Abstract
In Burkina Faso, livestock sedentarization programmes are still at the top of policy makers’ agendas and at the heart of their discourse, despite huge changes in land cover, land use and territorialities in rural areas. This paper contributes to the literature on the impact of livestock policies targeting the sedentarization of pastoralism in sub-Saharan Africa by specifically highlighting the territorial consequences of such policies. This paper suggests that policies directed at improving livestock governance in a context of climate change and changes in land cover and land tenure need to focus on securing pastoralists’ reticular territories, which are made up of corridors and numerous areas of pastureland, rather than on creating disconnected state ranches.
Highlights
Pastoral herding in dryland Africa was long misunderstood by scholars, governments and institutions
If the management of new pastoral areas is delegated to local committees, the sedentary farmer-herders, who are the most powerful local actors, will logically manage these areas to their own advantage. They are extremely likely to support the extension of croplands and appropriate the remaining pasturelands for their herds, as already happened in Samorogouan. This body of evidence strongly suggests that the territorial consequences of livestock policies in Burkina Faso will be negative for pastoralists
In this paper, we have identified the main links in the chain of causality that has led to FulBe territorialities being challenged at regional and local scales
Summary
Pastoral herding in dryland Africa was long misunderstood by scholars, governments and institutions. As far as mobile pastoralists are concerned, few transhumance stock routes have been delimited and a regional scheme for the preservation of a rangeland reticular territory in western Burkina Faso has not been created to connect the local pastoral territories, thereby highlighting political orientations regarding livestock. The members of the management committees of the pastoral territory, which were established in 2011, are mainly sedentary farmer-herders As a result, they are likely to have the power to control the herding resources of existing or planned state livestock rearing territories to their own advantage. They are extremely likely to support the extension of croplands and appropriate the remaining pasturelands for their herds, as already happened in Samorogouan This body of evidence strongly suggests that the territorial consequences of livestock policies in Burkina Faso will be negative for pastoralists. It contributes to the fragmentation of mobile herding territories, despite the fact that this kind of livestock husbandry has proven its environmental efficiency
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