Towards Adaptive Commons: A Case Study of Agro-Pastoral Dams in Northern Ghana

Ruben Weesie

doi:10.3390/su11020319

Abstract

Agro-pastoral dams (APDs) are an increasingly popular method of adaptation interventions improving communal water supply in rural West Africa. However, APDs are often constructed in areas where culturally heterogeneous pastoralists and farmers compete for similar land and water resources. Lifting open access water abundance is likely to change if not intensify ongoing tensions between farmers and settling Fulani herders. The extent of collective action and inclusivity of 6 APDs in Northern Ghana are analysed, combining theory from common-pool resource management and equity and justice in climate change adaptation into a proposed Inclusive Collective Action (ICA) model. Practically, the article demonstrates that neither fully excluding Fulani pastoralists nor making dams openly accessible results in inclusive APD usage and management where collective action is successful, and more dynamic forms of regional inclusion and exclusion are needed. Theoretically, the article identifies some of the limitations of applying the enabling conditions for collective action of common-pool resource theory as it tends to overlook negative aspects of excluding certain user groups in culturally heterogeneous contexts from managing and using a commons.

Highlights

In rural West Africa, farmers and pastoralists are often strongly exposed to changes in the climate due to their direct reliance on natural resources such as rainwater and pasture
Concerning the enabling conditions for collective actions, resource and group characteristics are largely met, while shared norms, appropriate leadership and homogeneous identities and interests tend to lack in the studied agro-pastoral dams (APDs)
Based on the tables in the Appendix, the position of each dam with regard to successful collective action and inclusivity are shown in the Inclusive Collective Action (ICA) model below (Figure 7)

Summary

Introduction

In rural West Africa, farmers and pastoralists are often strongly exposed to changes in the climate due to their direct reliance on natural resources such as rainwater and pasture Recognising this issue, numerous development projects have attempted to improve security of perennial water access by constructing agro-pastoral dams (APDs) in West African villages. Competition over the commons is widespread in West Africa, often leading to conflict between farmers and pastoralists that compete over using publicly accessible land and water resources Such conflict erupts when livestock destroys crops and farmers sometimes retaliate by killing cattle, leading to a breakdown of farmer-pastoralist relations [4,5,6,7,8]. Competing claims and commons-related conflict is likely to continue, as groups of Fulani pastoralists continue to migrate southward and settle into the Guinea Savannah Belt as a result of degradation of pasture in the Sahel region [9]

Methods

Results

Conclusion