Energy and Environment

Pastoral/Nomadic Landuse Systems

This category contains projects focussing on combating environmental degradation in grazing lands through activities aiming at strengthening and consolidation of pastoral and nomadic production systems. These systems have always sustained the livelihoods of the rural population in the Sahel. Pastoral systems, nomadic or semi-nomadic, have never worked in isolation and are most often associated with other agricultural production systems. The relatively few interventions in this category aimed at securing pastoral production by encouraging pastoral communities to organize themselves for a sustainable management of the pastoral and agro-pastoral areas and through the improvement of their production systems. There are numerous difficulties in the search for solutions related to the vastness of space, the lack of socio-economic infrastructure, mobility, the relative dispersion and the poverty of the relevant population. It is naturally particularly difficult to ensure adequate participation and continuity.

The experience of these projects, although limited, has demonstrated the complexity of problems related to the grazing landuse systems. It has shown the necessity of an approach, which takes into account the ecological, social and economic interactions. Such interaction can only be understood based on a profound knowledge of the socio-ecological conditions in the pastoral milieu. Likewise, the profitability and consolidation of pastoral systems can only be achieved through a better understanding of the space. Efforts need to be supported over longer periods.

The joint UNSO-UNICEF Project on Pastoral Nomadism (NOPA) analyzed over three years the situation of nomadic pastoralists in Africa. The final report, entitled "Pastoralists at a crossroads. Survival and Development in African Pastoralism" presented findings on pastoral production systems and development opportunities. This project was instrumental in launching the series of 4 Technical Consultations on Pastoral Development organized by UNSO since 1994. These efforts have yielded important insights on pastoral dimensions in CCD implementation.

The following projects illustrate further details of this type of project:

• Integrated Resource Management for Desertification Control
  (SUD/90/X01), El Odaya, Sudan
  
  
• Inventaire des ressources sylvo-agro-pastorales par télédétection dans la préfecture du B.E.T
  (CHD/89/X02), République du Tchad
  
  
• Management of Grazing Resources Around Permanent Water Supplies
  (SUD/81/X03 & SUD/81/X53), Sudan