Management of natural resources in the Niger Delta region of Mali

Daniel Kaboré’s thesis deals with management of natural resources in the Niger Delta region of Mali. Climate changes and human activities have led to degradation of natural resources, whereas the demographic pressure increases. As a result, a social restructuring takes place: farmers are going to keep more cattle; some traditional pastoralists shift to sedentary farming practices and others keep moving around as nomads to look for water and pasture for their cattle. The pressure on land use often leads to conflicts.

Kaboré made a study of possible measures which can be taken by local districts in order to link sustainable management of natural resources to poverty reduction. Examples of such measures are leaving land fallow to restore soil fertility, public projects like construction of secondary roads, or of water reservoirs. Special attention is given to the mutual interaction between the various stakeholders (farmers; agro-pastoralists; sedentary pastoralists and transhumant pastoralists) and to their income positions.

The approach was in main lines as follows: investigate what the effects of the envisaged ‘measures’ are on availability of the production factors land and labour within the commune; explore by making use of the developed models what the resulting effects are on optimal production activities and income positions of the various stakeholders. The author developed an important instrument, which can be used as a guideline for discussions within the local district about various measures to be taken. Purpose is to reach consensus between the various stakeholders about the measures.

The PhD research of Daniel Kaboré is one of the results of the long existing collaboration of researchers of the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) of the University of Groningen with universities and research institutes in West Africa. The thesis title is: Conflicts over land in the Niger River Delta Region of Mali: Exploring the usefulness of SAM and CGE models to study participatory natural resource management in agricultural and pastoral systems. Kaboré was awarded his PhD in economics and business on 4 September. His supervisors were: prof. C. Schweigman and prof. R. Ruben.