Information system for pastoralism in the Sahel (SIPSA)
Pastoral Systems in a changing environment
In the drylands of the Sahel extensive grazing on communal rangelands for livestock production as practiced by mobile pastoralists appears to be the best adapted means to produce agricultural products under the prevailing harsh and erratic eco-climatic non-equilibrium conditions of the zones receiving less than 400 mm annual rainfall. The mobility of the pastoral herds is the best adapted strategy since it allows the pastoralists to flexibly respond to environmental changes and graze their animals in the diffuse and scattered vegetation of the regions’ rangelands according to changing seasonal conditions and droughts. However, the effectiveness of the mobile pastoral production system is increasingly constrained by:
- decreasing pastoral rangelands as a result of growing populations triggering increasing competition over natural resources and encroachment of arable farming on the most potential grazing lands;
- decreasing pastoral rangelands resulting from exclusive conservation policies on pastoral rangelands that are also the natural habitat or areas of retreat for wildlife and provide a distinct flora and fauna;
- inadequate fit between administrative and ecological units restricting pastoral movements within administrative units irrespective of their ecological needs;
- political tensions leading to avoidance and under usage of remote rangelands in order to circumvent violent conflict and animal theft;
- changing economy of pastoral systems in response to the increasing demand for livestock products as expressed by the changing objective to serve international markets as well as the increasing competition with other production systems to serve the local and national markets; and
- recurrent droughts and climate change.
These constraints create the need to direct more attention to the support of pastoral systems in their adaptation process to a changing environment. In response to this challenge the research programme on Pastoralism and the Environment « Pastoralisme et Environnement au Sahel » (PESah) undertook a research on the situation in the Sahel and came to the result that there is a lack of reliable and detailed accounts of the trends and processes which are profoundly altering pastoral livelihood systems. There is a need to establish a database recording all aspects of pastoral livelihoods to provide a strong evidence base upon which appropriate policy and programming decisions can be made.