FARMER-HERDER CONFLICTS in MALI Mali
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Placing land rights at the heart of development BRIEF FARMER-HERDER CONFLICTS IN MALI Mali Livestock rearing constitutes 10.8% of Mali’s GDP and is among the country’s top three exports. Photo: Brian McMorrow By Kelsey Jones-Casey and Anna Knox MAP INTRODUCTION Like other land-locked countries in Africa’s Sahel region, Mali is experiencing population pressures, soil degradation, more intense and variable drought cycles, and shifts in agricultural practices. These factors have contributed to the expansion of land under cultivation and decreased availability of land for grazing animals. As Malians adapt their livelihood practices to their changing circumstances, traditional rules facilitating cooperation between farmers and herders are becoming insufficient to manage increased competition over land and water. This brief explores the multiple interdependent phenomena that affect relationships between farmers and herders, and the nature of their Kelsey Jones-Casey is a consultant working on land and natural resource rights of indigenous ongoing conflicts over natural resources. and other vulnerable people. Previously, she worked as a land tenure associate at Landesa. Anna Knox has worked on land tenure and community-based natural resource management for more than 16 years. She is Chief of Party on the Land Project in Rwanda. Previously, she directed Landesa’s program in Sub-Saharan Africa. February 2011 MALI: FARMER-HERDER CONFLICTS 2 Population growth and declining herder mobility have contributed to the increased area of land under cultivation; the increased concentration of people and animals on arable land; and to competition over arable land. Eighty percent of Mali’s population is engaged in agriculture, which constitutes 45% of the country’s GDP. Photo: CGIAR, Climate FARMER-HERDER classified as sedentary, transhumant, In the 1970s and 1980s, Mali or semi-transhumant. When sedentary, experienced two periods of drought CONFLICTS IN THE FACE pastoralists will keep their animals with that decimated more than a third of OF ENVIRONMENTAL them in the rainy season, but possibly livestock in Mali and contributed to DEGRADATION entrust them to other herders to be widespread food shortages. Since the taken north during the dry season. 1980s, drought cycles have become Transhumant pastoralists migrate north shorter and more frequent. Rainfall has The people and economy of Mali are in the rainy season and south in the dry also become less predictable, leading to dependent on agriculture, which season. flooding and making farmers more risk- includes both the cultivation of crops adverse in their planting and harvests. and livestock rearing. Eighty percent Some Malians are agro-pastoralists Average temperatures in Mali have of the population is engaged in whose livelihoods combine farming and increased and are expected to further agriculture, which constitutes 45% of herding at varying ratios. Most farmers increase by between 1.2% and 3.6% the country’s GDP. Crop and pasture are small-scale subsistence farmers before 2060. These changes are taking lands account for 64% of the country’s who cultivate crops primarily for their place not just in the northern regions of area. Agriculture is dominated by the household or community’s consumption; Mali near the Sahara, but in the fertile subsistence farming of millet, rice, however, these patterns vary according southern belt where the majority of the sorghum, and corn and the rearing to ethnicity and tradition, availability of population lives. of cows, sheep, and goats. Livestock resources, and the season. For example, rearing constitutes 10.8% of GDP and is herders of the Soninké ethnic group in a The Malian government has recognized among the country’s top three exports particular region only send their animals these variations as symptoms of (after gold and cotton). The Sahara to migrate during droughts, rather than climate change. In 2007, the Ministry Desert covers nearly two-thirds of Mali, every dry season. of Equipment and Transport published and 90% of the population resides in the their national strategy for adapting more fertile southern zone below it. Historically, livelihoods have been to climate change. Their strategy tightly tied to ethnic identities (e.g. ranged from equipping boreholes or Because pastoralism (i.e. the practice Fulani herders and Bambara farmers), wells with solar or wind energy-fueled of herding) can fall into multiple but these distinctions are blurring as pumps, to developing crops that can categories, it is difficult to measure the more Malians become agro-pastoralists. be used as animal fodder and the percentage of the Malian pastoralist Risk brought on by land pressures and promotion of livestock feed banks. population. Nomadic stock rearing increasing climatic variability is leading The report mentions that continued involves herders primarily in the north to livelihood diversification, whereby degradation of water resources of the country who move frequently farmers have begun raising animals and (including sedimentation, pollution, and with their animals for grazing and herders have taken up farming. waste) has led to “significant change watering. Pastoralists can also be MALI: FARMER-HERDER CONFLICTS 3 in [agricultural] production systems,” to soil depletion and drought. As soil approximately 42% of land use conflicts which in turn has led to land disputes is depleted, farmers need to cultivate are between herders and farmers. In between farmers and herders. more land to meet their subsistence most cases, these conflicts stem from food needs. Land is less frequently disputed access to and control over land In response to these changing laid fallow and is further depleted in a and water resources. These conflicts conditions, many Malian agriculturalists vicious cycle. These practices have also can be very violent, often ending in are resorting to urban migration in diminished grazing land. Where once death. In the village of Karbaye in the hopes of securing wage labor or other fallow land transitioned to “bush land” Niger River Delta, a dispute between sources of income. Some pastoralists after several years and was used for a “farmer” village and a “herder” take up farming, remain for longer grazing, this land is now more-or-less village (livelihoods that fell along ethnic periods of time in fertile zones near continually cultivated. lines) over a pond used for household water, or become completely sedentary. water consumption, livestock water Farmers have begun raising livestock Traditionally, farmers and herders or increased the size of their herds. have maintained mutually beneficial These livelihood changes, combined relationships -- trading or selling STATISTIC with population growth and declining manure, crops, milk, and other goods. herder mobility, have contributed Herders’ animals often graze on fields to the increased area of land under used for cultivation after the harvest, Approximately 42% cultivation, as well as the increased leaving dung that improves the soil. In of land use conflicts concentration of human and animals the past, settled communities dug and on arable land, and contributed to maintained wells and welcomed the in Mali are between competition over arable land. Available herders to use them. However, these herders and farmers. arable land has become scarce, and relationships are increasingly becoming the arable land that is available is less strained. Competition over land has In most cases, these productive because average fallow caused conflicts between all types of conflicts stem from periods in recent years have decreased land users, including between farmers disputed access to and from 10-15 years to one to two years, and farmers, herders and herders, preventing the soil from fully recovering and especially between herders and control over land and from intense cultivation. farmers. water resources. In addition, the introduction of the Most scholars agree that Mali is cattle (or donkey) plough, bicycles, witnessing a growing number of and the donkey cart have increased conflicts over land use. According efficiencies in agricultural production. to S. Cissé (as cited in Pato Daniel This has allowed families to intensify Kaboré’s dissertation Conflicts over and expand their cultivation in response Land in the Niger River Delta of Mali), Conflict over natural resources can be expected to increase in Mali as populations expand and rainfall and temperatures become more erratic. Photo: Peter Cassier, www.theroadtothehorizon.org In decentralizing dispute resolution authority to local government leaders, the government has complicated and confused a process traditionally led by customary leaders. MALI: FARMER-HERDER CONFLICTS 4 consumption, and brick production led to violent conflict. Farmers from one village attacked herders from the other village when they came to the pond to water their livestock. More than 15 people were injured and at least three people were killed. Conflicts also arise when herders violate post-harvest grazing rules, such as the traditional practice of Sammandé. Following the grain harvest, herders are granted two days to graze their cattle and other small animals on the millet and sorghum stalks. Traditionally, these days were scheduled immediately following the cutting of the stalks. However, because there are more people vying for grazing rights and farmers are increasingly worried that herders will ruin their fields, this has Forums that promote dialogue and agreement among farmers and herders