Chapter II. Natural Resources and Their Use in West Africa

A. An outline of the region

1. Geographical coverage

This study covers all West African countries,² from the Sahara to the southern coast and from Senegal to Lake Chad and Northern and Western Cameroon (Map 1). Cape Verde is part of West Africa but only sideways considered because of its distance to the continent; in the case of marine fisheries, however, the role of Cape Verde is taken into account. Chad and Cameroon usually are considered part of Central Africa. They are included in this study because they cover a major part of the Lake Chad catchment and because of the other roles they play in the West African region (Chad is a member of the Comité Inter-états de Lutte contre la Sécheresse au Sahel—CILSS—for example).

These countries all are among the world’s least developed: The human development index varies from 0.481 for Cameroon to 0.185 for Sierra Leone, compared to 0.772 for the world average (1995 data; http://www.undp.org). However, the differences between the coastal and landlocked countries are large—more than 50 percent of the wealth and population (see a map showing population densities in West Africa at http://arm.arc.co.uk/popAfrica.html) of West Africa are reckoned to be concentrated in a strip around the coast representing only 6 percent of the total area (http://www.oecd.org). In many countries frontier effects can be observed: In both the Sahelian and the coastal countries the population (and wealth) is concentrated in the southern parts where the climate is most suitable for agricultural production. As a consequence, the (political) importance attached to, and the willingness to invest in, frontier zones may differ between neighboring countries.

The present annual population growth will result in a doubling of the West African population in about 30 years. This inevitably will have an impact on land use as the pressure on land will increase. The result can be degradation by overexploitation of the natural resources, but also can provide an incentive to invest in new technologies and the application of appropriate conservation methods (Mistry 2000; http://iucn.org). In view of the population increase some important questions need to be addressed, including soil fertility management, genetic engineering for higher yields, land tenure, and conflicts over access to natural resources (Mistry 2000). The spread of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) could limit the population growth, but also changes the composition of the population negatively by taking away the productive and reproductive parts of the population.

2. Ecological zonation

West Africa can be subdivided into several ecological zones that are related to mean annual rainfall and natural vegetation (Map 2). From the northern desert zone to the southern forests, annual rainfall quantities increase, rainy seasons lengthen, and the periods of active vegetation growth³ amplify. The higher plant productivity in the southern part results in more complexly structured vegetation and, as a consequence, in a larger variety of plant and animal species (Cox and Moore 1993; de Bie 1991).

Within these main ecological zones, local variations in ecosystems exist as a function of abiotic conditions (soil and relief). The most apparent ones are the wetland areas on the coast and in the inland (river basins, lakes and pools, floodplains) and the mountain areas. Land use in each of these ecological zones is strongly related to, and influenced by, the respective abiotic conditions.

Across these roughly latitudinal ecological zones, north-south bands can be distinguished that connect the arid and humid zones through movements of people, animals, and (agricultural) products.

3. The socioeconomic environment

a. History

Before the arrival of the colonial powers (and the present boundaries), a number of empires characterized the political life in West Africa. Some pastoral peoples were powerful: The Fulani kingdoms of Sokoto and Macina can be mentioned in this respect. Also the terminuses of the caravan routes crossing the Sahara desert played an important role in regional politics (the Ghana and Mali empires (Havinga and Van de Mandele 1988) and in the cities of Kano and Katsina). Their significance profoundly diminished when overland trading routes, connecting northern and southern West African people, were transferred to the sea and coastal cities grew in importance. The limits of the former empires do not coincide with present frontiers.

The French and the British have been the dominant colonial powers in West Africa in the 19^th and 20^th century, with Portugal having been present in Guinea Bissau and Germany in Togo and parts of Cameroon and Ghana (for relatively short periods of time). French West Africa was governed centrally from Dakar, with representations on a national level. All West African countries gained their independence during the period of 1957 (Ghana) to 1965 (Gambia), with the exceptions of Liberia (1847) and Guinea Bissau (1974).

In view of the accessibility and apparent richness, coastal countries were of greater interest to the colonial powers than those inland. Colonialists set up plantations and installed the necessary infrastructures to exploit the natural resources. For these works the laborers on the spot did not suffice; workers, therefore, were recruited from the inland countries. The taxation policies set up by the colonial states served as a force stimulating labor migration: People needed to earn money to be able to pay the taxes (Breusers 1999).

b. Ethnic groups and languages

The West African countries harbor a diversity of ethnic groups that often are present in more than one country because their traditional homelands were cut in two during the delimitation of the national borders ,or as a result of migration. Transhumant peoples are, by definition, at home in different regions (that may be located in different countries).

Traditionally, professional specialization roughly has corresponded to specific ethno-linguistic groups or special social categories: farmers, herders, fishers, hunters, and artisans. Some professions have been reserved for castes within groups. Many factors have influenced diversification of income and resources—and this is one source of change in associating kinds of economic activity with ethnicity, language, and social status. Among these factors can be mentioned impoverishment (due to drought), the integration into market economies, and increasing scarcity of natural resources (through population pressure).

All West African countries, hosting many local languages, took over the language of their colonizers as the official one (in order not to favor any of the ethnic groups). The majority of West African countries, therefore, are French-speaking (11 out of 17); Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia and a part of Cameroon have adopted the English language, and Guinea-Bissau is Portuguese speaking. In Mauritania and Chad the Arab language is important as well. This linguistic fragmentation on the level of official languages complicates communication between countries and results in the forming of political-economic blocks (the French-speaking CFA—Compagnie Française d’Afrique) franc countries and the English-speaking other countries).

Each ethnic group has its own language apart from the national language. Usually only the people that have benefited from a formal education, alphabetization courses—adult literacy rates vary from 13.6 percent in Niger to 64.5 percent in Ghana, with large differences between men and women (1995 data; http://www.undp.org)—and some self-taught merchants speak the official language. Individuals often speak several languages: their own language, another local language (if they have moved), one or more lingua franca or hybrid languages (Haussa, Dioula, Pidgin), and the official language (if they have been to school). The capacity to speak several languages facilitates contacts between people belonging to different ethnic groups. This phenomenon holds true for the national as well as the international level. The group whose language is a lingua franca often is considered (by themselves and by other ethnic groups) to be dominant in (national) politics.

c. Land tenure and legal systems

Land tenure in West Africa, as with law and administrative decrees in general, is characterized by the coexistence of several legal systems. During the colonial period Western legal systems were imposed upon the existing customary and religious land tenure without eliminating traditional rules and institutions. Table 1 provides a summary of some features of customary land tenure systems in West Africa, as well as the most important characteristics of modern law as designed by the French and English colonial powers (Lavigne Delville 1999). There are nearly as many customary land tenure regimes as there are ethno-linguistic groups (in Nigeria alone there are 394 linguistic units). Probably these regimes have a lot in common, but no exhaustive surveys have been done⁴ (Mortimore 1997). Customary land tenure is even more complicated to describe because rules regularly are being adapted to changing circumstances (Breusers 2001; Lavigne Delville 1999). Depending on local customs, women have access to land as well. In many cases they can cultivate a part of the land assigned to their husbands or brothers.

Source: Lavigne Delville (1999); Parren and De Graaf (1995).

The imposition of colonial law systems on traditional rules resulted in legal pluralism. This situation, in combination with erratic enforcement, has created uncertainty over rights and arbitration, which has, in turn, an impact on land use. Farmers, or example, cultivate more land than they really need in order to secure their rights to the land. Rural people often find themselves in a position of permanent illegality and insecurity, especially in forest areas, where the gap between formal law and local practice is greatest (Lavigne Delville 1999). Since the mid-1980s and early 1990s, the French-speaking countries in West Africa have engaged in a debate about the land-tenure issue in view of harmonizing customary and official land-tenure regimes (Lavigne Delville 1999). This process, giving more importance to local customary land tenure systems, fits into the framework of decentralization. The experiences of the different countries make clear that local land tenure regimes are so diverse and flexible as to not fit easily into general rules and laws. It has been concluded that:

Choosing a tenure policy is a political choice about authority systems—customary, state or mixed—and the geographical level at which land management should take place. (Lavigne Delville 1999: 20)

Tenure security, as a condition for increased agricultural production and environmental protection, has been the idea behind numerous land-reform programs and development projects in West Africa (Breusers 2001; Lavigne Delville 1999; Mortimore 1997). Investments would follow upon tenure security, which was defined as security through individual land titles. However, research⁵ has shown that, in view of the precarious environment, farmers and pastoralists alike are served better by flexible land-tenure regimes that permit moving in order to make optimal use of available resources and production conditions. Livelihood security is attained through kinship relations that confer access rights in geographically dispersed pools of territories (Breusers 2001).

In an unpredictable and precarious environment, geographic mobility is essential for actors to secure their livelihoods, both in the long and the short term. Actors’ movements, as they appear from their land-use paths, not only are made possible by the prevailing land tenure regimes but also continuously promote its flexibility and the merging and shifting of rights to land. This argues against the establishment of western-type tenure security and in favour of the maintenance of flexible resource tenure regimes. (Breusers 2001)

The right to cultivate in the village territory usually is not related to the possession of, but to the right to use, specific fields for a period of time. The diversity of resources present in the village territory, and even on fields, confers different rights to different persons at different times of the year.

… African tenure is not communal in the sense of tenure in common. Its fundamental characteristic seems rather to be an individual tenure of land derived from a common stock at the disposal of the tribe or family. [Lugard (1922) in Mortimore (1997)]

Cash-crop production, however, has pushed towards more individualized tenure, especially when the cash crop (e.g., cocoa) cannot be combined with traditional food crops (Mortimore 1997).

With reference to pastoral issues, West African countries have incoherent and fragmented legislation that does not respond to the need for pacifying herder-farmer relations and the securance of pastoral land rights (http://www.gtz.de). Only Mauritania and Mali have a pastoral code; other countries, like Niger, are in the process of formulation.

Fishing, like hunting, gathering, and wood collection, is subject to specific (customary) management rules (Raynaut 1997b), with the general system following the lines discussed above.

Over time, transnational laws and conventions have been elaborated to regulate natural resource use issues concerning more than one country. Ideally, these bilateral or multilateral agreements are translated into national policies and legal systems. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

d. Institutional environment

In the same way that traditional legal systems exist and function next to official ones, so do traditional authorities coexist with state structures. Some functions of the traditional authorities have officially been recognized by the state (e.g., allocation of land and conflict management), while others are accepted tacitly. The present influence of traditional authorities varies between the different countries, partly as a consequence of differing colonial policies. Whereas the formal administration is organized along geographic lines, the traditional organization is focused on people, which is truer for pastoral societies as, due to their mobility, they are less territorial. The distinction between traditional societies is made often on the basis of ethnicity, but this is not a particularly distinctive criterion, as the limits between ethnic groups are not so clear and are far from being homogeneous (Raynaut 1997a). Men dominate traditional as well as state authorities, but in certain cases women may have influential parallel structures.

The decentralization process taking place in most West African countries is aimed at delegating more power to the administrative structure’s lower levels. This process began with the democratization movement, in the 1990s, in all West African countries, though its course differs from place to place. Alongside the administrative decentralization, there are many local natural resource management structures being put in place, with the help of development or conservation projects. These structures (and local users), aim to develop and execute plans and rules for the exploitation and management of the natural resources in their territory. They are considered better able to manage the resources they depend on in a sustainable way than remote institutions. In Niger and Mali the fuelwood markets have been the center of the power transfer from the administrative authorities to the local management structures (IRG 1999). The power and mandate of these local management structures depends on the respect they receive from the population (depending on the importance attached to the structure) and the support of traditional and state authorities (official recognition).

Although the West African states are relatively young, they have vested interests which makes processes like decentralization and regional integration come forth rather stiffly. States attach much value to their sovereignty.

B. Ecology

In this section are described the most important characteristics of the climate, soil and water resources, the flora and fauna that depend on them, and the functioning of ecosystems in West Africa. The relations between, and the dynamics of, these elements should help to understand the land-use types described in Section C in this chapter.

The ecology of West Africa is, in large degree, determined by the temporal and spatial variability of rainfall quantities having consequences for the availability of natural resources. In the humid southern part of the region the rainfall fluctuations are smaller. The climatic variability is a prime determining factor for all sorts of life in the region—plant, animal, and human.

A critical property of ecosystems⁶ in these zones, characterized by variations in resource availability, is their resilience to external shocks. Resilience is defined as the capacity of an ecosystem to return to equilibrium after external disturbance (Holling 1973; Rietkerk 1998). With regard to the resilience of ecosystems, biodiversity is an important factor due to the role individual species, and certain mixes of species, play in supporting ecosystem functions over a range of environmental conditions (Perrings 2000). In this respect, resistance is defined as the capacity of an ecosystem to maintain equilibrium in the case of environmental fluctuations and external disturbance (Holling 1973; Mistry 2000; Rietkerk 1998).

Some people and animals deal with the variations in rainfall and resource availability (vegetation and water) by means of mobility. An absolute condition for this strategy to work is that movements are possible and not hindered by frontiers or regulations. Another condition refers to the existence and accessibility of repletion zones where animals and humans can escape to in case of crises.

1. Climate

A marking characteristic of the climate in the northern part of West Africa is the temporal and spatial variability of annual rainfall quantities. Over the year all rainfall is concentrated in a relatively short period in which heavy and local showers are prevalent. Dry spells within rainy seasons may occur, and can have a significant effect on biomass production. Over the years large differences can be seen in annual precipitation; years of relatively abundant rainfall generally are succeeded by droughts. These variations are all the more pronounced in the most arid parts of the region. In the southern part, however, rainfall distribution over the year is more consistent—rainy seasons last longer and dry periods are not completely devoid of rainfall.

The isohyets of mean annual rainfall roughly are parallel to the latitudinal lines (Grove 1985a; Parren and De Graaf 1995). The isohyets only make a downward curve near Togo and Benin—the Dahomey Gap.⁷ The highest rainfall zones lay on both sides of this curve, near the Sierra Leone and Liberia coasts, and on the coast where Nigeria and Cameroon meet. The relatively dry area of the Dahomey Gap separates many closely related rainforest plant and animal species. Rainfall in West Africa is derived from moist equatorial air moving inland from the Atlantic Ocean, where it encounters a dry Saharan air mass. The front between the two masses is called the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). From November to February the ITCZ is located near the Guinea coast, then moves north to where it reaches the southern border of the Sahara in August, only to come back once more (Grove 1985a). Mountainous areas usually receive more rainfall than the surrounding flatlands.

Comparing the mean annual rainfall of the last decades with the long-term mean (of the last century), the first proves to be lower (Koechlin 1997). It is, however, not yet clear if these decreasing mean annual rainfall quantities are a temporary phenomenon or an irreversible modification of the climate. However, the degrading effects the last drought periods had on the environment and the livelihoods of people are supposed to have a long-term impact. The fear has been expressed that dry land areas will, in the future, be less able to support life (Toulmin 1995). The global climate change certainly will have an impact on West Africa; a drier climate, changes in species distribution of plants and animals, and changes in land-use patterns are foreseen (Mistry 2000).

2. Geology and soils

West Africa can be subdivided into four geomorphologic regions (FAO/UNESCO 1977):

• Coastal lowlands: From Guinea Bissau to Liberia/Ivory Coast, low peninsulas, rias, and offshore islands are found, along with coastal plains intersected by muddy creeks and rias. From Liberia/Ivory Coast to Nigeria the coast is marked by west-east longshore currents that form huge sand bars, which in turn lead to lagoons.
• Western African plateaus and plains: Extensive plateaus and plains are interrupted by high and small plateaus and residual inselbergs.
• Chad basin: The largest inland drainage basin of sub-Saharan Africa is found here.
• Saharan region: Sand (1/8 of the area), rock, and gravel comprise this area.

The Western African plateaus and plains, and part of the Chad basin, are being used for agriculture and animal husbandry. Practically all soils in West Africa suitable for cultivation have low soil-fertility levels. Only soils benefiting from instream (seepage of flowing natural water on valley bottoms, river banks, shores of lakes) have more nutrients available for plant growth. The soils in the savanna ecological zones are characterized by low soil organic matter, low cation-exchange capacity, and low nutrient content, and they have weak structures (sandy surface, clayey compact subsoil or hardpan) (Mistry 2000). The soils of the forest zones have been subject to ages of weathering and, as a result, soils have a low absorbing complex, no mineral reserve, and the fertilizing elements are concentrated in the organic matter in the soil and vegetation (FAO/UNESCO 1977).

In well-drained soils the percentage base saturation decreases when average annual rainfall increases due to leaching. Above c. 800 mm average annual rainfall the base saturation increases, reaching a peak at c. 1200 mm annual rainfall, after which it decreases again with further increase in rainfall. This discontinuity can be explained as being the result of the release of bases from decomposing plant material, possibly in combination with an animal factor (herbivore). Thus, despite hydrological and Eolian leaching forces, nutrients are retained in the ecosystem (de Bie 1991).

The factors limiting plant growth (and carrying capacity) vary from one ecological zone to the next: In the arid zones plant available moisture (PAM) determines plant growth and species composition, whereas in more humid regions plant available nutrients (PAN) become the limiting factor.⁸ However, due to soil degradation processes, factors limiting plant growth may change:

• Physical degradation reduces the infiltration rate; the water available for plant growth consequently becomes the limiting factor.
• Chemical exhaustion of the soil means that nutrient (N and/or P) availability becomes the limiting factor for vegetation growth.
• The destruction of vegetation (through overexploitation or external disturbances like drought) implies that water and nutrients are left unused, and that carrying capacity is limited because the plant cover is reduced.

These three types of soil degradation are related to the mean annual rainfall and the degree of infiltration (see Penning de Vries and Djiteye 1982).

3. Water

West Africa has a coastal line of about 4500 km and a proportionately important sea surface. Significant to the interests of the coastal areas is that 20 out of the 30 Ramsar⁹ sites in West Africa are located on the coastline (Frazier 1999). The value of the coastal areas lies primarily in the fact that an abundance of fish attracts millions of migratory birds. In fact, the waters from Morocco to Guinea are among the richest fishing grounds in the world, which is due to the discharge of sediments and nutrients from the rivers, resulting in a high primary and secondary production, as well as the favorable climatic circumstances (warm and humid). These delta areas (and their related mangroves—see Box 2) play an important role in the production and reproduction cycles of a number of fish species (http://grid2.cr.usgs.gov).

Each coastal country is responsible for the management of a 200 mile wide strip of sea bordering the national coastline (as determined by UNCLOS). Water flows and fish and birds travel with no regard for borders, which means that marine resources call for comanagement on a regional level.

On the level of freshwater resources some transboundary resources can be mentioned. The major rivers, Senegal, Volta, Niger, Benue, Logone, and Chari, all traverse or border more than one country. They have their source in the highlands near the coast (the Fouta Djalon in the West and the Adamawa mountains in the East) and then move to the north before reaching their outlet. Many smaller rivers are shared by more than one country as well.

The Niger and the Chari/Logone are feeding floodplains in Mali and Chad/Cameroon, respectively. These floodplains are very productive compared to the surrounding land, because of the concurrence of land and water and the concentration of nutrients (Brouwer et al. 2000). They are thus important in light of their interest to human exploitation purposes (animal husbandry, agriculture, fishing, hunting), as well as their value for nature conservation (vegetation, birds, fishes).

The Lake Chad waters presently cover about 2,500 km² and are located in Cameroon and Chad, but in the 1960s, when the waters extended over 25,000 km², the lake was positioned in Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria.¹⁰ The falling water levels are a result of reduced rainfall, diversion of rivers for irrigation purposes, and silting up. Lake Chad is fed principally by the Logone, Chari, and El Beid from Cameroon, and the Komadougou-Yobe from Niger and Nigeria. The Bahr el Ghazal in Chad is the only outlet, but it has not been running since 1875 (Grove 1985a). The catchment covers 2,500,000 km² in seven countries (http://www.fews.org).

The freshwater availability strongly is related to precipitation, and fluctuations in the seasonal and annual water volumes of rivers and lakes consequently are enormous. For the Niger river at Koulikoro (near Bamako, Mali), for example, seasonal discharges have been measured ranging from almost 0 m³/sec in April and May to peak flows up to 9,500 m³/sec in October. At the same location, annual peak flows varied from 4,000 to 9,500 m³/sec (data covering the twentieth century). Though the height of the flow peaks and the annual discharges may vary largely from one year to another, the timing of the peak flows is quite regular (Grove 1985a). As a result of the latitudinal position of the rainfall zones, the major West African rivers have comparable annual variations in discharges, in spite of the distance (almost 3,000 km) between their sources (Grove 1985a). This means that in years of low rainfall, the water level of the rivers is low because the precipitation in the entire catchment is low.

These fluctuations complicate the possibilities for exploitation of freshwater resources. People have diversified their sources of income to deal with this variability as they combine farming activities with fishing, livestock raising, and soda mining (http://www.fews.org). While traditional production methods can adapt to changing water levels, modern irrigation schemes have difficulties adjusting to fluctuating water levels (Grove 1985b).

4. Vegetation

Following the UNESCO classification (based on the richness of endemic floras at the species level), there are five floristic regions in West Africa (White 1983) closely related to the ecological zones as described in the first section of this chapter:

• Guineo-Congolian regional centre of endemism: This zone used to be covered by various kinds of rain- and swamp forests; presently little undisturbed forest is left while secondary grasslands and forests in different stages of re-growth are widespread. This zone is categorized as a global biodiversity hotspot (CI 2000).
• Guinea-Congolia/Sudania regional transition zone: As most forests have been destroyed by fire or through cultivation, this zone is dominated by secondary grass- and woodlands; however, some remnants close to the semi-evergreen rainforest of the Guineo-Congolian zone persist.
• Sudanian regional center of endemism: The natural vegetation consists of savanna woodland; closed forests being rare, the natural vegetation is adapted to fire and has been adapted profoundly through cultivation. Fallows in less densely populated areas slowly regenerate into the woodland.
• Sahel regional transition zone: The natural vegetation changes from wooded grassland in the south to semi-desert grassland in the north, with some bush lands confined to rocky outcrops. Scrub forest can be found on the mountains.
• Sahara regional transition zone: Vegetation is sparse and confined to places where water permits plant growth, with trees and bushes only appearing in oases and wadis; the vegetation of the western half of the Sahara is more diversified than that of the eastern half.

These floristic compositions are a simplification of reality in the sense that: (1) these groupings are not internally homogeneous, (2) vegetation types gradually crossover from one type into another so that, in practice, the limits between vegetation types are not so clear (they roughly follow the ecological zones as depicted in Map 2) vegetation stands are dynamic.

Different qualitative and quantitative measures to evaluate biological diversity and to justify actions aimed at the conservation of biodiversity can be distinguished (Box 1). Some measures argue for action on the regional level, like combat against invasive species that have an influence on the ecosystem by replacing or pushing out other species, or demand harmonized natural resource management policies (e.g., in the case of fragmented populations).

Understanding of phenological patterns and trends in plant availability and quality in relation to environmental factors, such as rainfall, soil fertility, and fire, is essential for the management of wild ungulates and land-use practice such as animal husbandry.

Although rainfall generally is very seasonal in West Africa, not all plants reflect this. Only annual plants and deciduous trees and shrubs show phonological patterns corresponding with rainfall; perennial grasses dominate the savanna when mean annual rainfall is above 700 mm; annual grasses are abundant in zones with lower annual rainfall. Perennial and tall annual savanna grasses flower when maximum biomass is reached in the late wet season. Their maximum biomass reaches considerable quantities and reflects the amount of rainfall received by the site. During growth the quality of annual and perennial grasses decreases, but perennials produce fresh dry-season growth in the dry season as well, when soil humidity suffices. Bush fires, frequent in the wetter parts of the savanna zone (>600 mm/year), destroy what remains of the wet season herbaceous production but stimulate the growth of high-quality dry-season shoots.

Trees and bushes (deciduous and evergreen) are present all over the savanna zone, but they increase in size, as does their foliage production with increasing annual rainfall. In the dry season the availability of woody plant foliage exceeds that of savanna grasses. The quality of woody foliage generally is higher and more constant than that of savanna grasses (see Figures 6.14 and 6.15 in de Bie 1991).

The evolution of vegetation over time is steered by major and minor disturbances of biotic or abiotic nature (such as fire, heavy storms, flooding, pests and diseases, grazing etc.). The dynamics of the herbaceous savanna vegetation have been summarized in Figure 1. Sudden or gradual disturbances (rainfall and grazing) lead to replacements of perennial grasses by annual grasses and herbs, which are more resistant to the changed growing conditions (Breman et al. 1982; Rietkerk 1998).

Figure 1. Dynamics of herbaceous savanna vegetation in response to disturbances.

(adapted from Breman et al., 1982, Rietkerk 1998)

Fields for agricultural production have replaced an important part of the natural vegetation in the savanna and forest zones. However, for the survival of individual species (plants and animals), as well as for the continued existence of ecosystems, a certain number of factors are essential: (1) sufficient number of individuals per species, (2) interaction with other plant and animal species, (3) specific abiotic conditions. As a result of fragmentation, species may be threatened by extinction because the necessary conditions for survival no longer are met in sufficient measure or on a sufficient scale.

5. Fauna

In the forest zones of West Africa there is a large faunal diversity with some rare endemic forest-dwelling mammal species: pygmy hippo (Choeropsis liberiensis), zebra duiker (Cephalophus zebra), Jentink’s duiker (Cephalophus jentinki), Diana monkey (Cercopithecus diana), and Liberian mongoose (Liberiictis kuhni) (Parren and De Graaf 1995). Leaving the forest for the savanna zones, the (plant and animal) species richness decreases in relation to mean annual rainfall (Cox and Moore 1993; de Bie 1991).

Animal species do not use the various habitat types according to availability but show, rather, a degree of preference (see Figure 7.4 in de Bie 1991), especially in the dry season, when most species concentrate on the lower parts of the catena (near permanent water sources). The seasonal movements and ecological separation of ungulates are related to their forage and water requirements, selective animals like bushbuck (Tragelaphus scriptus) and waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymus) being less flexible in their habitat choice than the warthog (Phacochoerus aethiopicus), for example (de Bie 1991).

Furthermore, animal species can be subdivided into grazers, browsers, and mixed feeders according to their feeding preferences. In order to cope with seasonally changing forage quality, animals select specific plant parts or move to other habitat types in order to keep the quality and quantity of their diet above the minimum level.

Given the large variations in the availability of resources such as forage and water, and their limited distribution (especially in the dry season), competition between wildlife species can be expected (de Bie 1991). Difference in diet composition is the most important mechanism leading to ecological separation between most savanna ungulates. Together with differences in water dependency and feeding selectivity, it reduces the potential competition for resources through which the ungulate community achieves a certain stability.

Most (terrestrial) wildlife presently is confined to protected areas like national parks and reserves, because the activities of man (cultivation, livestock raising, hunting) have resulted in a fragmentation of wildlife populations, which has led to local extinctions of certain species (de Bie 1991). Still, some free-ranging populations of savanna and forest elephants (see Box 3), giraffes, and hippopotamus exist. Many terrestrial wildlife species move between ecological zones in response to resource availability.

Wetland zones in West Africa are important sites for many migrating bird species. They pass the European or Asian winter along the West African coast or on inland wetlands like the Inner Niger Delta. Migrating birds connect regions that do not touch physically, but that are part of some sort of entity, a network of resources that is all-important at some moment of time. Almost all bird species that occur in the Sahel show some degree of movement in response to temporal and spatial differences in availability of resources. Even bush birds that are said to be residential often move south at the start of the dry season (Brouwer 2001).

As already mentioned in the paragraph on water, there is a diversity of fish species along the West African coast, some of which migrate between Guinea and Morocco.

6. Savanna ecosystem functioning

Rainfall and bush fires are the main determinants of the structure and composition of the West African savanna vegetation (Figure 2). The availability of dry-season growth of perennial grasses determines the distribution of grass-preferring wild ungulates. In the lower rainfall areas the grazers become less numerous and more vulnerable to the variations in rainfall. Series of drought years do not eliminate the entire ungulate fauna but shift the ratio between grass- and woody plant foliage-preferring species towards the latter, and may even cause the local extinction of the grazing ungulates. Species such as elephant, roan antelope, and oribi (mixed feeders) thus are expected to have a more northern distribution than the real savanna grazers, which is indeed the case (de Bie 1991).

Figure 2. Model illustrating the interrelationships between environmental factors and ungulates in the Baoulé; plus signs indicate that higher values in the preceding feature result in higher values in the succeeding one, whereas minus signs result in lower values

Source: de Bie (1991).

Fires maintain an equilibrium between the canopy layer of trees and shrubs and the cover provided by grasses. Grass-preferring ungulates depend on the regular occurrence of fire. Long-term absence of fires therefore will have a considerable influence on the abundance of certain ungulate species. The ungulate community of the West African savanna should be characterized as a fire-climax (de Bie 1991).

From north to south the ecological carrying capacity for wild, as well as for domestic, ungulate species increases in West Africa. Rainfall, vegetation quantity and quality, soil nutrient status, and the feeding ecology of ungulates are the determinants for the carrying capacity.

In the lower rainfall zones of West Africa, the ungulate biomass tends to be dominated by browsing ungulates, whereas above 800 mm rainfall a year, grass-preferring species constitute the majority (de Bie 1991). In areas below 600 mm annual rainfall, short annual grasses provide good quality forage in the dry season as long as these pastures are not burnt. This quantity is more than is available from dry-season growth of perennial grasses in the zone between 600 and 800 mm rainfall. Hence, the transition of Sahelian pastures to the northern savanna shows a strong reduction in the ecological carrying capacity.

C. Land use

The majority of the West African population depends on the exploitation of natural resources, as the portion of the population living in rural areas ranges from 45 percent in Mauritania to 82 percent in Burkina Faso (http://www.fao.org). Agricultural and pastoral systems are dominant but people usually combine them with other forms of natural resource use, like fishing and hunting, according to the environmental conditions. This strong dependence on natural resources is related to the absence of a well-developed industrial and services sector. Also implied is that the condition of natural resources has important consequences for the livelihood of a large number of people.

Land-use systems in West Africa are, in large measure, determined by climatic conditions. The inter- and intra-annual variability of rainfall, as well as the total annual rainfall quantities, determines the type and organization of land-use systems. With an increasing population pressure, people have had to adapt their strategies to cope with the variability of the environment. It has become more and more difficult to buffer temporal variability with spatial variability, as used to be the starting point for many land-use strategies. The possibilities to escape adversity are getting scarcer. Whereas before pastoralists, depending completely on livestock for their livelihood, responded to variations in resource availability by moving, they now have diversified their production systems and have started to cultivate. Before farmers were able to cultivate sizeable fields in different places and constitute reserves for poor years; now they have started to invest in animal husbandry. So, in order to spread risk factors, households have a range of income generating activities with which they exploit resources in different geographic areas. The extreme droughts of the 1970s and 1980s have speeded up the process of change set off by the human population growth and the related reduction of soil fertility. The incentive for changing from specialized to mixed production systems can be positive (capital investment, such as agriculturists investing in animal husbandry) or negative (loss of capital, with herd owners cultivating fields after having lost their animals)¹² (Bonfiglioli 1990; Slingerland 2000).

As a result of uneven rainfall distribution, limited rainfall quantities and low soil fertility, agricultural production generally is unreliable in the Sahel zone. In order to make money to complete household budgets, relieve family expenses, and complete socioeconomic educations, young men from Sahelian countries go to the coast for various periods of time (a few months to several years). Whereas before these young men were employed as agricultural or construction workers, they work now as “agricultural entrepreneurs”—they are small plantation owners, they rent land (for the cultivation of rice), or they work as sharecroppers (growing cocoa or coffee). In this way confederations of households are established, whereby those in the north (Sahel) and in the south (coastal countries) are being linked through the pooling of labor and the buffering of revenues (spread of risks) (Breusers 2001). The migration of young men also has negative influences on land use in the home country, in that labor-intensive soil and water conservation works cannot be executed to their full extent. In some cases, when the labor demand of different farms is not rightly estimated, tasks like weeding cannot be executed in time, which has negative effects on the production. The labor demand for weeding is related to the rainfall pattern during the growing season, and can therefore not always be foreseen. On the other hand, the confrontation with other habits and techniques allows young migrants to become possible innovators of agricultural systems at home. Flexible land-tenure systems permit farmers to leave for some time and come back.

As a result of these changes, land-use intensity has increased in West Africa: The agricultural area is extending at the cost of forests (in the southern part of West Africa) and pastures (in the northern part) as systems based on fallow or slash-and-burn increasingly are being replaced by permanent cultivation systems. In order to make maximum use of the space available, land is being used for different purposes at the same time (e.g., agro-forestry) or consecutively (e.g., growing crops on fishing ponds falling dry). In this way different households may exploit an area. The combination of different land uses on the same area points to a certain complementarity of land-use types. One of the most significant examples of complementarity is the interdependence of agriculture and livestock. Livestock need agricultural residues during the dry season when pastures are no longer available or accessible (due to the depletion of water resources). At the same time, the animals transform the vegetation remnants and excrete nutritional elements that are available readily to the plants when the next rainy season starts. But, even though pastoral and agricultural land-use types complement each other, competition over space (and its products) is becoming a serious problem provoking much conflict between land users.

Land-use practices are, in many cases, unsustainable in the sense that they are destructive for the environment and endanger future production possibilities (Figure 3). There are several reasons for this:

Figure 3. Under- and overexploitation

Source: de Bie and Geerling (1988).

• People may be forced by necessity (survival) to cultivate on unsuitably fragile land, mine soil fertility, reclaim forests that protect the watershed against erosion, etc., as the most suitable lands already are in use.
• People may not be aware of the consequences of unsustainable land-use practices; even if they are, they do not necessarily have access to the means (knowledge and technologies) to apply environmentally-sound production methods.
• Rules and regulations to protect the environment and control land use exist but, in some cases, are no longer adapted to present and local circumstances; also, control on law enforcement often is lacking.
• Social and environmental costs usually are not included in market prices, which does not stimulate the development and application of resource-conserving policies and technologies.
• Some people, however, in pursuit of immediate and short-term gains, deliberately do not take into account the consequences of environmentally-unfriendly land-use practices (individual gain versus costs spread over society); these are the so-called free riders.

These unsustainable land-use practices may lead to desertification, which is defined as land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas¹³ resulting from different factors, including climatic variations and human activities (Toulmin 1998). The term covers different environmental problems that render populations more vulnerable to drought and food insecurity:

• Loss of soils due to wind and water erosion,
• Reduced soil fertility,
• Diminished vegetation cover,
• Decreased availability of water resources, and
• Reduced diversity of plant and animal species.

1. Agriculture

Rain-fed agriculture is the principle form of production in the West African regions where mean annual rainfall exceeds 300 mm. Rain-fed crops differ in accordance with precipitation: from millet, sorghum, and cowpea in the driest parts to maize and sorghum in intermediate rainfall areas and maize, plantain, (coco) yam, and cassava where rains are abundant. In the Guinea zone, which has two rainy seasons, several crops per year are possible. Staple crops (grains in the north and root crops in the south) are grown basically for subsistence, but a part of household production is sold to provide for goods not produced on the farm. The production, trade, and transport of food crops to aliment urban centers are becoming more important with increasing parts of the population living in cities. Crops like peanuts, cotton, cocoa, and coffee, and also a large part of the irrigated crops (onions), are grown solely for the regional or international market. These cash crops have received major support from the national states.

In view of the short rainy season and the unpredictability of rainfall, irrigation constitutes a means to produce crops in dry regions (where annual precipitation is less than 300 mm/year), either to prolong the cultivation period to reach one or two crop cycles per year, in the Sudan-Sahel zone, or to anticipate water stress by ensuring a constant water supply (Adams 1985). Irrigation thereby increases livelihood security, as is supported by the observation that in years where rain-fed crop production is meager due to low or irregular rainfall, the surface cultivated with irrigated crops increases (Brouwer and Mullié 1994). Smaller wetlands probably have a higher nutrient loading due to a greater circumference to area ratio and proportionally higher nutrient instream. These wetlands, therefore, are appreciated greatly by farmers. The wetlands also are rich in fish and bird species (Brouwer 2001; Brouwer and Mullié 1994).

Water control has been, and probably is still, seen as an absolute condition for agricultural development, as dams were constructed for the development of small- and large-scale irrigation schemes along major West African rivers. Most schemes are aimed at the production of rice and other cash crops. The increase in irrigated surface has been effective, leading to an increase in agricultural production, but dams and irrigation schemes have had many side effects of different natures (see http://www.dams.org), on the spot and up- and downstream (see also §3.7 in Adams 1985). With time, farmers have developed cultivation methods and selected crop varieties to make optimal use of the floodplains that are inundated seasonally but in an unpredictable way (the temporal and spatial extent of inundation differs according to rainfall patterns in the watershed).

Soil fertility is, next to climate, a determining factor for farming systems in West Africa. As soil fertility generally is low, leaving aside local exceptions, soil-fertility management is important for sustained agricultural production. Three methods for soil fertility management can be distinguished:

Fields are left fallow for several years to regenerate soil-fertility levels. In the meantime, farmers cultivate other fields. Due to increasing pressure on land, cultivation periods are being prolonged and fallow periods are being shortened, resulting in reduced soil fertility. To compensate for these reduced fallow periods, the use of green fertilizers is being developed (by, among others, the IITA) and propagated in the more humid regions where several crops per year are possible. Furthermore, the succession of crops is aimed at soil-fertility management as well: Leguminous crops are added to the succession in view of their nitrogen-binding capacities.

Livestock play an important role in the agricultural systems in West Africa through manure production. This manure is appreciated by farmers who recognize its fertilizing value. This appreciation used to be expressed in the form of manure contracts, but such contracts are being abandoned increasingly as farmers start to have their own animals. Besides, the reduction of pastoral space implies that the field/pasture ratio is changing, and that, in the long run, pastoral areas will not be able to produce enough fodder to sustain herds—which are in turn necessary for the production of enough manure to maintain fertility levels for agricultural fields (supposing that the use of artificial fertilizers remains limited) (Fernández-Rivera et al. 1995; Schlecht et al. 1995).

The use of artificial fertilizers is the most expensive method used to increase soil-fertility levels. The application of fertilizers, therefore, is limited to countries where they are available at low cost (due to subsidies) and to cash crops (financial returns make the use of fertilizers profitable). The end of fertilizer subsidies in Nigeria also stopped the use of fertilizers in neighboring countries.

Pushed by the increasing pressure on natural resources, farmers have started to cultivate on marginal soils as well, augmenting the risk of soil degradation. This especially is the case because the quality of land reserved for women’s ownership often is rather bad. It has been observed, however, that women invest in their fields (labor, fertilization) in order to obtain a reasonable production.

2. Animal husbandry

Animal husbandry is the most important production system in the arid and semi-arid zones of West Africa. In response to the resource variability (temporal and spatial) in the drier, pastoral zones, herds move over considerable distances in pursuit of water and forage resources. During the rainy season herds move to the pastoral zone to forage on the good-quality herbs while surface water is available. Some herds, with secure access to, and control over, water points, stay year-round in the pastoral zone. Others move to higher rainfall areas—to forage on pastures and crop residues in the agro-pastoral or agricultural zone—when the surface water in arid zones becomes scarce. Thus mobile herds exploit resources (water and vegetation) in different ecological zones that may be located in different countries. The strongly seasonal resources of the arid zones can be exploited only if herds have secure access to forage and water all year round.

The strategic importance of water access was seen by colonial officers as the most important starting point, next to animal disease control, for the development of livestock systems. Programs were set up to improve the spatial distribution of wells, making regions with no or insufficient surface water accessible to herds; likewise, this served to prolong the stay of herders in the pastoral zone while relieving the animal pressure on the more humid agricultural zones. As a result of the improved pastoral hydrology and health situation (human actions), and the favorable climatic circumstances found in the late 1950s and early 1960s, animal numbers grew considerably. As vegetative growth was abundant, these large herds had no negative impact on the environment. The prolonged drought of the early 1970s, however, resulted in a crash in animal numbers and the impoverishment of herders. A consequence of this drought was a shift of animal ownership from herders (men and women) to city people (civil servants, merchants) and farmers. These new ownership patterns had an impact on resource use and management as well. Whereas herd-owning herders would traverse great distances in search of the best forage (in quantity and quality), herds became less mobile with farmers and city-based owners, as these new proprietors would not permit employed herders to move far out of sight while controlling their animals. Another consequence of the droughts was that cultivated land increased as herders became farmers and farmers extended their areas in view of the climate and agricultural production’s precariousness.

The possibilities for herds and herders to move have decreased over time due to the transformation of pastures into agricultural fields, which in turn have blocked transhumance passages . The viability of transhumance systems is endangered when key resources no longer exist or are no longer accessible. Moreover, conflicts over access to resources between herders and farmers are frequent, notwithstanding the agreements that exist on the state level.

The impact of livestock on rangeland vegetation and soils often is cited as a main degradation process leading to desertification in the Sahel; the effect of grazing on species richness, however, is surpassed by the differences in vegetation growth between years due to rainfall variability. Grazing by mixed herds (cattle, sheep, goats, donkeys, and camels) results in a more diverse herbaceous layer than grazing by homogenous herds (sheep only) (Hiernaux 1998). A heterogeneous herbaceous layer is thought to enhance the stability of vegetation and the resilience of the ecosystem (Bayer et al. 1999).

Studies … demonstrate the resilience of physical and associated pastoral and farming systems in the face of substantial rainfall variability. Certain features of these systems tend to protect the resource base from over-use. In the pastoral case this is because at the crucial moment when damage to grass cover might be done, livestock are usually spread out over a very large area at low stocking rates. (Toulmin 1993)

Different kinds of animal-husbandry systems exist, from sedentary to permanently mobile systems. Most common, however, are systems in which a major part of the herd moves to the arid zone in the rainy season only to come back to the southern lands in the dry season; some animals, meanwhile, stay at the southern base to provide the household with milk or because they cannot move long distances. Sedentary systems are common in more humid regions where resource availability is more constant. These systems usually have herds composed mainly of small ruminants, whereas mobile systems are based on cattle, dromedaries, and sometimes sheep.

Animal diseases occurring in more humid regions (like trypanosomiasis) put restrictions on the type of animals that can be kept. Most domestic cattle races are sensitive to this disease, and only since the diseases have been (locally) eradicated or vaccines have become available have cattle started moving farther south.

Transboundary livestock diseases are of significant economic, trade, and/or food security importance for a considerable number of countries; these can spread easily to neighboring countries and reach epidemic proportions. To avert this threat, control/management, including exclusion, requires cooperation among several countries (http://www.fao.org). Rinderpest is such a disease, but it has been eradicated from the African continent in the 1980s, except for some centers of infection in the Sudan/Somalia region.

Mobile-livestock systems go over the limits set by the “gestion de terroir” (a term that can be paraphrased as the management of a designated area) approaches, exploiting resources in several village territories. As they are not present on a permanent basis, their specific interests often are forgotten when decisions are being made on the village level. This has been recognized as a weakness of the “gestion de terroir” approach (Marty 1996), and efforts are being made to improve the position of herders in the village level decision making process and to secure their access to resources in different ecological zones (Lycklama à Nijeholt et al. 2001).

Pastoralism is related to cultural identity: Herdsmen are born as such, they do not choose the profession of herder. Still, this is changing as typical farmers (Hausa) have begun to practice transhumance when their herds grow to a size that make it profitable and meaningful for them to do so (Banouin et al. 1996).

European subsidies on meat profoundly influence the West African meat market. Meat of European provenance is sold on the coastal countries’ markets, deteriorating prices for meat coming from the Sahelian countries.

3. Fishing

Fishing systems can be subdivided into marine and freshwater fisheries. Marine fisheries especially constitute a sector of international economic interest (Box 4). Yet also on the national level, in a country like Mauritania where less than 0.2 percent of the surface is suitable for agriculture, fisheries are a major source of income for the government and the population (CFFA 2000). Moreover, in the humid coastal countries, fish constitute an important source of protein, as possibilities for livestock raising are limited due to the prevalence of animal diseases (like trypanosomiasis).

In the West African inland, freshwater fish in permanent and temporary lakes and rivers are being exploited by artisanal fishers for whom fishing is the principle or, in most cases, secondary income-generating activity next to agriculture (Raynaut and Lavigne Delville 1997). In some countries (like Niger), fishing is done exclusively by men; in other countries (like Benin), women fish as well. For freshwater fisheries, water management is of primordial importance.

The life cycle of fish in the Sahel and Sudan zone is tuned to the seasonal nature of freshwater systems. When floods spread over the savanna floodplains, the water becomes rich with nutrients (from decaying vegetation and animal droppings), algae develop, and the fish fauna, dispersed over the floodplain, diversifies from algae-eating to fish-eating. When the water recedes, fish return to their principle riverbed or bury themselves to survive the dry season. Many species migrate up and down the river and make lateral movements to the floodplain and back again, searching for feeding and spawning sites. Fishers follow the movements of the migrating fish and so respond to the seasonal and climatic variability. For example, when the floods fail to swell the rivers opening onto Lake Chad, fishers move from their usual grounds to the lake waters to catch fish (Lowe-McConnell 1985). The natural rhythm of freshwater systems is disturbed by the construction of dams, which cause siltation processes downstream, hamper the migration of fish, and result in a loss of floodplain area, thereby affecting the fish populations (Lowe-McConnell 1985).

4. Hunting

Wildlife is considered an important renewable natural resource in West Africa: Bushmeat constitutes a critical source of protein—40 percent of the total animal protein consumption in the Ghana savanna zone, 60 percent in the Ghana forest zone, 12 percent in Ivory Coast, 20 percent in the Baoulé region in Mali (de Bie 1990), particularly for poor people in rural areas (http://iucn.org). Parts of wild animals are used in traditional medicine, ivory, and corns, as well as hides and leather, which bring in a lot of money (although trade in listed species has been regulated officially or banned by CITES) (de Bie 1990; de Bie et al. 1987). Mammals hunted for meat or other purposes are summarized in Table 2. Though almost the entire rural population of West Africa hunts, the activity used to be controlled by local hunting associations and regulated by customary laws, legends, and mystical beliefs. These rules, in addition to a low population density and traditional, selective hunting methods, permitted a sustainable exploitation of wildlife. However, the population increase (larger demand for wildlife products), the increasing commercialization of wildlife exploitation, and the decline of social structures has resulted in an uncontrolled exploitation of wildlife resources. Drought of the 1970s, the rinderpest epidemic, and the land demand for agricultural and pastoral purposes amplified further the impact of increasing hunting pressure on wildlife populations. As a consequence, populations of nearly all larger mammalian species reduced in numbers and became isolated from one another (de Bie 1990).

Source: Roth et al. (1981) as used in de Bie (1990).

Wetlands International (WI) recently executed a survey on the exploitation of birds in Inner Niger Delta (Koné 2000). The study made clear that:

• All ethnic groups were represented among hunters, but the hunters were usually grouped into hunters’ associations.
• Hunting mainly was done in the dry season (November to February).
• 50 species of birds were captured.
• Birds were trapped for consumption (10 percent) or for sale (90 percent of the birds¹⁴).
• Hunters commonly used nets and sometimes rifles.

A workshop—held in Niamey this year (proceedings are forthcoming)—on the complementarity and competition between wildlife and livestock distinguished between ecological zones when evaluating the situation of wildlife:

• In the humid zones bushmeat is more important than domestic meat, but hunting does not yet endanger wild species, except for some charismatic ones.
• In the sub-humid to semi-arid zones wildlife is rare outside parks; conflicts between farmers and herders on one side and park managers on the other are frequent.
• In the arid zones wildlife is under serious threat due to military and government involvement in poaching in some cases, even though poaching is officially illegal.

CITES, the international convention prohibiting the trade of endangered species, has been signed by all West African countries. But, according to nature-conservation organizations, hunting for bushmeat has outstripped habitat fragmentation as a cause of local wildlife extinction in West and Central Africa. Primates especially are endangered (http://iucn.org). The local extinction of wildlife species may have consequences for the local ecosystem, especially where keystone species¹⁵ are concerned. So far, no cases of terrestrial species being hunted to extinction in continental sub-Saharan Africa have been documented, but there are many examples of: (1) species being eradicated from parts of their range, (2) species being confronted with reductions of range, and (3) species’ numbers decreasing from an abundance to the ‘endangered’ level (Perrings 2000).

The enforcement of the law leaves much to be desired: Controlling authorities may have several agendas and may lack the means to control the respect of official rules, even as war, rebellion, and political unrest create situations of lawlessness. Also, the fact that countries have different laws with regard to hunting, in combination with the permeable borders, complicates the enforcement of the law. Species protected in one country are caught, passed across the border, and sold in another country where hunting is allowed.

Even animals in conservation areas are not safe from poaching: In the Arly National Park in Burkina Faso, animal density has decreased in about 10 years¹⁶ from 1,800 to 300 kg/km² (de Bie 1990). Poaching of wildlife, as well as theft of domestic animals, is more frequent in border areas because of the escape possibilities (IUCN/WWF/SSC/AfESG 1999).

Studies on wildlife and livestock systems’ economic return have been executed in southern and eastern Africa. It has been concluded that if the social benefits of biodiversity conservation are taken into account, wildlife systems (for example, 21.5 percent in Zimbabwe) or mixed livestock/wildlife systems have higher economic internal rates of return than livestock systems alone (13.1 percent in Zimbabwe) (Kakujaha-Matundu and Perrings 2000). The profitability of wildlife systems is mainly based on revenues from tourism. In the case of the Aïr Mountains¹⁷ in Niger the same has been concluded: Wildlife (addax and ostrich) could produce greater revenues for the local people, because of valuable byproducts and the tourist attraction, than could the traditional dromedary and goat herds (http://iucn.org).

5. Exploitation of forest products

The tropical forest area has been reduced from originally (around the year 1900) 313,000 km² to 87,000 km² (in the 1980s) in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone (Parren and De Graaf 1995). The larger part of the remaining tropical forest lies on border areas in Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Liberia (CI 2000). Logging for commercial exploitation of wood opens up forests for commercial hunters and wildlife traders, for cultivators, and for the collection of other non-timber products. In the forest zones, logging for export is an important source of foreign revenue for governments. The promotion of cash crops (cocoa and coffee in order to earn foreign currencies) also had a negative impact on the forest area. During the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Amman (October 2000), a resolution was agreed to, which asked logging, other extractive industries, and large-scale infrastructure projects to control the bushmeat hunting associated with their operations (http://iucn.org).

In West Africa fuelwood is the most important source of energy. The surroundings of cities especially suffer from deforestation for this purpose. Usually women are responsible for the collection of fuelwood. The ongoing deforestation has consequences regarding their workload in that they are obliged to walk farther to find sufficient wood for the family’s needs. Furthermore, wood is being used for construction purposes. These can have an important impact on the environment, particularly when sizeable trees are rare—i.e., the (semi-) arid zones. In eastern Niger, for example, the use of wood for the construction of wells has led to an important reduction of woody cover.

Non-wood forest byproducts include all the animals (see preceding sub-section on Hunting), plants, and other materials a forest supplies. These products contribute to the diet (quantity and quality) and income of people living in, and around, forest areas. Though it is hard to quantify these products in terms of economic value and volume, they locally may outweigh timber (Parren 1992 in Parren and De Graaf 1995). Most products are harvested for the local or national market, while some, like the fruits of the Thaumatococcus daniellii and Arabic gum that is produced by, among others, the Acacia senegal, are being exported (Parren and De Graaf 1995).

Deforestation has important impacts on the ecological environment: Habitat destruction has implications for plant and animal species, and soil- and water-conserving properties of forests (or of trees in general) are lost when cut, which has consequences for the functioning of remote (transboundary) ecosystems. Moreover, forests play an important role in the functioning of global climate.

6. Conservation areas

For the conservation of plant and animal species, habitats, and ecosystems, protected areas have been set aside, scattered throughout the West African countries. The degree of protection depends on the statute attributed to the protected area. Each country has its own protection categories, but next to these also are internationally recognized (UNESCO) statutes like biosphere reserve¹⁸ and natural world heritage site (IUCN/UNEP 1987). Transboundary parks do not always have the same statute in the different parts. “W” National Park, for example, was recognized as a biosphere reserve in Niger in 1996, but not in Burkina Faso or Benin. Presently the three countries have started the procedure the get the biosphere reserve, Ramsar site, and natural world heritage site recognition for the whole complex (Magha et al. 2001).

In West Africa several protected areas are connected with others in neighboring countries (see the list in Chapter III, Section E). The advantage is that animals can move over a large protected range (see also Box 3), which is vital for migrating species. Some species, however, continue to live and migrate outside parks (like some groups of savanna elephants). The difficulty with transboundary parks is that these areas need to be managed communally, which is complicated by the existence of different and sometimes counteracting rules and laws, and modes of law enforcement (different institutions).

Conflicts exist between indigenous livestock husbandry and nature-conservation areas, as evidenced in the case of “W” National Park (Turner 1999b). In this instance, herders want to go inside the park because of the scarcity of pastures outside (due to increasing agricultural surfaces). The park is the only grassy place at the end of the dry season. As a matter of fact, the presence of livestock in the park reduces herder-farmer conflicts outside (Benoit 1999). The prohibition on clearing fields in the park has increased or saved the availability of grass. While officially this grass is not accessible to herders, it is in practice (Benoit 1999).

Tourism related to nature conservation is not a potentially important source of income in West Africa (http://iucn.org). This is because, compared to the faunal richness of eastern and southern Africa, West African wildlife is less attractive (smaller numbers, less species, more dispersed). The combination of wildlife and culture, or wildlife and pastoralism (workshop Niamey) can, however, attract tourists. Local population should be included in nature protection and park management.

7. Urbanization and infrastructures

The larger part of the West African population (60 percent) still lives in rural areas, but cities are growing rapidly: They are expected to host 60 percent of the region’s population in 2020 (Naudet 1995). Most of the largest urban centers will be situated in Nigeria and along the West African coast. In the Sahelian countries, the droughts of the 1970s and 1980s have resulted in the movement of impoverished people (mainly herders) to urban centers. The urbanization implies that more food crops need to be marketed in order to feed an urban population that no longer produces its own food. A part of subsistence agriculture thus will diminish.

Dams have been constructed for the generation of hydroelectric power, including the Akosombo dam on the Volta river in Ghana (construction started in 1961), the Kainji dam on the Niger in Nigeria (construction started in 1964), the Kossou dam on the Bandama river in Ivory Coast (construction started in 1969), and several others. Construction was motivated by the idea that abundant power was considered a prerequisite for economic development (through industrial enterprises), and the fact that the demand for power was rising (Adams 1985). Little account was taken of the effects of dams on the socioeconomic and ecological environment up- and downstream. The effects of dams on the environment are diverse.

To cite some cases:

• Dams on Logone river resulted in a reduction in flooding, which caused a loss of 900 km² of dry-season pastures containing perennial grasses, had consequences for wildlife (kob declining from 30,000 to 2,000 animals) and domestic animals, led to a reduction of fish populations to 10 percent of their former size (with impact on 6,000 local people), and meant the cessation of the cultivation of floating rice (McNeely 1993).
• The Diama dam in the Senegal River has altered the freshwater regime and consequently threatens the survival of plant species while encourages the spread of others. The Djoudj National Bird Park, too, has been confronted with the effects, as the value of the park as a wintering site for different duck species has diminished (see the Afro-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement—AEWA—in References).
• Eighteen dam projects in the Senegal basin, more than 40 in the Niger basin, 20 in the Volta basin, and more than 50 in the Chad basin have been reported as having caused: loss of habitat, obstruction of fish and wildlife migration, deforestation, salinization and acidification of soils, obstruction of nomadic pathways, loss of local control over natural resources, loss of fisheries, and loss of crop and pastureland and forest resources (Gordon 1998).

In Senegal and Cameroon efforts have been made to limit the negative effects of dams by releasing regulated flows, an attempt to maintain the downstream floodplains (http://www.dams.org). For other river systems studies have been planned to minimize the negative effects of dams that already exist.

Since the costs and benefits of changes in fisheries, floodplain land use, erosion control, navigation and health conditions are regional or local or more easily measured in social or economic terms, they are virtually precluded from a significant place in the feasibility level analysis of hydro-electric power projects. (Adams 1985)

Other infrastructural works have consequences for the environment as well, at the local and, directly or indirectly, on the (inter)national level:

• Mining attracts people and concomitant pressures on forest areas to provide bushmeat, fuelwood, shelter materials, and agricultural land for food crops (CI 2000).
• Railways and roads, constructed for the removal of timber or mining products, open up regions for other land users like farmers and hunters. When the roads pass close to a national border, the forest of the neighboring country is affected as well by the improved accessibility.
• Wells in pastoral zone have made zones accessible for livestock. Overgrazing may occur around wells with a large water supply.

8. Conflicts and natural resource management

a. Access to and control over natural resources

Conflicts over natural resources are common in West Africa. Conflicts between farmers and herders are the best known concerning this matter. These conflicts have always existed, but are assumed to increase in number and severity due to increasing pressure on resources (land and water) (Hussein 1998). For herders it is getting steadily more difficult to find sufficient, accessible, and good-quality pastures (and water points) as more and more land is being cultivated. In order to avoid conflicts, transhumance routes have been delimited on a national, as well as international, level.

In most of these conflicts the access to, and control over, resources (land and water) are at stake. Conflicts between fishers and herders occur when animals, while drinking, damage the equipment of fishers. Furthermore, hunters and herders are in competition for space (wildlife versus domestic animals) and for resources (herders out in the bush also hunt for wildlife).

Protected areas and fragmented forests are more often subject to illicit exploitation as a result of population growth and increased pressure on the natural resources (CI 2000). In these cases farmers, herders, hunters, and other users conflict with the state services assuring the protection and management of these areas.

b. Damaging practices

Many conflicts between resource users and officials, concern damaging land or resource-use practices, such as the burning of grasslands to stimulate regrowth of herbs. These bush fires often get out of control and burn untargeted sites. Also, the damages animals bring about on crops are frequent causes of conflict. Fields may be placed in such a way as to provoke animals (on transhumance routes, close to water points), and sometimes herders deliberately direct their animals into a field in order to let them have a good meal before entering a zone of poor-quality forage (Lycklama à Nijeholt 2000). Women often are accused (by village men and officials) of degrading the environment, as they are responsible for the collection of fuelwood for the household.

c. War and rebellion

In situations of armed conflict, several features can be observed that have an impact on the environment: breakdown of law and order, disruption of economic activity, increased dependence on wild resources, increased circulation of firearms, and massive movements of people (Shambaugh, pers. comm.).

Conflicts not directly related to the use of, and control over, natural resources also have an impact on the (regional) environment. In case of insecurity due to war or rebellion, people cannot move freely to make optimal use of the natural resources. For example, during Nigeria’s Tuareg rebellion, from 1990 to 1995, the traditional transhumance movements were reduced because herders did not venture into the pastoral zone where the conflict was being waged. In this way the pressure on pastoral resources in the agricultural zone (in Niger and Nigeria) accrued, and conflicts between farmers and herders became more frequent than usual. In this same period the rebels in the Aïr Mountains, not being free to move and not fearing any control of the state, hunted for bushmeat (ostriches and antelopes). The limitation of movement leads to an increased pressure on, and an unsustainable use of, the accessible resources.

Another point concerns the massive displacements of people fleeing war and rebellion, who usually cross borders to be safe from their aggressors. The massiveness and suddenness of displaced people’s movements often have a severe impact on natural resources in the host zone: Forests are used for shelter, security, sustenance, subsistence, and commercial exploitation); waste production, and water and air pollution, multiply; water depletes; and soils erode (CI 2000; Shambaugh, pers. comm.). Sometimes grasslands are burnt to chase away soldiers, or agricultural fields are destroyed to make the population depart (CI 2000). Presently, the situation of refugees from Sierra Leone who left—for reasons of security—the Guinean camps in which they were hosted, has given rise to international alarm. The UNHCR has developed guidelines that should help to minimize the environmental impact of operations concerning displaced people (http://www.unhcr.ch). Disaster relief agencies like CARE also are working to integrate environmental guidelines into their planning (http://www.care.org). It has to be noted, however, that in case of conflict, the safety and well-being of people has priority over environmental issues (Blom et al. 2000; Shambaugh, pers. comm.).

From past experiences it has been concluded that the environmental impact of conflicts often is greatest after the conflict itself. In order to minimize these negative effects, actions should be undertaken before, during, and after the conflict, by neutral NGOs, humanitarian and disaster relief organizations, and the state (Blom et al. 2000; Shambaugh, pers. comm.).

d. Ethnicity

Although the reasons for conflicts do not relate to ethnicity (exceptions permitted), conflicts over natural resources often are reduced to this aspect. The act of belonging to an ethnic group is stressed in conflicts between, as well as within, user groups. Stereotyped ideas about people from other ethnic groups and those who practice other professions circulate, and thus block sensible communication.

2. Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo.

3. The length of the growing season is defined as the number of days that the rainfall is equal to or more than 50 percent of the potential evapotranspiration plus the time that is needed to evaporate 100 mm soil-water reserve.

4. In Ivory Coast efforts have been made to describe the diverse customary land rights in order to include them in the new land tenure legislation (Lavigne Delville 1999). For some time CILSS has been working with the Land Tenure Center of Madison University in Wisconsin on a study of land tenure systems in the Sahel (www.wisc.edu/); land tenure systems and the Code Rural of Niger have been studied extensively.

5. The referred-to research was carried out among Moose farmers in the north-central region of Burkina Faso (Breusers 2001).

6. Ecosystems are defined as the interactive whole of non-living components of the environment and the assemblages of plants and animals (Cox and Moore 1993).

7. The Dahomey Gap is usually attributed to a cold-water current near the Benin, Togo, and Ghana coasts, making the moist air lose its water before reaching land (Parren and De Graaf 1995).

8. The washing out of nutrients is more important in the arid zones where the vegetation retaining nutritive elements fails, and in the humid zones where rainfall is so abundant that nutrients lying loose are immediately washed away.

9. The Ramsar Convention (1971) has for its objective the conservation and rational utilization of humid zones. A humid zone can be classified as a Ramsar site if, in view of its ecological, botanical, zoological, limnological, or hydrological characteristics, the site is of international importance (Frazier 1999).

10. In recent years Lake Chad’s water level has been rising, causing the lake to reenter Nigerian and Nigerien territories.

11. In Banc d’Arguin national park, Mauritania, a mangrove stand rests as a relict of wetter times, when rivers flooded from the Sahara to the Mauritanian coast (www.wcmc.org.uk).

12. Farmers invest their surplus in livestock; herders, having lost their animals, start to cultivate fields.

13. In the different ecological zones, degradation processes take different forms, as explained in Section B of this chapter (Geology and soils).

14. 100 percent = 63,562 birds representing a value of 17,567,776 fcfa.

15. A keystone species is defined as one that plays a key role in determining the presence or absence of many other species in a community—Paine (1969) in Parren and De Graaf (1995).

16. Between the early 1970s and the early 1980s.

17. The Aïr is a major tourist attraction in West Africa, but has been inaccessible from 1990 to 1997 because of insecurity (Tuareg rebellion).

18. Pendjari* in Benin, Benoué, Waza and Dja in Cameroon, Comoé and Tai in Ivory Coast, Bia in Ghana, Nimba* and Ziama in Guinea, Baoulé in Mali, Diawling* in Mauritania, Park W* in Niger, Omo in Nigeria, Djoudj*, Saloum*, Samba Dia and Niokolo-Koba* in Senegal [those marked with * are transboundary parks (IUCN/UNEP 1987; Magha et al. 2001)].