Nineteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

After discrediting mobile pastoralism for overgrazing based on wrong assumptions, it became appreciated in last years as sustainable practice supporting rangelands biodiversity and as most sustainable meat production. The knowledge of human as mediator between rangelands and herds is gaining importance. Mobility is getting perceived as normal activity in use of highly variable climate and pasture distribution. Therefore, sustainable development directions should adapt to mobility instead of promoting sedentarisation of mobile pastoralists. In Northern Niger regional development directions try to combine parallelly irrigated gardening, modernised herding practices, transformation of agricultural products, mobile pastoralism and diverse mining activities, including uranium mining. They are trying to incorporate all resources in land management scheme. The research is based on qualitative interviews and observations with diversity of actors (traditional and regional elected authorities, civil society actors, schooled (ex)pastoralists and pastoralists practicing traditional mobile pastoralism). Here we ask what kind of coexistances on what territories are possible for sustainable future? Is a state with high poverty indexes forced to submit to extractivist mining practices instead of supporting existing sustainable practices and knowledge?