Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Sahel pastoralists
T2 - Opportunism, struggle, conflict and negotiation. A case study from eastern Niger
AU - Thébaud, Brigitte
AU - Batterbury, Simon
PY - 2001/4/1
Y1 - 2001/4/1
N2 - The livelihoods and life chances of pastoral communities in the West African Sahel are linked to: the complexity of the activities they must engage in to insure access to resources; to the nature of conflicts and co-operation between ethnic groups; to the inconsistent role of the state in assisting or constraining pastoral livelihoods; and to the negative discourse surrounding pastoralism that still circulates in some government and development policy circles. The paper reviews pastoral livelihoods systems in eastern Niger to illustrate changing modes of access to water and pasture, culminating in present-day tensions and conflict between pastoral groups. State development efforts to provide secure watering points for pastoral herds have initiated social conflicts and violence, rather than creating security. No viable solution has yet been found to control the use of public wells and boreholes. Enabling frameworks for negotiation and conflict resolution must be developed locally, and centrally enforced in this, and many other regions of uncertain climatic change and overlapping systems of resource exploitation.
AB - The livelihoods and life chances of pastoral communities in the West African Sahel are linked to: the complexity of the activities they must engage in to insure access to resources; to the nature of conflicts and co-operation between ethnic groups; to the inconsistent role of the state in assisting or constraining pastoral livelihoods; and to the negative discourse surrounding pastoralism that still circulates in some government and development policy circles. The paper reviews pastoral livelihoods systems in eastern Niger to illustrate changing modes of access to water and pasture, culminating in present-day tensions and conflict between pastoral groups. State development efforts to provide secure watering points for pastoral herds have initiated social conflicts and violence, rather than creating security. No viable solution has yet been found to control the use of public wells and boreholes. Enabling frameworks for negotiation and conflict resolution must be developed locally, and centrally enforced in this, and many other regions of uncertain climatic change and overlapping systems of resource exploitation.
KW - Common property
KW - Eastern Niger
KW - Pastoralism
KW - Sahel
U2 - 10.1016/S0959-3780(00)00046-7
DO - 10.1016/S0959-3780(00)00046-7
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:0035106268
VL - 11
SP - 69
EP - 78
JO - Global Environmental Change
JF - Global Environmental Change
SN - 0959-3780
IS - 1
ER -