept works well
in sedentary situations and although it has been successfully exported to other countries
(e.g. Mali, Rwanda, Tanzania and Ghana), it had never been applied in pastoral areas.
Between 2003 and 2005, with funding from Danida, CARE-DK tested the concept among
62 pastoral credit and savings groups in the regions of Diffa and Zinder (CARE, 2002).
The results were subsequently documented (Banzhaf, 2005) revealing that while the classic MMD model was inappropriate in pastoral areas, demand for credit and savings was
very high, and the pastoral communities in which the model was tested displayed a high
capacity of adapt the basic concept to accommodate their mobile lifestyles and the relatively low levels of monetisation of their economies. The impact of the pastoral credit and
savings groups was significant. Although most women did not use loans to generate income, as is the case in the farming areas, the credit they received allowed the family to
meet their immediate needs (food, medicine, etc.) without having to sell their animals at
times when the terms of trade for livestock were unfavourable. The MMD system thus
enabled them to ride out the seasonal and inter-annual fluctuations in market prices for
livestock and grain, thereby contributing to their capacity to maintain their herds. Loans
were thus reimbursed when livestock prices improved. MMD in pastoral areas has the
potential to play a significant role in protecting pastoral livelihood assets, particularly
their livestock, thereby reinforcing their capacity to respond not only to seasonal stress but
also periodic droughts.
4.5 A changing policy and legislative environment
Over the past 10-15 years, governments in the Sahel have become increasingly aware of
the critical role of decentralisation and community-based natural resource management,
land tenure reform and livestock mobility in managing dryland ecosystems, maximising
livestock productivity in environments characterised by dispersed and unpredictable rainfall, and accessing distant markets, often in neighbouring countries. These reforms are
71
introducing a radical new agenda involving civil society and the private sector in areas
traditionally controlled by government.
Although these reforms offer genuine opportunities, there are in practice many challenges
to be overcome. Despite the rhetoric of participation, the top-down nature of the reforms
severely limit their appropriation and use by ordinary citizens to effect governance
changes at the local or national levels. Most rural people, particularly in pastoral areas,
have little awareness of the policy and legislative framework governing access to the resources on which they depend for their livelihoods or the obligations government authorities have with respect to the good governance of these resources. There continues to be a
gap between policy and legislative stipulations on the one hand and practice on the other.
Governments while emphasising their commitment to democracy, decentralisation and
poverty reduction are showing little willingness to entrust control over key resources to
local government authorities and citizens.
4.5.1 New pastoral legislation
Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Mauritania have recently passed pastoral legislation defining pastoralists’ rights to move their animals within and across countries 47, while Niger
is in the process of devising specific legislation to regulate the pastoral sector. The African Union is developing a continent-wide pastoral policy framework, which is likely to
support a more positive attitude towards pastoral mobility as an integral component of an
efficient livelihood system.
These laws do represent a major step forward. The formal recognition of pastoralism is in
itself significant, and in many respects these laws do provide an improved institutional
framework for the better management of rangeland resources in the Sahel. Whereas governments have in the past been hostile to herd mobility, the new wave of pastoral legislation recognises it as a key feature of pastoral systems in the Sahel 48. The pastoral laws
include other positive features. There are provisions for giving herders’ rights over the
common use of rangelands, priority – albeit not exclusive – rights over resources in their
home areas as well as rights to compensation in the event of losing their lands to public
interest needs 49. These provisions are an enormous improvement on past legislation,
which not only failed to recognise pastoral land use but also gave priority land-use rights
to agricultural production, to the detriment of pastoralism. Greater recognition of customary tenure arrangements, including the principle of decentralised natural resource management, the multiple and sequential use of resources by different actors at different times
of the year (e.g. herders’ access to harvested fields) and the need to manage conflict at the
local level, are other innovative features of significance (Hesse & Thébaud, 2006).
Although these laws and policies do mark a major step forward, the limited understanding
among policy-makers about the dynamics of pastoral systems and lack of an organised
pastoral constituency in their governments still pose serious conceptual and practical
problems (ibid.). First, the pastoral laws are not implemented – either because there are no
regulations ensuring their application, or because of insufficient government funding.
Guinea, Mali and Mauritania have formulated and passed regulations, but have not yet
72
allocated sufficient funds in central or local government budgets for their implementation.
Most pastoral communities are also unaware of the existence or provisions within these
laws. Second, while some pastoral legislation has been linked to decentralisation – in
Mali, for example, local government bodies have been the given the authority to manage
livestock corridors – governments in other countries are unwilling to relinquish central
control over land and other natural resources. Third, despite the many innovative features
in these laws (recognition of customary tenure practices or priority rights for herders over
resources in their home areas), many of their provisions take an unduly technocratic and
centralised approach to the key issue of pastoralists’ access to or control over land and
other resources (e.g. the regulations governing the zones pastorales aménages (managed
pastoral zones) in Burkina Faso, the limited understanding of what constitutes mise en
valeur pastorale (pastoral development) in Mali and Niger) . If implemented, these provisions will further curtail livestock mobility, thereby threatening the future of pastoral and
agro-pastoral livelihoods and fuelling land-related conflicts.
4.5.2 Regional transhumance agreements
Cross-border transhumance relies on regional integration processes based on the free
movement of people and goods. In addition to the transhumance agreements established
between two or more countries, the Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS) introduced an International Transhumance Certificate in 1998 to facilitate
livestock movement in West Africa. But despite these provisions there are many difficulties with the free flow of livestock between countries: most pastoralists are either unaware
of the law and its requirements (such as the need to have a certificate confirming that their
animals have been vaccinated), and even if they do comply with the law they still face
intimidation from customs officials and the border police (see Box 4.3).
4.5.3 Decentralisation, PRSPs and agricultural sector reforms
Decentralisation promises greater efficiency in the delivery of appropriate services tailored to local needs, coupled with the furtherance of local democracy and democratisation,
better management of natural resources and the more active involvement of local people
in the management of their affairs. Together, these benefits are expected to contribute
significantly to poverty reduction through better representation of the poor and improved
targeting of service delivery.
In practice, however, decentralisation raises a number of challenges, particularly for pastoral communities in the Sahel. Elected local government bodies often have a poor understanding of the rationale behind pastoral systems, and therefore have little interest in supporting a land use system that, to their understanding, brings few economic returns. The
relatively low level of representation of pastoral communities on local councils exacerbates this situation. This is particularly true for women who are universally underrepresented in local government bodies. Even in areas where pastoral people are a majority,
issues of class and political affinity can further marginalize pastoral communities as local
government councils are often dominated by local elites such as customary leaders, retired
politicians, businessmen or former civil servants. Funding pastoral development through
local taxation raises many difficulties in the context of pastoral mobility.
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Poverty Reduction Strategies are the defining framework used by all Sahelian countries
for development and poverty alleviation, and although they are by and large driven externally by donors, they have opened up the policy making process to participation by citizens even though the quality of that participation is still an issue. For example, none of
the PRSPs in the Sahel recognise or tailor their strategies to the specificities of pastoralism. This raises not only serious questions about the degree of citizen ownership and participation in the design of the strategies, but also concerns about their effectiveness for
pastoral and rangeland development in a broader institutional context that considers the
modernisation of the agricultural sector and private, often foreign, investment, particularly
in land, as the pathway out of poverty (e.g. Loi d’Orientation Agricole (LOA) in Mali and
the Loi Agro-Sylvo-Pastoral in Senegal). Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal are reviewing
their land laws with a view to making the land sector attractive to foreign investors.
These interventions show an apparent disconnect between the promise of citizen empowerment and participatory democracy in decentralisation and the possible alienation of citizens from their natural resource base that comes with the promotion of privatisation, formalisation and foreign direct investment in the natural resources sector. While decentralisation articulates the spirit of devolution of authority and decision making over resources
to local governments, the ‘modernisation’ approach tends to institutionalise the reverse.
The pace of these policy reforms is too fast for most citizens, let alone poorly educated
and distant pastoral groups who risk losing crucial dry season resources such as wetlands
to other uses, especially agri-business. It also raises questions about the sustainable management of the environment in a context where privatisation may limit or hamper regular
seasonal livestock movements between wet and dry season pastures.
4.6 Key issues and priority intervention areas
Pastoralism needs to be addressed in the broader context of ensuring the sustainable management of the environment, securing pastoral and agro-pastoral livelihoods in the Sahel,
facilitating national and regional trade, and building resilience to the likely impacts of
climate change. Future interventions need to recognise and build on the existing decentralisation processes under way across the Sahel, where authority for the management of
land, natural resources and social services is being devolved from central government to
locally elected government bodies.
4.6.1 Political will and concerted effort
Securing pastoralism as a livelihood system will require a strong political constituency,
concerted support and coordination between governments in West Africa. This is a major
challenge. Despite the existence of a broadly enabling policy environment in some countries, and a regional commitment to support livestock mobility, the overriding perception
of pastoralism among Sahelian decision-makers at all levels is negative. It is seen as an
inefficient use of land that does not contribute to national growth, poverty reduction or
sustainable environmental management. These perceptions have a direct impact on policy,
leading many policy-makers to conclude that there is no place for mobile livestock-rearing
in modern Africa because it does not provide economic benefits on a scale commensurate
with its land use requirements. Indeed, recent reforms in the agricultural sector in Mali
74
and Senegal, and Niger’s livestock policy, for example, favour a reformed livestock sector
based on Western models of animal husbandry (ranching, stall feeding, improved breeding, etc.) as key plank of their modernisation strategy. The growth in numbers of national
Members of Parliament representing pastoral areas is encouraging, representing one area
where campaigners can make some progress in changing attitudes and policies towards
pastoralism.
Changing policy-makers’ perceptions of pastoralism is a long and complex process, which
will involve improving their understanding of its dynamics and economic rationale – particularly the comparative advantages of mobile livestock-rearing over alternative methods
of animal husbandry like ranching or land use activities such as irrigated farming. The
economic benefits of pastoralism have never been adequately captured or articulated. Existing national statistics are inadequate, inaccurate and fail to capture the nature and range
of contributions that pastoralism makes to West African economies. There is an urgent
need to develop a dynamic economic model that can track and assess pastoralism’s full
and varied contribution to society and national economies, as a prerequisite to any programme seeking to promote livestock mobility.
Specific interventions that contribute to changing national and local government attitudes
and perceptions of pastoralism and building a political constituency in support of pastoralism, and which build on Danida’s past and current work, include:
•
Institutionalising the existing Pastoralism in the Sahel training programme within
national and regional training centres and universities (e.g. Ecole d’Elevage and
Ecole Nationale d'Economie Appliquee (ENEA) in Senegal) to reach current and
future policy makers and practitioners.
•
Research to design an appropriate economic valuation framework that permits an
accurate assessment of pastoralism to national economies that is affordable to government, and which assesses the relative costs and benefits of communal versus
private tenure arrangements in the Sahel’s drylands.
•
Broader training and policy advocacy on the rationale of pastoralism as a viable
land use system, particularly in the context of climate change.
•
Collaborative advocacy to influence key policy processes, such as the planned African Union policy on pastoralism.
4.6.2. Strengthening civil society
Although information is a central element of policy-making processes, it is not enough to
induce policy-makers to change their policies. Policy design is essentially a state-driven
political process aimed at reconciling the divergent needs of multiple stakeholders. As
with all processes involving conflicting and diverging interests, it is those that are backed
by political and/or economic power that prevail.
Although pastoral civil society groups are beginning to occupy a prominent place in the
Sahelian development scene and are commanding an increasing proportion of development aid, they remain weak. They lack the skills to articulate and defend their members’
75
interests, have difficulty in establishing a common front with each other or forging strong
institutional links with other groups, and have limited financial resources and management
skills. Almost exclusively established by an educated elite, many organisations lack a
strong rural constituency and have weak links with customary pastoral authorities.
But despite these problems, a pastoral civil society movement is gradually emerging –
particularly in Burkina Faso, Niger and Senegal. Some of these groups are the product of
an endogenous process of self-determination; as such, they represent the beginnings of a
civil society movement and a way for local people to participate in the decision-making
processes that affect their lives, particularly in the context of decentralisation.
Strengthening these and other civil society organisations is essential if they are to engage
with government and play a meaningful role in the design and implementation of policies
that support livestock mobility. Pastoral communities need to better understand their
rights and responsibilities, and how to assert these rights within existing policy and legislation. They also need to understand the issues at stake and learn how to engage in all the
policy debates and decision-making processes that have a bearing on their lives. At the
moment, these are still dominated by government officials and economic elites, due to
substantial gaps in education, information, income and wealth. Addressing this imbalance
and finding ways of giving a real voice to people whose views may not be wellformulated and who are usually not listened to is thus critical. Although it will take time
and require long-term commitment and creativity, such a process-driven approach is essential to the successful design and implementation of policies to secure pastoralism.
Key activities to build the capacity of pastoral civil society organisations to play a meaningful role in the design and implementation of policies that pastoral livelihoods and sustainable environmental management include:
•
Adapting the training on pastoralism in the Sahel into additional local languages,
including those widely spoken by agricultural communities in order to create a
critical mass of well-informed rural people.
•
Broader institutional capacity building processes that help civil society groups reflect on and improve their accountability to and representation of pastoral communities.
4.6.3 Developing appropriate institutions and tools for subsidiarity and flexibility
Sustaining pastoralism and sound environmental management in the Sahel will entail securing key pastoral resources and developing and maintaining a network of livestock
routes linking limited local movements accessing seasonal water or pastures with higherorder movements at the national or regional level. Such routes will link seasonal grazing
areas and markets. The entire complex of routes, grazing areas, water and other point resources, and markets, needs to be bound together with the appropriate legislation and governance structures.
76
It will only be possible to maintain livestock routes with adequate water points and livestock-holding grounds at local, national and international level if the roles and responsibilities involved are clearly established and apportioned. Governance institutions and rules
need to be established through negotiation and reciprocity as the critical principles which
enable pastoralists to respond flexibly and opportunistically to highly variable and unpredictable dryland environments.
At the local level, this involves strengthening the customary institutions and legal practices that govern access to common property resources, and clarifying their relationship to
the formal institutions and legal processes of the state. These customary institutions and
legal processes play a central role in managing the competing priorities and needs of different user groups and therefore in sustaining peace. However, customary institutions
have long been and are still under pressure for a variety of reasons, including the preeminence of the formal institutions and laws of the state. However, formal institutions do
not work well on their own either. Thus, the pastoral areas operate under two competing
sets of institutions and laws – formal and customary – neither of which work well. The
challenge is to integrate them into a more efficient legal and administrative background
that can provide a satisfactory environment for the development of a dynamic mobile pastoral livelihood system.
Processes of negotiating rules and regulations must be guided by the principle of subsidiarity to ensure that the most appropriate bodies are responsible. Decentralisation offers
real opportunities to institutionalise these features in local and national development planning. However, local government authorities need support to implement the provisions of
decentralisation, and affordable tools to enable them to apply participatory planning processes and accommodate the needs of mobile pastoral communities.
Building on the achievements of PAGRNAT, PAGCRSP I and II and ASEF II, specific
interventions that contribute to developing appropriate institutions and frameworks include:
•
Building the capacity of local, national and regional actors to negotiate and institutionalise peaceful and sustainable ways of managing common property resources
and facilitating livestock transhumance and access to strategic resources, particularly in drought years, while also protecting livelihood assets.
•
Supporting decentralised authorities (e.g. rural councils and local land boards) to
further test and develop innovative models and approaches for securing strategic
pastoral resources and enhancing livestock mobility that are appropriate for different contexts.
•
Supporting legal reform that clarifies and harmonises the relationship between
formal and customary laws and institutions.
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4.6.4 Protecting livelihoods, promoting resilience and improving market integration
Pastoralism supports between 7% and 19% of the national population in the Sahel (see
Table 4.2) while making a significant contribution to national and regional economies (see
Table 4.4). The costs of providing alternative livelihoods and the economic and environmental benefits foregone in failing to support pastoralism are potentially huge. Currently,
Sahelian government investment in pastoral areas is very low. Most pastoral areas have
below average coverage in basic services; in additional, health, education and marketing
provisions are inappropriate to mobile pastoral lifestyles. It will be especially difficult for
governments to achieve the Millennium Development Goals for pastoralists because of
their low density and mobile way of life. Given that they are a sufficiently large proportion of the national population in many countries, this failure will jeopardise wider
achievement of the goals. If countries are to reach them, something must be done to ensure that they are met in pastoral livelihood systems.
In addition to providing adapted services, serious consideration must also be given to enhancing and protecting pastoralists’ livelihood assets, particularly livestock and reinforcing both household diversification and drought coping strategies. A differentiated approach is required depending on the degree to which individual households are able to
continue to lead a pastoral life. Some families are heavily dependent on livestock for their
livelihoods, others less so. In some cases, there are households who practice a predominantly livestock based livelihood; others who are diversifying while retaining some livestock; while some require exit options which do not end in destitution (e.g. urban based
trade and migration). Although climate change models for the Sahel are inclusive, it is
broadly felt that rainfall is likely to become increasingly irregular. It is thus critical to reinforce local coping strategies (e.g. mobility and investments in indigenous breeds) while
protecting significant livestock losses from death or unfavourable market terms of trade.
Accelerating urbanisation, particularly in coastal West Africa, is creating a rising demand
for livestock products such as milk and meat. Enabling Sahelian pastoralism to meet this
demand through more effective and efficient marketing processes will greatly contribute
to securing livelihoods and promoting greater regional trade and development.
Key activities in support of pastoral livelihoods and regional integration and which build
on Danida’s past experience include:
•
Direct support to pastoral livelihoods at the household and wider community level
including inputs into the pastoral system as well as support to broader livelihood
diversification when appropriate.
•
Investments in infrastructure (e.g. roads and communications) to ensure a reliable
demand, to provide timely market information and to reduce transport costs will
maximise prices for the producer.
•
Design of appropriate decentralised service provision that accommodates mobility
(e.g. community-based animal health care and mobile schools).
78
•
Building on the experience of MMD in pastoral areas, the extension of credit and
saving schemes to enable communities to flatten out the seasonal highs and lows
in the terms of trade between livestock and other goods, particularly cereals.
•
The design of appropriate emergency aid assistance in the envent of drought that
actively protect livelihood assests and thus the ability of populations to maintain
their way of life after a drought or other natural shock (e.g. destocking for cash,
delivery of fodder or veterinary care).
4.6.5 Capitalising and building on experience
Networking and learning are essential to capitalise on existing experience. Despite the
plethora of organisations working to secure livestock mobility, there is relatively little
exchange of experience, particularly between countries in the Sahel or between East and
West Africa. Danida and other actors have amassed a considerable body of experience in
support of pastoralism and sustainable environmental management. The lessons and implications of these need drawing together to provide a broad foundation of credible experience which a network of activists and practitioners can then draw upon to influence
policy and its implementation. Learning networks also need to cross institutional boundaries, bringing together policy-makers, civil society organisations, and local associations in
ways that build a stronger consensus about the importance of livestock mobility and the
most appropriate strategies to enhance it.
Activities that leverage change at a wider level, for example by:
•
Documenting good practice and further learning.
•
Building greater awareness of and engagement with the issue of pastoralism across
a wide range of groups.
•
Supporting the advocacy plans of civil society networks on these issues.
4.7 Conclusions and policy implications
Pastoralism is critical for livelihoods, for trade, and for making use of areas which otherwise have few other uses, particularly in a context of increasingly climatic variability. It
needs to be secured locally, nationally and cross-border, and between pastoral and nonpastoral areas. Despite its importance, pastoralism faces serious obstacles largely because
of an inappropriate policy environment.
Government policies have failed to protect key pastoral resources such as wetlands and
livestock corridors from agricultural encroachment or invest in appropriate marketing and
social services such as education and health. Shrinking pasturelands, blocked livestock
routes and limited or difficult access to water or dry season fodder are undermining pastoral livelihood systems, contributing to environmental degradation, exacerbating poverty
and fuelling conflict. As pastoral systems fail to provide an adequate living, alternative
livelihood options – particularly for young men – range from migration to farming areas
or towns in search of work, to banditry and other illegal activities. Increasingly, conflict is
taking on an ethnic dimension (e.g. setting Fulani herders against Hausa farmers), result79
ing in violent and bloody clashes that leave hundreds of people dead or seriously
wounded. In the northern Sahel, livestock mobility and the legitimate movement of people
and goods across international borders are being curtailed by US counterinsurgency activity in the ‘war on terror’. While further undermining pastoral livelihoods, such tactics will
increasingly destabilise the area. Future support to pastoralism must recognise these
broader environmental, social, economic and political contexts in which it operates.
The key areas of policy intervention for Danida include:
1. Reinforcing the economic viability of pastoralism, particularly its capacity to respond to national and regional markets and provide viable livelihoods in very marginal areas in a context of increasing climatic variability. This will involve supporting pastoral livelihoods through improved investment in markets, credit facilities, veterinary inputs, social and economic safety nets and protection of livelihood
assets, while ensuring tenure security over critical resources such as dry season
grazing, water and livestock corridors. The professionalisation of producer and
marketing associations and improved information are necessary to further the
commercialisation of pastoral produce. Further research to develop a dynamic
economic model to identify and assess pastoralism’s full and varied contribution to
national and regional economies is essential; not least in raising awareness of policy makers of the economic importance of pastoralism as a viable land use and
livelihood system.
2. Strengthening institutional arrangements at different levels that protect pastoral resources, build resilience, and promote peace within the context of decentralisation.
Given the highly variable nature of resources in pastoral environments and the
critical importance of livestock mobility, governance institutions and decisionmaking processes need to recognise and implement principles of subsidiarity, and
negotiated and reciprocal access to resources. At the local level this involves
strengthening customary institutions and legal practices that govern access to
common property resources, and clarifying their relationship to the formal institutions and legal processes of the State at both local and national government level.
It also involves building local capacity for conflict management as well as land use
planning within the context of decentralisation while ensuring that the broader institutional framework, including recently passed pastoral codes, are consistent in
their approach to securing and managing pastoral land and resources and devolving authority for NRM at the lower level. While decentralisation policies offer
opportunities for greater involvement of pastoral communities in the management
of their affairs, greater attention is needed to build the capacity of local government authorities to tailor land use planning, service delivery and governance to
pastoral contexts. Training to raise awareness of the dynamics of pastoral systems
is thus critical to building the capacity of policy makers and practitioners to understand the rationale underpinning pastoralism and thus the need for flexible and opportunistic institutional arrangements.
80
3. Strengthen emerging pastoral civil society to hold local and national governments
to account is critical to ensure the wider success of the PRSP and decentralisation
reforms in the Sahel. A pastoral civil society movement is emerging, but is still institutionally weak. Building the capacity of local pastoral communities to hold
their leaders to account and drive a development agenda consistent with their
needs is critical to ensuring a strong and vibrant civil society movement in the future. This will involve meeting local people’s immediate needs while investing in
broader capacity building activities to raise their awareness and understanding of
their rights and responsibilities and how to assert them within existing policy and
legislation.
Underpinning these policy directions is the need first to overcome the ingrained prejudice
and misunderstanding that continues to surround pastoralism as a land use system in the
Sahel and the drylands of Africa more widely. Until policy makers better understand the
rationale and importance of pastoralism to local, national and regional economies, and its
contribution to sustainable environmental management and peaceful social relations between communities, policies for pastoral development will continue to fail, and poverty
and conflict will continue to still characterise many pastoral areas of the Sahel.
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Chapter 5. Markets and natural resource management
5.1 Introduction
Achieving sustainable natural resource management and poverty alleviation in the Sahel
will depend strongly on the development of agricultural factor and product markets (‘agricultural’ here meaning crop, livestock, tree and wild harvested products). More efficient
and inclusive agricultural markets can provide the price incentives, resources and information required for investing in natural resources thus promoting their sustainable management. Specific marketing arrangements, e.g. organic certification or nature-based tourism,
can reduce the trade-offs between economic goals and biodiversity conservation. Public
investments that reduce agricultural marketing costs and risks are thus likely to raise the
profitability of natural resource use while promoting their sustainable management. They
also tend to have a higher impact on poverty reduction than productivity-focused investments. However, in the absence of effective natural resource governance systems, market
development may induce degradation. Hence policy must integrate the two areas.
Rural livelihoods in the Sahel are multi-sectoral, implying that people depend on a broad
range of market types: agricultural product markets (mainly domestic and regional); markets for environmental goods and services (fuel wood, timber, non-timber forest products,
water, carbon and biodiversity); markets for agricultural inputs and services; land markets;
labour markets and credit markets. This chapter focuses on agricultural product markets.
5.2 Inclusive and equitable market institutions
Markets are conventionally assessed mainly with respect to their economic efficiency. Yet
research on livestock and grain markets in the Sahel shows that market practices and marketing networks frequently discriminate against disadvantaged groups and areas, thereby
reducing the potential of markets to promote sustainable natural resource management. In
Burkina Faso, for example, women and the poor received lower prices for their livestock
than other social groups. This combined with the extreme poverty and gender inequities in
the Sahel mean a need to develop market institutions that are also inclusive and equitable.
By this we mean specific arrangements that facilitate market exchange for poor and disadvantaged people on reasonable terms and without increasing their risk of losing key
livelihood assets such as land and livestock. In other words, gender equity, poverty alleviation as well as sustainable NRM require not only market development but also market
‘domestication’.
In this light, policies and interventions in support of equitable market development in the
rural Sahel would need to take account of issues such as:
• The bargaining position of poor, female, or remotely located producers viz. traders and
service providers.
• How land markets function in areas of high population density.
• How grain markets function in sparsely populated areas with poor infrastructure.
82
• How access to credit or inputs may be locked-in with pre-season crop sales below market prices (e.g. for cotton).
• How cash constraints combined with poorly functioning food staple markets may cause
large losses to poor producers who sell food at low prices at harvest time and buy it at
high prices later in the year, or who sell livestock in the pre-harvest seasons when
prices are lowest.
• The ways and terms on which women engage in markets for food grains, non-timber
forest products, fruits and vegetables.
• A major marketing issue for poor livestock keepers are the significant seasonal and
inter-annual swings in the terms of trade between livestock and other products, particularly grain; during drought years families are significantly destocked as a result of this,
making it very hard for them to reconstitute their herds when better years return. The
major beneficiaries are traders, civil servants, urban elites etc. who accumulate large
herds that are often more sedentary and as a result can cause overgrazing.
5.3 Growing demand for food staples and wood products
The agricultural sector in the Sahel supplies food grains, pulses, fruits, vegetables, meat,
milk, fuel wood, timber etc. to the region’s rural and urban populations, and livestock are
exported ‘on the hoof’ to the cities of coastal West Africa. The markets for these products
have grown significantly in size over the last 30 years and this trend is expected to continue in the next several decades. Population increase, urbanisation, and income growth
are the major drivers of market expansion for food staples and wood products in the Sahel
and West Africa. The demand is especially strong for higher value foods such as fruits,
vegetables and livestock products. Below we consider each factor in turn.
Population growth
The biggest driver of agricultural market demand in West Africa is population growth,
especially growth in urban populations. The demographic transition 50 of West Africa covers approximately the period from 1930-2030 when the total population will have risen
tenfold from 45 to 450 million and the urban population from 2 to 280 million (Cour,
2001)51. In 2006 there were 269.8 million people in Western Africa and 41.9 million in
the Sahel (defined here as Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger) (UNFPA, 2005) (see Table 5.1).
Urbanisation
The share of the population living in urban areas is high in Western Africa (42%) and
somewhat lower in the Sahel (22%). Even if its urban population is only 9.1 million, the
interior Sahel is flanked by four large and highly urbanised countries – Nigeria, Ghana,
Cote d’Ivoire, and Senegal – with a total urban population of 88.7 million. Urban populations moreover grow relatively fast, at 3.7% and 4.7% per year in western Africa and the
Sahel respectively. By 2020, 63% of Western Africa’s population will thus be urban (defined here as agglomerations with more than 5,000 people) and there will be 6,000 cities
with more than 50,000 inhabitants and 300 cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants
(Cour, 2001).
Income growth
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The third structural factor driving the demand for food is per capita income growth. This
factor increases per capita consumption of food in general, up to a certain income level.
But the most significant effect is the increase in the proportion of high-value foods in the
diet, i.e. meat, dairy, sugar, fruits, vegetables and processed foods, compared to foods rich
in calories (grains, roots and tubers). Beans and pulses fall in between the two. Income
growth may also cause a shift in consumption towards imported grains, especially rice and
wheat, at the expense of locally produced staples. In both cases, the result is that highvalue foods experience a faster demand growth than staples.
Geographical distribution of population
Human settlement varies a lot within West Africa and is concentrated in the higher potential areas on or near the coast. In 2020, 40% of the population will be found in so-called
coastal growth poles and 32% in the coastal hinterland (see Figure 5.1). Still, 23% of West
Africa’s people will live in southern and central Sahel (the ’Sahelian growth poles’) and
5% in northern Sahel (Cour, 2001).
Table 5.1: Population in the Sahel and West Africa.
Population
per
km
arable and
perm. crop
land
Total
population
(millions)
(2006)
Projected
population
(millions)
(2050)
Ave. pop.
growth rate
(%) (20052010)
% urban
(2005)
Urban
growth rate
(20052010)
Total urban
(millions)
(approx.)
(2006)
41.9
13.6
131.3
39.1
3.0
2.9
22
18
4.7
5.1
9.1
2.4
230
Mali
13.9
42.0
2.9
30
4.7
4.2
210
Niger
14.4
50.2
3.3
17
4.4
2.4
80
Nigeria
269.8
134.4
587.0
258.1
2.3
2.1
42
48
3.7
3.7
113.3
64.5
120
Cote d'Ivoire
18.5
34.0
1.7
45
2.7
8.3
210
Ghana
22.6
40.6
1.9
48
3.4
10.8
180
Senegal
11.9
23.1
2.3
42
2.9
5.0
320
294.5
678.7
2.3
22
3.7
64.8
Interior Sahel
Burkina Faso
Western Africa 1
Eastern Africa
Notes: 1 Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger. 2 Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, GuineaBissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo. Source: UNFPA (2005).
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Figure 5.1: Four major demographic zones of West Africa.
Source: Reprinted from Cour (2001). Note. Zones: 1 = Coastal growth poles; 2 = Coastal hinterland; 3 =
Sahelian growth poles; 4 = Sahelian fringes.
5.4 Local and regional market opportunities
The large-scale transitions in the size, distribution, occupation (urban vs. rural) and income level of the West African population just outlined will have a major impact on the
level and structure of demand for agricultural products in the region. This presents new
and possibly improved market opportunities for Sahelian producers; there are opportunities related to urban market growth within the Sahel (in the ‘Sahelian growth poles’) and
those presented by the much bigger and more distant markets in the costal growth poles
and to a lesser extent the coastal hinterland.
5.4.1 Local urban markets
Some areas in the Sahel are or will soon have high concentrations of urbanised or semiurbanised populations, implying a significant increase in the demand for food staples and
other NRM-based products. Demand is especially strong for high-value products such as
fresh fruit and vegetables, meat and dairy, sesame, peas and beans. Wood products such as
charcoal and timber and livestock feed (many townspeople in the Sahel keep livestock)
are also in demand. In Dakar, Senegal, a weekly market for locally produced organic food
has even been developed. In the most urbanised parts tomatoes, potatoes, mangoes, peppers and onions are produced in large quantities, and farmers are managing trees for
commercial firewood production. Local farmers and herders are likely to be competitive
in these markets due to the high perishability of products (in the case of meat, dairy, most
fruits and vegetables), high transport costs compared to per unit value (in the case of wood
products and feed), and consumer preferences for local foods. However, trade in perishable products suffer from problems related to seasonality, storage, distribution, low quality and food safety. These cause high risks in production and trade and depress farmgate
prices. Access to irrigation and appropriate inputs are key constraints in horticulture. Improving processing for products such as milk and tomatoes will help reduce price risks
arising from variations in local supply and reduce storage losses.
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According to OECD (1998), the areas where the access to local urban food markets appear to be greatest are: southern Niger and northern Nigeria (around Kano); western
Senegal (around Dakar); the Central Plateau in Burkina Faso; the area around Bamako in
Mali and western Niger (Niamey).
5.4.2 Coastal markets
The continued growth in the already large urban populations of the coastal growth poles
will result in a large increase in the demand for food that is tradable over longer distances,
presenting new market opportunities for Sahelian farmers and herders. Regional markets
moreover have more stable prices than markets for locally traded products. There is already a large livestock export from the Sahel to coastal West Africa where Sahelian producers enjoy cost and quality advantages due to a more favourable climate and more
abundant grasslands. And the demand for livestock products is expected to increase more
than twofold by 2005, as discussed earlier. The CFA devaluation meant a sharp increase
in livestock prices – and so in export incentives. For example, between 1990-93 and 199697 cattle exports from Burkina Faso increased by 58% (Araujo et al., 2005). Trade in fattened small stock has also experienced high growth.
Cross-border trade is also important for grains (from northern Nigeria to southern Niger),
for beans and pulses (cowpea from Niger to Nigeria) and for fruits (mango from Burkina
Faso to Ivory Coast and from Mali to Mauritania). Borders are perceived by economic
operators in the Sahel as a major constraint to regional trade, particularly with the coast.
5.5 International niche markets for sustainable products
There is high and growing international demand for certain tropical products certified to
social or sustainability standards, and standards are being developed for an increasing
number of products. The high demand for certified organic products from Africa, for example, was clear at the latest European organic trade fair Biofach 2008. Certification of
small producers to organic and fair trade standards is increasing in the Sahel but is still
relatively rare compared to e.g. East Africa. Certified organic exports from the region include cotton, fresh mango, dried fruits, and shea butter. Fair trade certification is done for
dried mango, cotton (also including a French textile company), shea butter, sesame and
green beans. Recent research in East Africa show that group certification to these standards is a feasible strategy for small farmers and can raise income, reduce market risks,
raise yields and promote sustainable NRM directly through training and standards compliance and indirectly through improved economic incentives (Bolwig et al., 2009). Group
certification may be achieved either through forming a cooperative and/or through an exporter in a contract farming-type arrangement. The establishment of such schemes often
depends on external technical and financial support.
5.6 Conclusions and policy implications
Experience shows that regions that are poorly integrated in marketing networks because of
high transactions costs are most affected by famines and poverty, which in turn reduce the
ability to manage natural resources effectively and sustainably. Market policies in poor
86
areas such as the Sahel should not only focus on improving efficiency, however, but also
be sensitive to the existence of discriminatory practices and mechanisms and seek to empower disadvantaged groups vis-à-vis other market actors.
What constitutes the best support to equitable market development will depend on the
type of market, product attributes, local conditions and the target group(s) of the intervention. Generally, policies that simultaneously reduce the cost of transportation and transactions are likely to have the biggest welfare effects and to benefit both producers and consumers 52. Specific areas of support to market development include: road and transportation infrastructure; collective action in marketing and trade; handling and cooling facilities; market knowledge; market information systems and improved communication technology (particularly cell phones); and other market institutions that lower transactions
costs and risks for poor producers (e.g. insurance systems, grades and standards, auctions
and control of illegal taxation).
Strong urbanisation and urban income growth are changing the demand for agricultural
products in many parts of the Sahel, presenting new market opportunities for rural producers. Strengthening the linkages between rural producers and urban consumers, especially for high-value products, through the development of market knowledge and marketing infrastructure and networks that are relevant and accessible to the poor is important for
acting on these opportunities. Likewise, high economic and demographic growth in the
coastal countries of West Africa is increasing the demand for regionally traded foods. A
major challenge for research and policy is identifying in which of the coastal markets Sahelian producers have a competitive advantage and how to take advantage of it. Development assistance in support of regional trade for products such as meat and pulses could
include regional market information systems (e.g. Regional Agricultural Trade Intelligence Network - RATIN in East Africa), improved transportation, and more transparent
taxation and border crossing procedures.
The international demand for certified organic and fair trade tropical food is growing fast
and in some cases there are frequent supply shortages, such as of organic tropical juice
concentrates in the EU. Group certification to these standards has in many areas shown to
be a feasible and profitable strategy for small farmers, while simple value addition activities, such as the drying of fruits, have created hundreds of jobs in some cases. Yet in
nearly all cases do such export schemes depend on external technical and financial support to get established. Important but often neglected elements of such support are improving the market knowledge of producers, identifying buyers, and building longer term
and stable commercial relationships in the value chain.
Improving the access to and benefit from international, regional and urban markets for
small producers in the Sahel will require support that goes beyond general improvements
in transportation infrastructure and policy frameworks. As a more targeted approach, the
development of filières (value chains) for specific products or product groups is a promising way of improving the extent and terms of market participation for small producers.
Practical tools have been developed in recent years for intervening in, and creating, value
chains to the benefit of the rural poor. Many new initiatives exist in this field in the Sahel,
87
also involving the private sector, including on cotton, shea nut, mango, sesame and jatropha. It is important to coordinate and draw practical lessons from these experiences, particularly regarding public-private partnerships and producer-buyer relations. Action research would be one way of gaining more concrete experiences with value chain development for small producers in the Sahel, which at the same time would generate knowledge with a wider applicability (Riisgaard et al., 2010).
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Chapter 6. Local governance institutions and natural resource management
6.1 Introduction
In this chapter we discuss local governance institutions in relation to natural resource access and use in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. Local institutions refer here to traditional
and informal rules and regulations or structures at the community level as well as to local
government. The chapter explores the range of existing local governance institutions for
each type of renewable resource that is best managed at this level 53, the prevailing local
institutions for governing natural resources, and trends in governance. Particular attention
is paid to the influence of customary institutions, project interventions and democratic
decentralization. In all three countries, rural local governments have been put in place
following direct elections (Mali 1999, Niger 2004, Burkina Faso 2006). The chapter ends
with a brief discussion of possible ways of supporting local governance institutions for
natural resource management.
6.1.1 Overview of research on natural resource governance
A considerable amount of research has taken place in the Sahel on the questions of access,
management and conflict in relation to natural resources that are used by several groups,
such as sylvo-pastoral areas, grazing lands and fisheries. A literature exists on the question of why decentralized management of these ‘common lands’ combined with collective
action is more efficient than centralized governance. It suggests that management decisions are best taken locally due to the high geographical variations in ecology and resource use, the annual variations in rainfall patterns and the multiple user groups involved.
A growing volume of research are available on the issue of access to land and natural resources, on how rules and regulations are evolving, and the role herein of changing customary law and statutory law (e.g., Laurent & Mathieu, 1995; Lavigne Delville et al.,
2000; Dabiré, 2006; Hochet, 2006; Cotula, 2007). Several studies have been done on local
arenas of power, showing that the control over land and natural resource is important for
maintaining patronage networks and power. This work concerns to a lesser extent how
power arrangements influence entitlements and collective action around natural resource
management (e.g., Lavigne Delville et al., 2000; Ribot, 2002, 2004). Relatedly, the emergence of rural local governments has stimulated research activities on democratic decentralization processes. These studies examine changes in power relations at the local level
and the linkages with the meso and national levels, service delivery, implications for citizenship, and, to a lesser extent, the implications for natural resource management (Sawadogo, 2001; Totte et al., 2003; Benjamin, 2004, 2006; Dasetto et al., 2004; Hilhorst &
Coulibaly, 2004; SNV & CEDELO, 2004; Hochet, 2006; Ouédraogo, 2007; Sène et al.,
2007).
In addition, action-research on community based NRM has been carried out since the late
1980s in all three countries, often piloted by projects or NGOs (e.g. Joldersma et al.,
1996; Vogt & Vogt, 2000; Boucoum et al., 2003). Research is emerging on the potential
89
impact of climate change and the role of local institutions in managing associated risks
(e.g. Dietz et al., 2004; Tschakert, 2007). The increasing appreciation amongst policy
makers of the importance of decentralised NRM and the value of local governance institutions demonstrates that this research contributes to better and innovative policies (e.g.,
CILSS conference in 1994 (Praia) and Praia+9 in 2003) 54.
National networks of researchers seem strongest in Niger (around Institut de Recherche
pour le Développement/Laboratorie d’Etude et de Recherches sur les Dynamiques Sociales et le Développement Local (IRD/LASDEL) www.ird.ne/lasdel), followed by Burkina
Faso (network of the Groupe de Recherche et Action sur le Foncier (GRAF),
www.graf.zcp.bf, and to a lesser extent l'Association Construisons Ensemble – Recherche
sur les Citoyennetés en Transformation (ACE-RECIT), www.ace-recit.org). GRAF is emphasizing networking and the linking of practice, research and policy. Research in Mali
seems more dispersed and is undertaken by researchers working for the Institut de Sciences Humaines (ISH), Institut d’Economie Rurale, Centre National de Recherche Scientifique et Technologique (CNRST), and Point Sud, Université de Bamako. One portal that
brings together work on NRM in Mali is www.penserpouragir.org. Initiatives for linking
research initiatives across the three countries and beyond exist, such as those promoted by
CIRAD (La recherche agronomique pour le développement), IRD/LASDEL, IIED, and
ACE-RECIT. Many researchers are engaged in consultancies and development agencies
produce many detailed reports, but these are seldom synthesized.
6.2 Governance in relation to type of natural resource
6.2.1 Institutions governing farmland
In general the control over access to farmland is in the hands of the lineage that was the
first to start farming in the village, personified in the male head of that lineage. This
headman can grant strangers temporary access to land (secondary rights). Pastoralists tend
to have a host in the community who will help them secure their secondary rights to pasture and crop residues as well as to rights of passage. Wives and unmarried boys and girls
will receive land to cultivate through their husbands, mother in law, or parents (again secondary rights).
The management of farmland, such as soil fertility management, crops to be planted, erosion control etc., is decided generally by the person working the land. Secondary right
holders are faced with some management limitations, such as requirements to protect
valuable trees (e.g. shea nut) from which the produce may be harvested by the ‘owners’ of
the land. They are often also not allowed to plant trees or undertake other investments that
can be interpreted as a strategy to acquire the land more permanently. Equally, soil fertility investments can be risky as it may prompt the ‘owner’ to take back the land in exchange for a new plot of poorer quality. Secondary right holders are more at risk of losing
access to land when land pressure increases. They then have to rely on buying, renting or
sharecropping.
There is an increased interest in formalizing access to land as well as land transactions,
particularly in areas with increasing pressure on the land. Informal land markets are
90
spreading, driven by land investments by the urban-based middle class, the diaspora and
the so-called new actors or investors (agri-business), who often subsequently try to legalize/formalize the land acquired. This is particular important in peri-urban areas which may
extend 50 km from the city centre 55, along mayor roads and in high potential areas. Informal land markets tend to be ‘messy’ with a prominent role for intermediaries, existence
of multiple sales of the same plots as well as family members feeling cheated. Disputes
may have a generational dimension when the elders decide to sell the land without consulting the younger generations, or the other way around with people selling family land
without asking for permission from the ‘custodians’. Policy responses are oriented towards promoting decentralized registration and formalization of transactions, such as the
Plan foncier rural (Cote d’Ivoire, Benin and Burkina Faso (Ouédraogo, 2005)), as well as
the Commissions foncières being proposed in Mali and already in place in Niger. With
respect to farmland, sharecropping and renting is still not very frequent, with the exceptions of irrigation schemes such as the Office du Niger in Mali. Here, farmers lease land
from the agency managing the Office du Niger, while the sublease land to women and
young people during the dry season to grow vegetables 56.
6.2.2 Institutions governing common forest lands
In much of the Sahel forests, pastures and fallows are utilized by multiple user groups and
at different times of the year for herding cattle, cutting wood, gathering, hunting, bee
keeping etc. Yet these different uses of the commons may be subject to competing interests, and this competition is accentuated by cropland expansion. Since colonial times, central government has sought to control the access to and use of forests lands as well as
other commons. Forests were thus declared public lands and some were even classified
(forêts classes, i.e. protected forest) and thus protected. A few national parks exist too. Up
to today, forestry departments are kept separate from the other government agencies involved in rural development. In Mali, for example, there was an unsuccessful attempt in
the late 1990s to merge the forestry ministry with the ministries for agriculture and livestock (Hilhorst & Coulibaly, 1998). In contrast to the staff of the latter, foresters are
trained in special schools, wear uniforms and are armed 57. The relationship between foresters and local communities can be very tense; controversies arise especially around
bushfires and the cutting of trees for wood and timber 58.
The forest policies adopted in Niger (1992) and Mali (1996) were both called Stratégie
énergie domestique (Strategy for Domestic or Household Energy). The forest policy in
Mali is different than the one in Niger due to intensive lobbying by forestry agents and
traders who did not want changes in the distribution of revenues generated by the fuelwood business. The objective of the policy in Mali was to transfer forest management
responsibilities to rural communities through the establishment of rural markets for fuelwood and the demarcation of village forests followed by the development of management
plans. In Niger, 300 village forest product markets were established for fuelwood and gum
Arabica and in Mali 400 markets were created for fuelwood and timber. Part of the taxes
generated from forest resource use now remains in the community, either by deduction
(Niger) or through returns from the government (Mali). The new forest policies in Mali
and Niger have helped village institutions regain legitimacy and to capture a larger share
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of the benefits than they did before. In both countries, local governments seek to, and indeed should, get involved in forest management. But this entails the risk insufficient management responsibilities are delegated from local government to the village, representing a
new form of centralization. Finally, local governments in Mali are faced with considerable
obstacles when they try to get the share of forest use taxes from the forestry ministry that
they are entitled to (Bertrand et al., 2006a, 2006b).
6.2.3 Expected changes in natural resource governance
How the governance of renewable natural resources in the Sahel will evolve depends on
how the juxtaposition of various formal and informal institutions plays out, and on the
extent to which the legitimacy of local governance institutions is acknowledged and integrated into formal policy. The interplay between these systems is influenced by changes in
legislation and by the capacity and willingness to implement laws – land policy, pastoral
legislation, water codes – and regulations on land use planning and zoning and forest
management. Trends that also impact on natural resource governance are those that
change entitlements or increase pressure on available resources, such as rural population
growth, new economic opportunities (e.g. bio fuels, high-value foods for urban markets,
etc.) and the expansion of built up areas. A third factor is the development of new policies
to modernise agriculture and generate rural employment. An important question here is
the extent to which policy should support exclusive access rights to land and other natural
resources by agribusinesses and other investors who attempt to establish such rights
through purchase, land titling, concessions and long term leases. A major risk in this regard is the reduction in local people’s access to and control over common lands.
6.2.4 Policy implications
The productivity of natural resources in the Sahel varies between areas, seasons and years,
mostly in response to fluctuations in rainfall. This requires adaptive management systems.
Moreover, these resources are used by multiple groups who may have competing interests.
The pressure on natural resources is growing fast. Both the management of these natural
resources, and the formal and informal institutions and rules governing access and use, are
increasingly contested. Informal land markets are expanding, often at the expense of
common lands.
Customary or informal local governance institutions continue to play an important role in
natural resources management. Maintaining and strengthening local capacity for dialogue
and negotiation in this field is essential for the sustainability of resource use, rural livelihoods and local peace. However, over the last several decades central government interference has weakened the sustainability of local management systems, even causing the
emergence of open access systems and related conflicts, particularly where resources are
relatively valuable. In remote areas with a poor resource base, government presence has
been more limited, which has given more space for local decision making. Elsewhere,
conflicts between government and communities over NRM have erupted, mostly over
rights to cut firewood, hunt and utilise wetlands. In addition, interventions such as ranches
or forest classification have blocked access to vital resources thus undermining rural livelihoods.
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New actors are appearing on the scene, e.g. the urban middleclass and domestic and foreign companies. A dilemma for local governance institutions is how to deal with these
new actors. Some are involved in either corrupting local institutions or further undermining them by ignoring local decisions and calling upon the support of central government.
Where the actions of central government are ambiguous and lacking in transparency, the
possibility for local governance institutions of working towards sustainable resource use,
conflict prevention, and local economic development will be undermined.
Given the growing competition for resources there is an urgent need to secure rural people’s rights to resources and protect secondary rights of access in order to sustain livelihoods. The common lands are most at risk. The legal protection of local land rights systems is essential, but this requires efforts to adjust laws and land administration practices
to local realities. This is advocated in a recent policy document of the World Bank and the
European Commission (World Bank, 2003; EU Task Force on Land Tenure, 2004). Experiences with developing pastoral legislation in the region and with the code rural (i.e.
rural code) in Niger demonstrate that this is feasible. The implementation of these promising new laws and practices around common lands needs support.
6.3 Current local governance institutions for NRM
Local governance institutions are involved in defining the control over, access to and use
of natural resources, and in sanctioning trespassers. Key aspects of governance are the
quality of decision-making processes, the exercise of power, and the functioning of accountability mechanisms. The institutional context in the Sahel is complex. Communities
in rural areas display a wide diversity in culture and types of livelihoods pursued. There is
a juxtaposition of various formal and informal authority structures and laws. Local people
even try to use the different options of customary and statutory law to their advantage. A
local governance institution is not synonymous with local government (see section 6.4).
6.3.1 Customary authorities
Each farming and pastoral village or grouping (groupement) in Burkina Faso, Mali and
Niger has its own organisational construct, which reflects diversity in history, culture,
livelihoods etc. Rural communities are headed by authorities chosen through customary
decision making processes and the leaders are expected to act as custodians of the land.
Some examples are the chiefs (chef de village (village head), chef de terre (head of the
land), chef de forêts (head of forests), chef des eaux (head of water resources)) generally
chosen amongst the oldest men of the lineage which founded the village or which is responsible for a particular resource. Their influence is limited to their village or territory. In
some regions – the Mossi plateau in Burkina Faso, the inner Niger delta in Mali, and
southern Niger – there are paramount chiefs who have wider realms of influence.
The legitimacy and authority of these leaders are based on a mixture of customary and
religious laws and social agreements. Some chiefs who are now called ‘customary’ actually obtained their powers during colonial times, such as the chefs de canton (head of Cantons) in Niger. As these institutions reflect existing social agreements, they also replicate
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prevailing forms of discrimination, exclusion and prejudice, such as those that affect the
rights of women, migrants, pastoralists and certain castes (Whitehead & Dzodzi, 2003).
Social configurations and agreements underlying the ‘customary’ institutions for NRM
evolve continuously in response to internal and external transformations. Trends within
communities that affect these institutions and their effectiveness are: the changing relations between generations; the fragmentation of large families into smaller units; the undermining of the notion of custodianship under the influence of emerging land markets;
the growing influence of political parties; disputes on social relations which are sometimes also linked to local government elections and the choice of a mayor; and the influence of migrants in town or abroad. Moreover, the spread of communication tools, such as
mobile phones and Internet, facilitate access to information and may strengthen accountability.
Customary authorities are still recognised by the majority of the population. Also outsiders pay them respect and seek their support when visiting communities. Customary authorities often intervene to prevent or resolve conflicts, including those related to natural
resources. Their capacity to mediate is widely recognised, also by government institutions.
Access to grazing lands is overseen by chiefs, such as the djowro in the inner delta of
Mali, and the control over these resources is becoming vertically privatised and controlled
by these custodians (Cotula & Cissé, 2007). Customary authorities may also allocate secondary rights, such as to migrants, or impose regulations on resource use (e.g. on start
dates for wild harvesting of fruits, rules for hunting and protection of sacred forests).
These regulations and taboos tend to be respected by local people, but not always by outsiders. Since the 1980s, there has been a growing interest amongst researchers and NGOs
in revalorising the role of customary authorities in promoting sustainable NRM and in
alternative conflict resolution. However, it has also been noted that this could have negative implications for equity and democracy (Ribot, 2002; Whitehead & Dzodzi, 2003).
While customary authorities are still relevant in most rural areas and even in many urban
neighbourhoods, their powers are being undermined. The destabilisation of these institutions started during colonial times and continued after independence, reflecting the growing power of the state, the expansion of statutory law, changing social relations and market development. For example, government agencies for forestry and fisheries increasingly intervened in the governance of these resources, and often without involving the
customary authorities. For example, the agencies just mentioned often issued user permits
without taking into consideration resource availability. This change in governance generally undermined the sustainable management of shared natural resources. In many cases it
meant the creation of ‘open access’ situations that are often associated with severe resource degradation. The many problems following from centralised governance led in the
late 1980s to the emergence of new forms of decentralised NRM that involved most or all
relevant stakeholders in decision making. For example the gestion de terroir (territorial
management) approach, and later on the conventions locals (Toulmin, 1994; Batterbury,
1998). These approaches try to combine customary and modern institutions, while seeking
to anchor governance in the legal authority of the new local governments.
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6.3.2 Village land management commissions
A recent development is the establishment of more formal local governance institutions
that are expected to play an important role in sustainable NRM and even in land administration. Niger introduced legislation in 1993 to establish village land management commissions (Commission foncières - COFO) which will play a role in land registration, land
rights and land use. Burkina Faso created the Commission villageoise de gestion de terroir
in 2000. Mali has no legislation yet for this type of structures but the introduction of a
Commission foncière is proposed in the context of the LOA. It should be noted that in all
three countries the link between the Commission foncières and the new local governments
is becoming a point of discussion and concern.
The Village Land Management Commissions (CVGT) – Burkina Faso
The aim of the Land Reform Act (Reforme Agraire et Foncier – RAF) of 1984 was to
unify the various, sometimes contradictory land tenure regimes and eliminate land related
obstacles to socioeconomic development. It was hoped that the RAF would also facilitate
access to natural resources and reduce conflicts over land. A central element in the RAF is
the principle of subsidiarity, which implies that management responsibilities and arbitration should be delegated to the lowest appropriate level for resource management, such as
local communities. If one party is dissatisfied with a ruling made at that level, they can
complain to higher levels (the public administration). Customary rights over natural resources are not recognised in the RAF. The interpretation of the RAF varies and government officials often believe that they, and not the communities, should set and apply resource use regulations and apply sanctions. In practice, the applicability of the RAF has
turned out to be more appropriate to urban than to rural lands (Thiéba, 2003).
Within the context of the RAF, in 2000 a government decree was promulgated on Village
Land Management Commissions (Commission villageoise de gestion de terroir – CVGTs)
and on Inter Village Management Committees (Commissions inter villageoises de gestion
de terroir – CIVGT) 59. In short, CVGTs are village bodies responsible for natural resource
management and land tenure. They are officially responsible for the management of
community infrastructures, village woodlands, pastures, fauna and natural resources in
general, and for allocating, evaluating and withdrawing land from the national domain. In
practice, a CVGT is only effective in land administration and in regulating conflicts if it
works closely with customary authorities (Thiéba, 2003). About 3000 CVGTs have been
put in place, with the support of external agencies and administrative authorities
(Ouédraogo, 2007). There are indications, however, that local people may view CVGTs as
a legal provision that they must adapt to in order to access resources from projects.
After the establishment of elected local governments in 2006, the CVGTs are supposed to
disappear and transfer their assets to a Village Development Commission (Commission
villageoise de développement – CVD), the establishment of which started in 2007. CVDs
have a hierarchical relation with local government and the composition should be representative of village interests and not party politics. Legislation of 2007 mentions the management of natural resources and conflict resolution among the activities of CVDs. They
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are also responsible for developing the village development plan and for natural resource
protection.
Commission foncière communale (COFOCOM) in Niger
The government of Niger wanted to create more favourable conditions for a wider access
of citizens to the land and as part of this, change the way the way the traditional chieftaincy governed the access to land. This vision of a new land tenure system was translated
into the Principes d’orientation du code rural (guiding principles for the rural code) policy in 1993. The main axes of the code rural are:
(i)
Securing land rights for rural actors.
(ii)
Organizing the rural population.
(iii)
Promoting sustainable natural resources management.
(iv)
Land use planning (aménagement du territoire).
The code rural is a pragmatic and iterative process based on two complementary mechanisms: to establish the legal framework and to create an institutional framework to facilitate implementation and supervision at all levels (village, local government (commune),
department (departement), region and nation). Inter-ministerial collaboration at the levels
of the departement and the region is a key feature of this set-up.
The implementation of the code rural was slow during its first decade, but it has received
new momentum with the emergence of local governments (Mamalo et al., 2006;
Ouédraogo et al., 2006; Secretariat permanent du code rural, 2006). In late 2007, three out
of eight regional secretariats were operational, as was 35 out 36 Commission foncières at
the departement level. The number of functional Commissions foncière communales
(commissions for communal land tenure) was 80 (30% of the possible ones). Finally,
about 2500 commission foncières were active at the village or tribu levels. Over the last
few years, the structure responsible for implementing the code rural, the Secretariat permanent du code rural, has demonstrated that it is willing to and capable of consulting
other actors before drawing up decrees that will guide implementation 60. The Secretariat
has also shown an ability to adjust to changing circumstances and seems to be developing
into a learning organization.
6.3.3 Conventions locals (local by-laws)
For many collectively used natural resources, more or less formalised negotiated agreements or conventions locals (local by-laws) exist in all three countries, many of which
have been formulated through stakeholder consultations and dialogues. Most of today’s
conventions locals were made after the late 1980s when there was a growing interest in
strengthening community based NRM and popular participation. These local rules and
regulations may concern, amongst others, bushfire surveillance brigades, marking out
livestock tracks, fixing periods for harvesting wild fruits or for entering grazing lands,
hunting, quotas for resource use (fuel wood/timber) and the protection of regenerating
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forests. Many of the conventions locals are informal and not known outside the communities.
Several factors contribute to the increasing the complexity of formulating and implementing convention locals: increased competition over natural resources due to population
pressure or market demand; related increases in conflicts over natural resource access and
use; where diverse user groups are involved, especially when some are residing outside
the territory; and when urban-based or urban connected actors (merchants, government
agents, politicians etc.) start using a natural resource for commercial ends (e.g. through
livestock investments or trade in fuelwood) 61. There are many projects and programs supporting conventions locals and they have developed methodologies and other tools for that
purpose 62. Local government authorities now always take part in conventions locals formulation processes. The facilitation of conventions locals by outsiders (e.g. NGOs or projects) is increasingly focussed on the more complex situations involving several local
government territories, such as in the case of livestock corridors. The facilitators of conventions locals are mainly responsible for ensuring that all voices are heard and frustrations are expressed, and for preventing that the process is dominated by certain groups.
The making of a convention local should not be rushed and the course or outcome of the
process is not easily predicted. If too much emphasis is placed on applying a certain approach or a set of tools, or on reaching a set goal (a signed convention on predetermined
date), this could undermine the quality of the convention and of the formulation process,
and create tensions amongst the groups affected by it.
A few conventions have been registered with the local administration, but in general the
legal status of conventions locals is weak and unstable. Suggestions have been made to
improve their judicial stability and they often focus on the role of local governments or on
the basis of droit privée (private laws/rights) through the courts. It has even been argued
that conventions locals may contribute to strengthening the decentralisation process. An
important role of local government here is to ensure that certain user groups are not unfairly excluded from accessing a resource. This is important given that the formulation of
conventions locals is influenced by local socio-political relationships, which are often
inequitable. It is the responsibility of the mayor and the local government councillors to
ensure that the conventions locals conform to constitutional values of equity and equality
(Thiéba, 2003; Djiré & Dicko, 2007).
Since the 1980s, central governments and development agencies in the Sahel have promoted the elaboration of land use plans (Schéma d’aménagement de territoire) at all levels (national, regional, departement, community). Yet the effects on the ground have been
limited. Land use planning has now become, or will soon be, the responsibility of local
governments. This is potentially an important change, particularly when combined with
the involvement of local governments in conventions locals.
6.3.4 Policy implications
One policy priority is support to the development, implementation and monitoring of policies that actively support decentralised NRM, such as pastoral legislation, forest codes,
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water codes, land tenure policies, and regulations on land use planning and zoning. In all
three countries this new type of legislation has been approved or is on the drawing board.
The challenge is implementation and monitoring of the effects – particularly on women
and marginal groups. A second priority is support to organisational change and capacity
building in the ministries and agencies responsible for implementing natural resources
legislation and policies. Especially forestry departments tend to work in an isolated way
and to have thorny relations with communities and user groups.
6.4 Democratic decentralisation
This section focuses on democratic decentralisation, or devolution, and its implications for
NRM and local governance institutions. Democratic decentralisation, which means that
authority and resources is devolved to elected councillors in rural and urban areas, is a
new phenomenon in most francophone countries in West Africa 63. The exception is Senegal where this process started already in the 1970s. In Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger these
institutional reforms were initiated in the 1990s in response to profound dissatisfaction
with central governments and their style of governance. Decentralisation was one of the
major recommendations arising from the National Conferences that were held in Mali,
Niger and Benin in the early 1990s. In Burkina Faso, the June 1991 constitution defined
decentralisation as a key element in the promotion of development and democracy. It was
hoped that decentralisation would contribute to rebuilding the state from below thus enhancing the legitimacy of government. In Mali, decentralisation was in addition considered as one of the few bases for genuine negotiation in the search for solutions to the rebellion that had broken out in the northern regions (Lavigne Delville, 1999; SNV &
CEDELO, 2004) 64.
6.4.1 The emergence of local governments
Developing the necessary legal and institutional frameworks took many more years, and a
number of years lapsed again before the first local government elections were held 65. All
three countries opted in the end for comprehensive local government elections that covered both urban and rural areas. Elections were held for the first time in 1999 in Mali, in
2004 in Niger, and in 2006 in Burkina Faso (see Table 6.1). Local governments operate
within legal and institutional frameworks and have some discretionary space to adjust
policy to local circumstances and to address local priorities – one of the arguments for
decentralisation. Other reforms being pursued more or less concomitantly are the deconcentration of the government apparatus and changes in public finance management. In
all three countries is decentralisation part of a broader process of institutional changes to
further good governance.
Donor agencies operating in these countries have generally supported the decentralisation
reforms. They hoped for an improvement in the performance of the state apparatus and in
the quality of service delivery, as well as for sustaining democratisation processes and
strengthening accountability mechanisms 66. It is expected that decentralization as well as
effective de-concentration will contribute to enhancing the capacity to implement national
policies. When Mali started to implement decentralisation in 1999, donor support was
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widely available 67. This has facilitated the establishment of the new local government
administrations, the construction of town halls, and the training of the new elected councillors on their rights and responsibilities 68. Where decentralisation has been lapsing (e.g.
in Burkina Faso), donors have communicated their concerns to the government.
In Mali, there are three levels or entities of local government: regional, district (Cercle)
and municipal (Commune), but there is no hierarchical relationship between them. Municipalities are composed of several villages and/or groupings or neighbourhoods, and are
managed by a council whose size varies according to the size of the population. This
council elects the mayor for a five year period. Each municipal council elects two representatives to sit on the district council. Members of regional assemblies are elected from
the district councils. Local governments are ‘supervised’ by state administrators whose
duties include ensuring that municipal proceedings conform to government legislation and
endorsing municipal development plans. The administration and other state technical services are supposed to support and advise municipal councils within their respective competences. At the start, in 1999, a national programme to support local governments was set
up by the government with donor support. This National Unit for the Coordination of Local Governments (CCN) delivers technical assistance to municipalities via the Municipal
Advisory Centre (Centre de Conseil Communal – CCC). In addition, the National Agency
for Investment in Local Government (Agence Nationale d’Investissement des Collectivités
Territoriales – ANICT) was set up to provide local government with financial support for
investments. At present, the system of technical and financial support to local governments is being overhauled. The European Commission developed a sectoral approach,
which since 2006 has been implemented through the Programme d’appui à la reforme
administrative et la decentralisation (PARAD).
In Burkina Faso, decentralization was approached differently than in Mali. It started by
electing local governments in urban areas only. In 1995, decentralisation started in 33
urban localities and another 16 localities were added at the second urban local government
elections in 2000. Decentralisation was extended to the entire country, including all rural
areas, in 2006. Elections take place on the basis of political party lists, but every village
should be represented by two persons, preferably a man and a woman. In Burkina Faso,
most elected mayors today are members of the party that dominates national politics and
many belong to the urban ‘diaspora’. About one third of the councillors are women. Rural
local governments in Burkina Faso are still very young and in the process of getting established and coming to grips with their working conditions. Mayors complain to the central
government over the limited transfer of resources, including staff.
In Niger, councillors were elected in 2004 for 213 rural and 52 urban communes (counties
and municipalities, respectively). Like in Mali and Burkina Faso, the political parties proposed lists on the basis of which the councillors were elected. The latter in turn elected a
mayor. Local chiefs and members of parliament representing the locality sit on the local
government councils as ‘membres de droit’ and may give advice. There is limited donor
support to the new local governments and particularly those in the rural areas have to start
from scratch. Urban local governments took over infrastructure and staff from the sous-
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préfecture. Despite the lack of resources, a number of local governments have become
actively involved in local development issues (Sène et al., 2007).
Table 6.1: Local governments in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
Burkina Faso
Mali
Niger
Textes d’Orientation de
la
Décentralisation
Year of approval of legal
(TOD) 1993 and 1998;
framework for decentralisaCode General des coltion (Loi cadre)
lectivités territoriales
(2005)
1993
2002
First comprehensive
government elections
1999
2004
local
Number
of Rural
communes
Urban
2006
302
681
351
703
49
213
265
22
52
Regions (indirect elecOther levels of elected local
tions have been carried
government
out in all 13 regions).
Region (8 in total,
plus the capitol district of Bamako) and
Cercle (50 in total)
Departement (36 in
total, in seven regions)
Redrawing of administrative
No
boundaries?
Yes – communes
No
Is every village represented
Yes (1 man and 1
in the local government
woman)
council?
No, according to
political party lists
No, according to
political party lists
Are customary chiefs automatically member of the No
council?
No
Yes
No
Yes : 10%
1
1,9
Is there a quota for women?
No (but recommendation that half of counsellors
should
be
women)
% female mayors
4
% female councillors
Source: (SNV & CEDELO, 2004; Ouédraogo, 2007; Sène et al., 2007).
17,7
6.4.2 Local governments and NRM
In the 1980s a number of initiatives emerged to promote participatory and decentralized
NRM, more sustainable and equitable forms of resource use, and the reduction in conflicts
over natural resources. The aim was to include local people in the decisions made or managed by outside entities, but there was no transfer of official power. When democratic
decentralization emerged, this was perceived as a potentially more powerful and ‘upscaleable’ way of including local actors. This is because local governments are institutionalized through law and linked to existing structures of government (Ribot, 2002,
2004). The emergence of local governments has the potential to strengthen decentralised
NRM (Lavigne Delville, 1999; Ribot, 2002; Djiré & Dicko, 2007). Environmental protection is also part of their formal mandate and they may also become part of the new systems set up for the registration and administration of land tenure and land transactions (the
Cofocom in Niger, the commission foncière as part of the LOA in Mali, and the new role
for CVGTs in Burkina Faso).
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Yet despite decentralisation laws that define local governments’ responsibilities in relation
to natural resource access and use, no official transfer of powers and resources (décrets
d’application) to them have yet taken place in Mali, Burkina Faso or Niger. In Mali, for
example, while the rights and responsibilities of local governments are acknowledged in
the code domanial et foncier (land and landed property code), the public domain for local
governments is still not demarcated and allocated. After a long period of studies and
workshops, in 2005, the government started to prepare legislation to be completed by
2007 (Djiré & Dicko, 2007). Some observers expect that the new law will reduce the policy space for decentralised natural management. Despite the absence of a formal transfer
of authority, local governments are already influencing the NRM in an informal way, such
as through support to and interventions in conventions locals and conflict prevention.
6.4.3 Local governments and delegation
Decentralisation introduces a formal superposition of new governance structures on top of
existing customary institutions that may have no legal or administrative status. If local
governments want to succeed in managing natural resources in a flexible, productive, sustainable and equitable way, they need to collaborate with the already existing organisations and structures. This would ensure that existing management practices are respected
and upheld (Benjamin, 2006). The challenge is to facilitate this delegation to viable and
legitimate institutions, with local governments monitoring the commitments made, ensuring that contracts are adhered to, and sanctioning failures to fulfil commitments. Local
governments may need to reconcile legitimacy and legality as they are not obliged by law
to delegate responsibility over NRM down to the most appropriate level.
Customary institutions and leaders may worry over the growing influence of local governments, fearing that they will be stripped of the authority that they have exercised over
NRM and that they will lose the rents associated with these powers (e.g. land sales in periurban areas and levying of fees for accessing grazing or forests). If this were to happen it
would mean ignoring the principle of subsidiarity, which is at the heart of decentralisation
(Lavigne Delville, 1999). What will happen in practice depends on the relationships between councils and informal authorities. Conflicts tend to erupt especially when there is
competition over authority and/or the rents involved.
Finally, local governments can provide the legal and political space for continuous negotiation and reconciliation amongst actors, although it is not a “…quick fix or panacea”
(Benjamin, 2006). Local governments can also contribute to equity by preventing that
certain areas and communities are forgotten in decision making relating to NRM. This
requires that elected councillors and local government staff are willing to and capable of:
working in non-hierarchical, collaborative relationships, working with customary authorities, and welcoming citizen participation. Building the capacity to develop such collaborative partnerships is important for governance outcomes.
6.4.4 Conflict prevention and management by local governments
Natural resources cannot be managed effectively unless there is an efficient system for
managing disputes over land and other natural resources. Developing such systems is
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problematic in situations, which seem to be increasingly common, where there is a multiplicity of arbitrating authorities operating in the same area and which moreover coordinate
poorly or even compete. In the Sahel, disputes between citizens are usually settled in accordance with customary procedures that provide for the intervention of independent intermediaries whose status is acknowledged by society and by the groups in conflict. As far
as possible, rural people avoid bringing their disputes to the public administration or before the courts.
Since the advent of decentralisation, people also call on commune councillors, especially
the mayor, to mediate in conflicts 69. The council offers an alternative channel between
local mediation and going to court. Mayors try to refer social conflicts back to the village
council for amicable settlement. In some cases mayors have played a positive role in disputes, which were beyond the mediation capacities of the village authorities, thereby helping to reduce the number of conflicts that go to court. In north-eastern Mali, mayors have
played an important part in negotiating agreements on access to pastures and salt, thereby
helping to mitigate land degradation and preventing conflicts. In the commune of Kouoro
(Mali), the mayor has played a major role in mitigating a conflict between farmers and
herders by helping brokering a local agreement to reopen livestock corridors (Hilhorst &
Coulibaly, 2004) 70. The intervention of mayors or councillors does not always help resolve conflicts, however. There have been situations were mayors became a party in conflicts over land, or where they used their position to benefit from land speculation (e.g.
Bourdarais, 2006). Moreover, the election of a mayor may not be based on his/her personal merit but the result of political party struggle. This may become a source of frustration, paralyzing local governments.
6.4.5 The role of local governments in unsustainable NRM
Local government officials are not necessarily acting transparently or in the interest of all
or most citizens. They may be prone to entrenched norms and values that reduce the space
for political participation of some groups (e.g. young people, women, pastoralists, certain
castes). While the new prerogatives assigned to local governments in principle constitute
democratic progress, this may not lead to better governance unless there are strong control
mechanisms, more information sharing and broad participation in decision-making.
Rural councils have to deal with external pressure from political authorities and commercial interest, as well as with the internal pressures of serving a local clientele. It is therefore possible that some local governments will not prioritise sustainability or equity when
making decisions on NRM issues, but instead favour the economic interests of the elite
(Lavigne Delville, 1999). The way residential plots have been managed by urban and rural
municipalities is a good illustration of this. Local governments have often authorised the
conversion of agricultural land into residential plots (planning decisions), and sometimes
the allocation of plots for housing and registration of occupancy. The way this has been
done has often been detrimental to rural livelihoods (Bagré et al., 2003).
Moreover, local government councillors and staff may be oriented more towards the needs
and interests of central government officials and administrators than towards those of the
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local population. There is also an increasing apprehension about the risks of political
struggle and political party interests intruding on the management of local affairs (Crook,
2003; Thiéba, 2003) 71. The seriousness of this problem is related to the style and strength
of national party politics, which is particularly pronounced in Burkina Faso. Experience
from Mali moreover indicates that the influence of party politics grows as decentralisation
gets more established. Competition between political parties also plays a greater role in
local governments in areas that are politically important – especially larger cities – or
where resources are very valuable, such as peri-urban residential land, timber, grazing
lands and minerals. Finally, increasing tax collection is a major concern for many local
governments, which badly need revenues to function and to develop their territories. This
may conflict with sustainable NRM.
6.4.6 The potential of decentralisation in relation to NRM
The appearance of elected local governments in the rural areas of Mali, Burkina Faso and
Niger offers great potential for more sustainable and equitable natural resource management. Having been legitimized by popular ballot, the municipal councils take their place
alongside other key local actors responsible for territorial management and local governance. Effective local governments can help strengthen user rights and entitlements in ways
that take into account complex local systems developed in response to annual and seasonal variations in natural resource availability. Local governments can also contribute to
the empowerment of local people when supporting the ‘legalisation’ of local decision
making on natural resource access and use. Such support may also contribute to preventing and reducing conflicts over natural resources.
In Mali and Niger, the introduction of rural municipalities has raised concern over the
position of villages, which are not directly represented 72. The situation is different in
Burkina Faso where the position of villages is much stronger: they are formally represented in councils and village management committees (CVGT – now CVD), they are
legally recognised, and they will be integrated in local governments. Important questions
for NRM here are: What kinds of partnerships and interactions will decentralised local
governments develop with village authorities and civil society organizations? How can the
emergence of a new form of centralization at the local government level be prevented?
Local governments in all three countries complain about the delays in the transfer of authority (transfert de competence) to them from central government. They argue that their
capacity to act is undermined by insufficient financial and human resources put at their
disposal 73. This is a common problem also outside the Sahel. In many countries where
devolution has been introduced, central government and line ministries continue to control
budgets, human resources, planning processes etc. (Wunsch, 2001). Devolution clearly
takes time as well as real political will. In Mali, where decentralisation started in 1999,
more and more resources are now made available to local governments for investments in
basic service delivery. The mandate of local governments is increasingly recognised and
the coordination of planning and investments is improving (Lodenstein et al., 2007). In all
three countries there is much reflection on what capacities local governments require to
function and how to fund their development. Options include hiring local government
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staff, contracting out, and getting support or special services from central ministries or
their regional branches.
Regarding NRM, in Mali the legislation that will include this aspect of the transfert de
competence to local governments is in preparation, while in Niger and Burkina Faso this
role of local governments is already formally recognised 74. How these policies will be
implemented in practice remains to be seen, however.
6.4.7 Policy implications
Decentralisation is one of the main policy initiatives of the 1990s in the Sahel, offering
new opportunities and challenges for decentralised natural resource management. Although in all three countries the origins of decentralisation and the steps being followed
are comparable, the style of local governments and the conditions under which they work
differ. This reflects differences in history, political realities, the availability of support
programmes, the influence of projects etc. The level of functionality and maturity also
differs. Local governments in Mali have been operational since 1999 while those in Burkina Faso have just been established. And lessons are being learned; for example is the
formal influence of villages on local governments in Burkina Faso considerably larger
than in Mali 75.
The route towards local governments that are effective, responsive to all citizens and accountable for its actions is both promising and challenging. Realizing this potential requires strengthening the capability of these political institutions to act as well as building
their respect for and adherence to accountability. The effectiveness of local government
also depends on the availability of adequate expertise be it local government staff, support
from sector ministries, contracting etc. Whether local government is more equitable and
hence supportive of poor and marginalized people depends on the quality of local leadership and on the presence and strength of local organizations. Promoting participation by
citizens and their organizations, and building their capacity to participate and dialogue
effectively, and voice their expectations, has shown to be critical (Wunsch, 2001; Bonfiglioli, 2003; Devas & Grant, 2003; Olowu & Wunsch, 2004).
Decentralization in the Sahel is leading to an increase of power and resources at a level
that is closer, better understood and more easily influenced by local people, particularly in
rural areas. People dare to approach the mayor, but they used to fear the prefect. The
greater proximity between decision makers and citizens should improve information flows
and facilitate consultation, thus improving the quality of local priority setting processes,
although there is a risk of elite capture. In Mali and Niger, decentralisation has already led
to a profound change in the relationship between government agents and elected local
authorities; government agents cannot ignore the decisions of councils and have to consult
the mayor (SNV & CEDELO, 2004).
Building effective democratic decentralization is the responsibility of local governments
and citizens, as well as of other government agencies, especially the prefects and the sector ministries. The institutional reforms related to decentralisation are or should be accompanied by a repositioning of central government. Central government should move
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away from direct implementation and towards setting policies, guidance, informing, supervising, inspecting and arbitrating, while making sure that exclusion and social injustice
do not develop in the name of local autonomy. This requires a reorientation around new
functions and it demands new skills and capacities. An important task of central government is to support local governments with safeguarding natural resources and biodiversity
in accordance with national policies and international commitments, recognising existing
prerogatives related to land use 76.
6.5 Conclusions and policy implications
Effective local governance institutions for natural resource management contribute to sustainability, local economic development, and conflict prevention. The need for such institutions increases given the growing pressure on and competition over land and natural
resources.
Bilateral development agencies generally locate their support within the PRSP framework.
Donor harmonisation, policy alignment, sectoral approaches and budget support are growing in importance, also under influence of the Paris declaration. Development agencies
should be guided by national policies, but it is generally accepted that the interests of
poorer and more marginalised groups are not necessarily represented; and that the gap
between macro level policy and micro level implementation may have been widened due
to sector-wide approaches and budget support (IOB, 2006). However, the involvement of
other societal actors in decision-making and monitoring is essential for achieving lasting
change. In bilateral political and policy dialogues, development agencies can hold government to account to the policies it has signed up to as part of agreements around sector
and budget support. The work of development agencies is auxiliary to domestic policy
processes. Other actors, such as NGOs are much better placed to support capacity building
of civil society toward effective participation in policy making processes, voicing concerns, claiming rights and demanding accountability. Occasionally, though, development
agencies may be in a position to play a catalytic role in promoting wider consultation and
to help balance powerful vested interests (see also Palmer, 2007).
Sustainable management of natural resources is included in the PRSP of all three countries as part of their growth strategy, and contributes to the Millennium Development
Goals1 (MDG1) 77. Support to local governance institution as such is not discussed, but all
three PRSPs emphasise the importance of ongoing decentralisation processes. There is
attention also to legislation around land, access to resources and decentralising environmental protection. The PRSP of Niger mentions the importance of local participation in
forest management. Sustaining rural livelihoods through better management of natural
resources involves many sectors, which are not necessarily interconnected. It will involve
land policy, legislation over natural resources, justice, land administration and land use
planning, decentralisation, public finance management, public sector reform, rural development, forestry, fishery and livestock, and environmental protection.
Natural resource management and environmental protection are competences to be transferred to local governments and legislation to this effect is being prepared in Burkina Faso
105
and Mali, and is suggested for Niger (Ouédraogo et al., 2006). Moreover, in Mali, the
LOA (2005) sets out the new policy to modernise agriculture and promote rural development. In Niger, the Stratégie de développement rural (rural development strategy) serves
as a unifying force amongst donors working on environmental issues. Finally, in Burkina
Faso donor coordination in the field of rural development takes place by the Secrétariat
permanent du cadre national de concertation des partenaires du développement rural décentralisé (Permanent Secretariat for National-Level Consultation of Development Partners in the Area of Decentralized Rural Development – SP/CNCPDR) to ensure the implementation of the Lettre de politique de développement rural decentralise (Policy Letter
for Decentralised Rural Development - LPDRD) of 2000, including the establishment of
CVGTs and CIVGTs.
Development agencies can contribute to a more conducive policy context for decentralised NRM and local governance institutions in the Sahel by supporting the governments in
the three countries mentioned in finalising the legislation that is being planned. This involves developing the accompanying decrees and procedures, supporting implementation
and monitoring the effects, such as for women and marginal groups. Moreover, encouraging policy alignment and harmonisation is another area where development agencies can
contribute, for example the linking of decentralisation policy with natural resource management, environmental protection and land administration. This includes the encouragement of central government agencies to work in partnership with local governments and
other local governance institutions.
Improving the quality of policy implementation may require occasionally support to pilot
activities to promote the testing of new approaches on institutional solutions to natural
resource-related problems in different contexts, for which development agencies may be
well placed (Lund et al., 2006) 78. These activities must be accompanied by monitoring,
analysis, documentation and communication to ensure that policy lessons are drawn and
reach policy makers.
Effective support to improving the enabling context of local governance institutions requires insight into the possible effects of the various policy options under consideration.
This implies relatively easy access to high-quality information that is applicable to policy
dialogue. This in turn requires high-quality monitoring and research work, and the clear
communication of results in an appropriate form. However, there are a number of challenges with respect to local research capacity, including the weak academic environment
and the involvement of many local researchers in short-term consultancies, and the insufficient communication of results to government and non-state actors.
Natural resource management touches upon complex sectors and wicked problems set
against a dynamic economic and socio-political background 79. Clearly, policies in support
of natural resource management benefit from pooling knowledge and research, joint strategy development and division of labour amongst development agencies.
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Chapter 7. Conclusions
This publication has discussed trends in natural resources and the environment in the Sahel as well as key issues for sustainable NRM in the context of current changes in major
NRM drivers – markets and value chains, property rights, decentralised governance, and
climate change. The aim was to contribute to the search for new policy directions rather
than provide definite answers or recommendations.
With respect to environmental change and global climate change, it is clear that both the
‘land degradation narrative’, typical of the last three decades, and the ‘adaptation to climate change rhetoric’, now dominating the headlines, must be taken with a grain of salt:
while land degradation in the Sahel may certainly be a problem in specific places at specific times, it is not the all-dominating trend/problem; and the prospects of climate change
are extremely uncertain for the Sahel. Thus, realities are far more nuanced than often assumed, and policies should be revised to reflect this. This implies that ‘combating desertification’ and ‘adapting to climate change’ require policies and actions that are not fundamentally different from those of pro-poor and sustainable NRM or from those of reducing
vulnerability to environmental hazards.
Markets in the Sahel have many imperfections, which in particular affect poor and marginalised groups who are often forced to buy food or sell their products on unfavourable
terms. And while market participation is inherently risky, the rural poor in the Sahel are
both more exposed to market risks and less able to mitigate or recover from them than
most other people. Market participation may thus lead to the loss of income and assets and
create disincentives for investing in or conserving natural resources. At the same time, it is
clear that Sahelian resource users are deeply integrated into markets for food and agricultural products, as well as for labour and land, and that disengaging from markets is not a
viable strategy for escaping from poverty, nor a way to improve NRM. Indeed, in some
places market development has been a key driver of sustainable and profitable agricultural
intensification. Urbanisation and income growth now appear to be replicating such favourable conditions in many parts of the Sahel and to induce major shifts in the composition and destination of rural production. Yet we do not know enough about how rural –
urban linkages play out in different parts of the region, nor about how different social
groups take part in market development and how this affects livelihoods.
But market development poses great challenges for policy: because markets operate
largely outside the public domain and sometimes cross national boundaries (i.e. they are
not easily governed), because building the supporting infrastructure and institutions is
expensive and involves coordination among many sectors, and because increasing access
and competition may go against the interests of powerful groups in society. In this context, creating more efficient, more inclusive and environmentally friendlier markets in the
Sahel will require new and more targeted approaches. One such approach – value chain
development – focuses on the economic relationships between market actors (i.e. private
governance), while recent work also explicitly considers poverty and environmental aspects. A challenge is to build the link to public governance (e.g. the role of local government). Another approach – rural territorial development (RTD) – has public governance
107
as point of departure. It is based on larger territorial units than the district, or the community that is the focus of Gestion de Terroir approaches, and the inclusion of urban centres
in strategic planning. It also emphasises the inclusion of the private sector and civil society in decision-making. These components seem conducive for supporting market development. But RTD is demanding on human and organisational resources, and the links to
private governance are still poorly developed.
A key issue for poverty reduction in the Sahel is whether the formalisation of property
rights in the form of land titling and registration of water rights benefits vulnerable
groups. It has been shown that possessing formal land and water rights does not necessarily lead to increased investment, environmental protection, empowerment and conflict
reduction. The focus on formal rights tends to ignore the various sources through which
poor and marginalized people, as well as women, obtain or lose rights to resources. In
order to clarify rights it is useful to take point of departure in peoples’ own experience
with negotiating access to and control over natural resources and learn from them. In the
context of increased competition, clear property rights to water and land cannot alone resolve or prevent conflicts. It also requires institutional capacity to govern the multiple
interests in water and land. Particularly for river basin management, large scale river
commissions with the capacity to manage scarce water resources and conflicting interests,
and with appropriate representation of all different social groups affected, are needed to
avoid inefficient and unequal water allocation. However, the top-down approach inherent
in river basin management might increase the distance from rural people. Thus, the challenge consists of integrating local autonomy and democratic involvement in these hierarchical institutional frameworks.
Trends towards decentralization and democratic reforms have created new opportunities
for local participation in the control over natural resources. The greater proximity between
decision making and resource use can improve information flows and facilitate participation in local priority setting processes as well as improving their quality. However, the
democratic benefits of decentralization have been questioned. Current policy debates have
a tendency to focus on the technical aspects of transferring powers from the central state
to local governments, while ignoring the relationships between the latter and other parts of
local society. In this regard, an ambiguous coexistence of customary institutions and local
government has emerged that strongly influences the outcome of decentralisation reforms
and hence sustainable NRM. Decentralisation has to a large degree failed to either integrate or replace customary institutions relating to NRM, which continue to function in the
absence of effectual formal legal frameworks. Realizing the potential of decentralisation
requires that the complexity of legal pluralism, especially regarding the role of customary
authorities, is taken into account, and that the way in which these authorities include or
exclude the interests of marginal and vulnerable groups is being assessed. A policy
framework is needed that allows local people to articulate their needs and to find innovative solutions to local problems while also enhancing accountability and representation.
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Endnotes
1
Author’s interview with Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen, August 2008.
2
The analysis mentioned was carried out by the author solely for use in this publication.
3
‘Nutrient balances are quantified by assessing the variations of organic matter and plant nutrients in the
soil over time or by subtracting the nutrients outputs from the nutrient inputs in the soil systems. Although
the internal nutrient fluxes are considered as the main limitation of the first method, the quantification of the
different inputs and outputs is the main limitation of the second’ (Bationo et al., 1998: 22).
4
By 2000 they project an increase in these losses to 26 kg N, 3 kg P, and 19 kg K, due mainly to increased
nutrient exports from an anticipated higher production. The projected losses are based on FAO projections
in production, but the authors note that these projections may be unrealistically high given the current high
rates of nutrient depletion.
5
For example in Mali, on 8.015 million ha of arable land, of which 72% were fallow, annual losses per ha
were 8 kg N, 1 kg P, and 7 kg K in 1982-84, (Stoorvogel et al., 1993). Similar figures were calculated for
Burkina Faso, Niger and Senegal (Bationo et al., 1998: 22).
6
For example, in his address to the conference, the IFAD President stated that “A critical element of the
African Green Revolution must be to resolve the problem of low and declining soil fertility across the continent.” (Source: IFAD, 2006).
7
This does not contradict the fact that an inter-annual variation in plant production is strongly correlated
with rainfall.
8
Confirming this, research carried out by Bationo et al. (1998) showed that ’in the Sudano-Sahelian zone
the effective cation exchange capacity (ECEC) is more correlated to organic matter than to clay, indicating
that a decrease in organic matter will decrease ECEC and subsequently the nutrient holding capacity of
those soils’.
9
The study did not measure changes in soil fertility but assessed that fertility decline, if any, occurred only
on outfields where fallow periods were shortening and only small amounts of manure were applied,
10
Such horizontal flows can be quite large. In Mali, for example, livestock grazing were responsible for the
transfer or 33.1 and 37.6 kg/ha respectively for N and K from grazing areas to fields (De Ridder et al.,
2004).
11
This is due to the combination of several factors: the low fertility of soils, the fact that nutrient balances
are only slightly negative, and the great spatial heterogeneity of soils and of management practices. Assessing changes in SOM is particularly difficult and would take several decades of experiments.
12
This research involves a critique of agronomic analyses of soil degradation, which are ‘censured for misinterpreting supposed signs of degradation, for irresponsible guesswork and up scaling, for interpolating
trends between points that followed from random variation, and for ignoring the spatial and temporal variability in farming methods’ (Koning & Smaling, 2005: 4).
13
The areas where case studies on this subject have been made include: the Kano Close-Settled Zone, northern Nigeria (numerous publications, e.g. Harris, 1998; Mortimore & Adams, 1999; Mortimore, 2005;
Mortimore and Turner, 2005; Mortimore et al., 2005); Maradi Department, Niger (Mahamane, 2001;
Mortimore, 2005; Mortimore & Turner, 2005; Mortimore et al., 2005); Région de Zinder, Niger (Reij et al.,
2006); Department de Fandou Béri, south-western Niger (Warren et al., 2001b); eastern Burkina Faso
(Mazzucato & Niemeijer, 2000; Mazzucato et al., 2001); the Oudalan and Seno provinces of north-eastern
Burkina Faso (Krogh, 1997; Reenberg et al., 1998; Bolwig 1999; Mertz & Reenberg, 1999; Rasmussen et
al., 2001); the Central Plateau, Burkina Faso (Reij & Steeds, 2003; Kaboré & Reij, 2004; Reij et al., 2005),
Diurbel Region, Senegal (Ba et al., 2000; Faye et al. 2001; Mortimore, 2005; Mortimore et al., 2005). The
latter region is an example of reversed or arrested land use intensification (de-capitalisation) related to the
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withdrawal of public support after 1984, while the other cases represent generally successful adaptations in
respect of natural resource management and biological productivity.
14
Many of the observed management practices depended mainly on labour investments and on locally
available resources, reflecting in part the extreme scarcity of capital. Cash investments were important in
some cases and typically in more intensive and/or market-integrated systems, especially the buying or hiring
of animal-drawn ploughs and carts (e.g. for manure transportation) and the purchase of fodder, chemical
fertilizers, and animal manure. Cash was also invested in hiring labour for heavy or time consuming tasks
such as ridging and weeding. Often the practices were based on local rather than on scientific knowledge.
15
This landscape has also been described as ’agricultural parks’, understood as ’areas where trees are protected or promoted on fields and fallow lands for fruit production and soil fertility management’ (Wezel and
Haigis, 2000). Characteristic tree species in these areas are Parkia biglobosa, Vitellaria paradoxa, and Acacia albida (ibid.)
16
This assumes that deforestation is measured as reduced plant productivity, as opposed to biodiversity loss,
and that the ‘baseline’ land use is livestock grazing, as opposed to pristine forest. Because there is very little
left of pristine forest in the Sahel, it can be argued that this habitat type is not a relevant baseline against
which to measure recent vegetation changes. Unfortunately no other quantitative estimates of the effects of
intensification on this dimension of deforestation were found during this review.
17
Ten percent was classified differently among villages. In each village, 4-59 species were decreasing or
disappearing (average of 28). A clear correspondence among answers from independent informants and
villages showed that the local perceptions of vegetation changes were reliable (Wezel and Lykke, 2006).
Lykke et al. (2004) compared local knowledge to scientific field studies in Burkina Faso and concluded that
local people are obvious informants for detailed information about environmental change and can give additional information about rare species compared to vegetation studies.
18
The scientific vegetation surveys cover less species and shorter time periods than do the ethno-botanic
surveys.
19
Around 250,000 has of degraded farm land were furthermore reclaimed. Some photographs in their reports show large numbers of seedlings and saplings, as would be expected from high numbers. The largest
density of mature trees that is consistent with farming is about 12-15/ha.
20
In the study by Rasmussen et al. (2006) only 5% of land cover was classified as cultivated land where the
strongest greening was observed.
21
A combination of climatic, demographic, economic and institutional factors is reported as the ‘underlying
driving forces’.
22
Disciplinary biases may also play a role. Biologists and foresters seem to focus their research on rangelands, while farmlands are studied mainly by geographers and agronomists.
23
For example, in northern Burkina Faso, in an area of 450 mm average annual rainfall, the millet yield on
27 fields situated within the same village varied between virtually zero and 500 kg/ha, with an average of
215 kg/ha (Krogh, 1997). Also in northern Burkina Faso, average millet yields estimated for an entire village varied between 264 and 753 kg/ha over three consecutive years (with intercepted rainfall varying from
206-354 mm) (Soegaard et al., 1999; Annex A, Table A2). Yields per mm rainfall were high in years with
good rainfall, varying from 1.29 to 1.84 kg/ha/mm (see Annex A, Table A2).
24
This assessment is based on studies relying on official government data for individual provinces in Senegal, Niger, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, except the data for irrigated rice, which was collected through surveys
(see Annex A, Table A1). It should be noted that the review of sub-national yield trends may be biased in a
positive direction by the fact that four out of the six areas for which this data could be found represented socalled ‘success stories’ of land management (Central Plateau, Maradi, Kano, and Office du Niger) and so
110
may not be geographically representative. All these studies relied on official sources for long term yield
data.
25
Yield data are particularly unreliable since they are often derived from output and cropland data, both of
which are subject to errors. For example, Mortimore (2003) found that fixed estimates for cropland in Mali
were used for long periods and then violently adjusted after 1992, while in Senegal cropland apparently did
not change in extent from 1961 to 1999. Fixed cropland estimates are also present for long periods in the
FAO data for Niger. In Nigeria, FAO data underestimates the extent of cropland by at least 35% (it is virtually constant during 1961-1999) if compared to a remote sensing-based land use survey from 1998 (ibid).
Similarly, in Uganda, Bolwig et al. (2006) compared FAO production data to data derived from national
household surveys and found very large discrepancies in many cases.
26
West Africa’s population grew from 130 million to nearly 300 million between 1975 and 2005 (OECD,
2006).
27
The gains are in comparison with untreated fields. The experiments were carried out independently of
each other in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Planting pits, or zaï, is a water harvesting method that focuses
available moisture on the millet/sorghum plants (typically spaced 1 x 1 metre apart) and enables plants to
survive long dry spells (Kaboré & Reij, 2004). In addition, dry season land preparation for planting pits
enables farmers to plant early, with the first rains, thereby prolonging the growing season compared to conventional land preparation such as ploughing or hoeing, which cannot start until after the rains have begun.
When manure is applied in the planting pits, soil nutrients are furthermore concentrated near the plant.
28
Data from a two-year on-farm experiment on the Central Plateau in Burkina Faso (Kaboré & Reij, 2004).
In a five-year on-farm experiment in Niger, fields treated with zaï and manure achieved absolute sorghum
yields of 513 kg/ha, compared to 125 kg/ha for untreated fields, while zaï plus manure plus inorganic fertilizers achieved yields of 765 kg/ha (Kaboré & Reij, 2004).
29
The indicator used was the composite FAO index for ‘food net’ of imports per caput that aggregates a
‘basket’ of food staple commodities.
30
Grain production increased by 73% during 1987-2004, while the population increase was 54%. CILSS
comprise of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Mauritania. In the case of Senegal and Mauritania, which are more urbanised, production stagnated during 1987-2004 and food imports – mainly of rice –
rose sharply after 1995. In Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger grain production increased, while the share of
imports remained the same.
31
FAO data on food imports for countries with limited import routes are likely to be more reliable than
agricultural output and yield data, although not all countries measure imports (Tiffen, 2006). These data
were not available to this study however. Further work will update these trends (graphs) to 2005 and include
Nigeria (millet, sorghum, maize), Niger (millet, sorghum, cowpea, rice), Senegal (millet, cowpea, rice),
Mali (millet, sorghum, rice, maize) and Burkina Faso (millet, sorghum, rice).
32
The time series did not allow an assessment of the effects on food sufficiency of the recent recovery of the
rains.
33
The indicators identified are farm income, food sufficiency, per capita production, livestock sales, sales of
high-value crops, livestock wealth, farm investments, and in/out migration. They were mainly measured
through small-sample surveys and official statistics. The review revealed a huge gap in economic analysis of
farming communities in the Sahel. None of the many in-depth community-level studies on land management
reported on earlier in this report performed comprehensive economic analyses of the farming communities
they studied. Most of them do discuss welfare implications of trends in land management and land productivity, but based on inferences, anecdotal evidence, official statistics or, at best, small samples (see Annex
A, Table A2).
111
34
The fall in real prices of grain and livestock in Nigeria may have both positive and negative effects on
human welfare and could reflect increased productivity as well as adverse policies or macroeconomic
changes.
35
The OECD analysis was done based on records (presumably FAO data) of individual CILSS member
countries, i.e. Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Mauritania.
36
We concede that the review of community-level data on economic indicators may be biased in a positive
direction because five out of the seven areas for which such data exist are so-called ‘success stories’ (Central Plateau in Burkina Faso, Maradi in Niger, Kano in Nigeria, and Office du Niger in Mali) and so may not
be geographically representative. That said, it is noteworthy that there are evidence of positive changes in
productivity and local economy in all countries – with the exception perhaps of Senegal – and for a quite
diverse range of local conditions (rainfed, irrigated, high and medium market access, very high and medium
population density). While there are no documented ‘successes’ in very remote and sparsely populated areas, it might be argued that the overall economic importance of such areas is relatively small as well as
decreasing.
37
Research by Cotula and Toulmin (2004) demonstrates the increasing importance of migrant remittances
being used to invest in livestock in Senegal.
38
This report does not cover livestock rearing systems within predominantly agricultural systems in which
the former even though may display certain characteristics of pastoralism (e.g. mobility) are essentially a
sub-system of the latter – e.g. mixed farming systems in southern Mali.
39
LGA is defined as a Grassland-based system in the arid/semi-arid tropics and sub-tropics where greater
than 90% of dry matter fed to animals comes from rangelands, pastures, annual forages and purchased feeds
and <10% of total value of comes from crops.
40
Using income as an indicator of pastoral poverty is problematic for it fails to consider the critical importance of other livelihood assets central to building pastoralists’ capacity to respond to adversity and risk.
41
Rass’ estimates were calculated by over-laying livestock production system maps with livestock density
maps.
42
Scoones (1995) presents evidence from other dryland areas in Africa of how opportunistically managed
pastoral systems have higher economic returns on a per area basis than livestock reared in ranches or under
ranch-like conditions.
43
A viable herd will also have small stock to meet the family’s more routine needs and donkeys and/or
camels for transport or drawing water.
44
It is accepted that while Hardin’s conclusions are appropriate to open access regimes they do not apply to
common property tenure systems characteristic of pastoral systems in Africa where access to and use of
natural resources in the rangelands are closely and carefully regulated by recognised groups with the authority to impose rules and enforce penalities for unauthorised use.
45
Based on echechiwel, literally “there where we go to drink”, meaning those places with dry season water
points.
46
Dr. Brigitte Thébaud designed the original course in French within the context of a regional programme
entitled Shared Management of Common Property Resources in the Sahel (1998-2001), implemented by
SOS Sahel-GB and IIED with financial support from Comic Relief, Dfid and NORAD. Associates in Research and Education for Development (an organisation specialising in adult education in African languages
based in Dakar, Senegal) subsequently designed a Pulaar version of the course with support from Dr. Thébaud. This training targeted local communities in the Sahel within the context of the regional programme
entitled Making Decentralisation Work funded by Sida and Danida (2000-2004) and implemented by IIED
in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Senegal.
112
47
Guinea: Law N° L/95/051/CTRN regarding the pastoral code. Mauritania: Law 2000/044, regarding the
pastoral code in Mauritania. Mali: Law N°044 of 27 February 2001, regarding the pastoral code in the Republic of Mali. Burkina Faso: Law N° 034/2002 of 14 November 2002, regarding the framework law on
pastoralism in Burkina Faso.
48
For example, the pastoral charter (Mali) devotes a whole chapter to this issue, specifying that pastoralists
have the right to move with their animals both within and between countries.
49
Rural Code Niger (Art. 28. 31) and Pastoral Charter Mali (Art. 51).
50
The period where the population growth rate is above 1%.
51
This information was generated by the West Africa Long-Term Perspective Study (WALTPS). The
WALTPS population projections were made in 1998. WALTPS defines West Africa as Benin, Burkina
Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania,
Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo (Cour 2001). UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund)
defines Western Africa as these countries except Chad and Cameroon (UNFPA 2005). UNFPA projects the
population of Western Africa to be 587 million in 2050.
52
Reducing only transportation costs did not significantly improve the farmgate price of grains in Burkina
Faso.
53
The use of large grazing lands, forests, water bodies or cattle corridors that cover a large area may be managed best at a higher scale level (several local governments, a district or even a region). Local governments
may need support for the management of resources of strategic interest in their territory, such as international heritage sites, natural parks, watercourses, etc.
54
Danida has financed part of this research (Danida, 2007).
55
Interestingly, cotton farmers tend to invest in building houses in town (alongside cattle or equipment such
as mills, trucks).
56
Good soils fertility management such as applying manure is sometime a condition.
57
In Mali, foresters took off their uniforms in the 1990s following some violent confrontations with the
population. However, in 2006 the regional director in Sikasso ordered his staff to wear again their uniform.
58
In Mali, for example, following the collapse of the one party system in 1991, violence erupted directed
against foresters and some got killed.
59
The creation of CVGTs and the promulgation of the decree was supported by the World Bank funded
Programme National de Gestion des Terroirs (PNGT), the National Village Land Management Programme,
whose objective is to support local development. PNGT is also involved in preparations for decentralisation
in rural areas.
60
Other actors include research institutes, farmer organisations, NGOs, donors, and organisations representing local governments.
61
The village commons are used increasingly by new actors who have invested their profits in herds and
graze them “for free” on these lands. Moreover, the urban demand for fuel wood and charcoal is growing
and traders are seeking free or cheap access to village wood lands.
62
For example, guidelines developed by PACT-GRN (Mali); by Yekasi/ intercooperation (sikasso-Mali).
Another tool which was released in 2007 to support local governments is the guides juridiques de gestion
des ressources naturelles (legal guides to NRM) developed by Secrétariat Technique Permanent du Ministère d’Environnement et d’Assainissement (STP/CIGQE), PACT, DED, SNV and Helvetas Mali.
63
Forms of decentralisation already emerged since around 1915 in urban areas. Colonial authorities soon
discovered the limits of centralising power and decided that decentralisation was a management model producing better results given the geographical constraints and specific cultural features of West Africa. Also
113
after independence decentralising administration took place, in waves, though not involving comprehensive
local elections. Local authorities were appointed by the central level or by local dignitaries.
64
It should be noted that some view decentralisation reforms as external pushed changes by donors. This
position is contested by others who refer also to the pre-colonial roots of decentralisation (SNV &
CEDELO, 2004).
65
In all three countries they were announced several times before they actually took place.
66
It is argued that local governments may produce a new category of politicians who are more sensitive to
local demands, and more open to explore partnership arrangements with groups that state authorities used to
ignore (Bonfiglioli, 2003).
67
This support was much less available in Niger, where less donors are present due to the political problems
during the 1990s. Support in Burkina Faso is available through PNGT II and a wider sector support programme is being negotiated.
68
Contrary to Burkina Faso and Niger, where existing administrative units were converted into local governments, Mali decided that local communities should decide with whom they wanted to form a local government area, a process that took place around 1995. As a result 703 local governments were created of
which many were new constructs.
69
When local governments were put in place, some even assumed that from now on conflict management
was taken out of the hands of the village councils, and that the mayor will handle conflicts as the canton
chiefs used to do in colonial times.
70
However, this mayor did not manage to get re-elected within the council, and the new mayor chose not to
support initiatives started by his predecessor.
71
Cases have been documented in Mali and Niger of attempts by customary authorities to reduce interference from political parties and party struggle by developing their own list which was then offered to a
prominent party (Hilhorst & Coulibaly, 2004); in other situations powerful clans seek to become mayor, to
protect their interests over natural resources (Cotula & Cissé, 2007).
72
The position of villages is a concern especially in Benin, where local governments are relatively large in
size.
73
Unfortunately this debate is so dominated by the struggle over resources, overshadowing other opportunities to increase the ability of local governments to perform, including working in partnership.
74
FAO, with support from the Netherlands, is supporting the government of Mali with preparing the necessary legislation for transferring competences. The draft legislation was ready in 2007.
75
In Mali, conflict between the newly elected council and villages erupted in a number of communes (about
10-20%). Many villagers did not have “their” councillor and felt overruled. Burkina Faso has approached
this issues differently, a decision which may have been influenced also by the strength of the World Bank
supported PNGT programme that followed a village approach. Such programmes had also been set up in
Mali and Niger but had collapsed in the 1990s.
76
There is a caveat. Regulations on decentralised forest management are technically very demanding and too
detailed, which makes the procedure for requesting delegation costly (Hilhorst & Coulibaly, 1998, Ribot et
al., 2006).
77
PRSP of Mali dates from 2002 (a second growth and poverty reduction strategy was approved in early
2008), Niger also from 2002 (new strategy expected for 2008); and Burkina Faso from 2004.
78
In Benin, the Embassy of the Netherlands supported a pilot programme to develop procedures for public
finance management at the departmental level, which was an essential chain in getting local government
and local technicians more involved in the drinking water sector (Hilhorst & Adjinacou, 2007).
114
79
Wicked problems have incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements; and solutions to them are
often difficult to recognize as such because of complex interdependencies.
115
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Annex A. Trends in crop yields and farmland economic performance indicators
Table A1. Level and trends in crop yields
Country
Location
Scale
Crop(s)
Unit
Level
Year
Trend
Period
Data source
Publication
Burkina Faso
National
Millet
kg/ha
700
2000
FAOSTAT
De Ridder et al. (2004)
National
Millet
kg/ha
300-500
1999-2001
1961-2001
FAOSTAT
Mortimore (2003)
Nigeria
National
Millet
kg/ha
1000-1100
1999-2001
1961-2001
FAOSTAT
Mortimore (2003)
Mali
National
Millet
kg/ha
700-900
1999-2001
1961-2001
FAOSTAT
Mortimore (2003)
Senegal
National
Millet
kg/ha
700
1999-2001
1961-2001
FAOSTAT
Mortimore (2003)
Niger
National
Maize
kg/ha
600
2000-2001
1961-2001
FAOSTAT
Mortimore (2003)
Nigeria
National
Maize
kg/ha
1400
1999-2001
1961-2001
FAOSTAT
Mortimore (2003)
Mali
National
Maize
kg/ha
1400-1500
1999-2001
1961-2001
FAOSTAT
Mortimore (2003)
Senegal
National
Maize
kg/ha
900-1100
1999-2001
1961-2001
FAOSTAT
Mortimore (2003)
Mali
National
Rice
kg/ha
+
+
0
+
+
+
+
+
+
1960-2000
Niger
1980-1995
?
Breman et al. (2001)
+
+
1984/88-1996/2001
Provincial gov.
Reij et al. (2005)
1984/88-1996/2001
Provincial gov.
Reij et al. (2005)
National scale
Sub-national scale
Burkina Faso
Central Plateau
Province
Sorghum
kg/ha/mm
Burkina Faso
Central Plateau
Province
Millet
kg/ha/mm
Burkina Faso
Central Plateau
Province
Millet & Sorghum
kg/ha
600-700
1996-2001
Provincial gov.
Reij et al. (2005)
Burkina Faso
Oudalan
Village
Millet
kg/ha
215
1991
Survey
Krogh (1997)
Burkina Faso
Ouagadougou
Field
Millet
kg/ha
500-800
Survey
Breman et al. (2001)
Burkina Faso
Seno
Village
Millet
kg/ha
537
1995
Village survey
Bolwig (1999)
Burkina Faso
Seno
Village
Millet
kg/ha
264
1996
Village survey
Bolwig (1999)
Burkina Faso
Seno
Village
Millet (5)
kg/ha
753
1997
Village survey
Bolwig (1999)
Burkina Faso
Seno
Village
Millet (6)
kg/ha/mm
1.84
1995
Village survey
Soegaard et al. (1999)
Burkina Faso
Seno
Village
Millet (7)
kg/ha/mm
1.29
1996
Village survey
Soegaard et al. (1999)
Burkina Faso
Seno
Village
Millet
kg/ha/mm
2.13
1997
Village survey
Soegaard et al. (1999)
Niger
Illéla District
Village
Sorghum (2)
kg/ha
125
1991-1996
Survey
Kaboré & Reij (2004)
Niger
Illéla District
Village
Sorghum (3)
kg/ha
513
1991-1996
Survey
Kaboré & Reij (2004)
Niger
Illéla District
Village
Sorghum (4)
kg/ha
765
1991-1996
Survey
Kaboré & Reij (2004)
129
Country
Location
Scale
Crop(s)
Unit
Level
Year
Niger
Maradi
Departement
Millet
kg/ha
380
Niger
Maradi
Departement
Groundnuts
kg/ha
350-450
Niger
Maradi
Departement
Millet / Sorghum
kg/ha
Niger
Maradi
Departement
Gnuts / Cowpeas
Kg/ha
Niger
Fandou Béri
Departement
millet
Kg/ha
Nigeria
Northern part
Province
Grains (1)
kg/ha
Nigeria
Kano
Region
Millet & Sorghum
kg/ha
Mali
Office du Niger
Region
Irrigated rice
kg/ha
Senegal
Diourbel
Region
Millet
kg/ha
Senegal
Diourbel
Region
Millet
kg/ha/mm
Senegal
Diourbel
Region
Groundnut
kg/ha/mm
Senegal
Diourbel
Region
Millet
kg/worker
Senegal
S. River Valley
Region
Irrigated rice
kg/ha
Trend
Data source
Publication
1995-1998
MoA Statistics
Mortimore et al. (2001)
1995-1998
MoA Statistics
Mortimore et al. (2001)
1988-1998
MoA Statistics
Mortimore et al. (2001)
1988-1998
MoA Statistics
Mortimore et al. (2001)
1952-1998
Fieldwork
Warren et al. (2001b)
1961-2001
FAOSTAT
Mortimore & Harris (2005)
1987-1999
Surveys
Bélières et al. (2002)
Regional gov.
Faye et al. (2001)
1960-1995
Regional gov.
Faye et al. (2001)
1960-1995
Regional gov.
Faye et al. (2001)
1961-1993
Regional gov.
Faye et al. (2001)
1990-1997
Survey
Bélières et al. (2002)
0/+/+
0
+
0
+
600
Period
1990-1995
0.5
1993
Notes
(1) Rice, maize, sorghum
(2) Control group (without situation)
(3) Fields treated with planting pits with manure
(4) Fields with planting pits with manure and inorganic fertilizers
(5) 292 mm incepted rainfall
(6) 206 mm incepted rainfall
(7) 354 mm incepted rainfall
130
+
+
0
+
Table A2. Recent trends in economic performance indicators
Country
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
Location
Central Plateau
Central Plateau
Central Plateau
Scale
Province
Province
Province
Period (approx.)
1985-2002
Indicator
Food security
Livestock investment
Out-migration
Grain production per capita (270 310 kg)
Livestock holdings (UBT)
Niger
Maradi
Departement
1988-1998
Niger
Maradi
Departement
1988-1997
Niger
Niger
Maradi
Maradi
Departement
Departement
1993-1997
1993-1997
Niger
Maradi
Departement
1990-2000
Nigeria
Kano CSZ
Region
1960-1995
Livestock sales
Livestock prices (nominal)
Number of farm capital investments
after 1994
Household food self-sufficiency
Nigeria
Kano CSZ
Region
1980-1999
Nigeria
Nigeria
Kano CSZ
Kano CSZ
Region
Region
Nigeria
Kano CSZ
Region
1990-1998
Senegal
S. River Valley
Region
Senegal
S. River Valley
Senegal
+
+
-
Data type
Household survey
Household survey
Household survey
Publication
Reij et al. (2005)
Reij et al. (2005)
Reij et al. (2005)
0
MoA Statistics
Mortimore et al. (2001)
+
+
+
MoA Statistics
Mortimore et al. (2001)
?
?
Mortimore et al. (2001)
Mortimore et al. (2001)
+
Survey
Mortimore et al. (2001: 32)
1985-1999
Sale of food grains
+
1990-1999
1980-1995
Number of livestock traded
Real staple food prices
Real livestock prices
0
-
Small sample household survey
Small-sample survey of farmertraders.
Small-sample survey of farmertraders.
Small-sample trader survey
Long term price data
Mortimore (2005)
Sale of groundnuts and cowpeas
0
+
Ariyo et al. (2001: 18)
1990-1997
Farm income of small farms
+
Region
1990-1997
-
Diourbel
Region
1960-1999
0/-
Surveys
Faye et al. (2001: 16)
Senegal
Senegal
Diourbel
Diourbel
Region
Region
1960-1995
1960-1995
-
Regional gov. statistics
Regional gov. statistics
Faye et al. (2001)
Faye et al. (2001)
Senegal
Diourbel
Region
1990-2000
+
Surveys, other
Faye et al. (2001)
Senegal
Diourbel
Region
1990-2000
+
Surveys, other
Faye et al. (2001)
Mali
Office du Niger
Region
1987-1999
Bélières et al. (2002)
Office du Niger
Region
1987-1999
+
+
Survey, other
Mali
Level of debts
Purchasing power in staple food
(rice)
Millet output per capita
Groundnut output per capita
Sales of high-value crops (cowpeas, hibiscus, other crops for
urban niche markets)
Sales of fattened livestock (sheep
and goats)
Level of investment in productive
farm capital
Sales of rice and fruits & vegetables
Trader survey
Small-sample surveys, monitoring
of HH. budgets and asset inventories
Survey, other
Survey, other
Bélières et al. (2002: 16)
131
Trend
Ariyo et al. (2001)
Ariyo et al. (2001)
Ariyo et al. (2001: 55)
Ariyo et al. (2001: 18)
Bélières et al. (2002)
Bélières et al. (2002)
ISBN
ISSN 1395-2676