Abstract
The paper first examines established theories on the population-environmental nexus. Farmers' options in responding to declining soil fertility or shortage of land vary from village to village and even household to household. Responses are conditioned by social relations with neighboring villages and the labor availability of individual households. The example from the Boulgou Province in Burkina Faso shows that some farmers have been able to expand their acreage in other villages' territories on a virtually permanent basis, thereby compensating for increased population pressure and for land degradation. Currently, labor availability, social relations, and distance to the land seem to be the main constraints on land expansion. However, the pattern of land use changes is expected to be increasingly influenced by the existence of more formally established rights than at present. In the light of the empirical findings, the relevance of the “Gestion des Terroir Villagois” concept as a tool for planning for sustainable natural resource management at the village level is discussed. This approach seems imperfectly suited to address a reality in which social and physical environments are superimposed in a spatially complex way.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Andriesse, W., Fresco, L. O., van Duivenbboden, N., and Windmeijer, P. N. (1994). Multi-scale Characterization of Inland Valley Agro-ecosystems in West Africa. Netherlands Journal of Agricultural Science 42: 159-179.
Baldry, D., Calamari, D., and Yaméogo, L. (1995). Environment Impact Assessment of Settlement and Development in the Upper Léraba Basin—Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivore and Mali. World Bank Technical Paper Number 302, Series on River Blindness Control in West Africa, Washington.
Berry, S. (1989). Social institutions and access to resources in African agriculture. Africa 59(1): 41-55.
Berry, S. (1993). No Condition is Permanent—The Social Dynamics of Agrarian Change in Sub-Saharan Africa. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.
Blaikie, P. (1985). The Political Economy of Soil Erosion in Developing Countries. Longman, New York.
Boserup, E. (1965). The Conditions for Agricultural Growth. The Economics of Agrarian Change Under Population Pressure. Allan and Urwin, London.
Brookfield, H. (1995). Postscript: The Population-Environment Nexus and PLC. Global Environmental Change 5: 381-393.
Bruce, J. W. (1993). Do indigenous tenure systems constrain agricultural development? In Basset, T. J., and Crummey, D. E. (eds.), Land in African Agrarian Systems. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, pp. 35-56.
Bruce, J. W., Migot-Adholla, S. E., and Atherton, J. (1994). Institutional adaptation or replacement. In Bruce, J. W., and Migot-Adholla, S. E. (eds.), Searching for Land Tenure Security in Africa. Kendall/Hunt Publishers, Dubuque, pp. 251-266.
de Zeeuw, F. (1995). Sécurité Foncière et Gestion des Ressources Naturelles dans la Boucle de Mouhoun- Burkina Faso. Université de Wageningen, Documents sur la Gestion des Ressources Tropicales no. 9, Wageningen.
Degnbol, T. (1996). The Terroir Approach to Natural Resource Management—Panacea or Phantom—the Malian Experience. International Development Studies, Roskilde University, Working Paper no. 2.
Engberg-Pedersen, L. (1995). Creating Local Democratic Politics from Above—The “Gestion des Terroirs” Approach in Burkina Faso, IIED Drylands Working Paper no. 54.
FAO (1993). Guidelines for Land Use Planning. FAO Development Series 1, Rome.
Faure, A. (1996). Private Land Ownership in Rural Burkina Faso. IIED Dryland Network Working Paper no. 59.
Fresco, L. O., Stroosnijder, L., Bouma, J., and van Keulen, H. (eds.), (1994). The Future of the land. Mobilizing and Integrating Knowledge for Land Use Options. John Wiley, Chichester.
Government of Burkina Faso (GOB) (1995). Les Grandes Orientations en Matière de Gestion des Terroirs au Burkina Faso (Deuxième Version). Ouagadougou.
Greenland, D. J., Bowen, G., Eswaran, H., Rhoades, R., and Valentin, C. (1994). Soil, Water, and Nutrient Management Research—A New Agenda. IBSRAM Position Paper, Bangkok.
Guy r, J. I., and Lambin, E. (1993). Land Use in an Urban Hinterland: Ethnography and Remote Sensing in the Study of African Intensification. American Anthropologist 95(4): 839-859.
Hansen, T. S., and Reenberg, A. (1998). Approaching local limits to field expansion—Land use pattern dynamics in semi-arid Burkina Faso. Danish Journal of Geography 56-70.
Hardin, G. (1968). The tragedy of the commons. Science 162: 1243-1248.
Le Roy, é., Karsenty, A., and Bertrand, A., (1996). La Sécurisation Foncière en Afrique—Pour une Gestion Viable des Ressources Renouvellables. Karthala, Paris.
Lewis, J. (1995). Community-Based Land Management in West Africa—A Review of Current Experience. World Bank, Ouagadougou, Mimeo.
Lund, C. (1995). Law, Power and Politics in Niger—Land Struggles and the Rural Code. PhD dissertation, Roskilde University, Roskilde.
Lund, C. (1997). Land Tenure Conflicts and State, Community and Local Law in Burkina Faso., IIED Dryland Network Working Paper 70.
Marty, A. (1993). La gestion des terroirs et les éleveurs— un outil d'exclusion ou de négociation? Revue Tiers Monde xxxiv(134): 327-344.
Mathieu, P. (1997). La sécurisation foncière entre compromis et conflits—un processus polit ique? In Mathieu, P. (ed.), Gouvernance, Démocratisation et Enjeux Fonciers. CEDAF/L'Harmattan, Paris, pp. 1-13.
McMillan, D. E. (1995). Sahel Visions—Planned Settlement and River Blindness Control in Burkina Faso. University of Arizona Press, Tuscon & London.
Meadows, D. H., Meadows, D. L., Randers, J., and Behrens III, W. W. (1972). The Limits to Growth. Club of Rome, Potomac Associates Books, London.
Migot-Adholla, S. E., and Bruce, J. W. (1994). Are indigenous African tenure systems insecure? In Bruce, J. W., and Migot-Adholla, S. E. (eds.), Searching for Land Tenure Security in Africa. Kendall/Hunt Publishers, Dubuque, pp. 1-14.
Mortimore, M. (1995). Caring for the soil, agricultural expansion, population growth, and natural resource degradation in the Sahel. In Reenberg, A., and Marcussen, H. S. (eds.). The Sahel. Ethnobutany, Agricultural and Pastoral Strategies and Development Aid strategies. SEREIN Occasional Papers No. 1, Copenhagen.
Nébié, O. (1995). Les Transformations Rurales dans les Zones Libérées de l'Onchocercose au Burkina Faso. Université de Ouagadougou (Dépt. de Géographie), Ouagadougou.
Ouedraogo, R. S., Sawadogo, J.-P., Stamm, V., and Thombiano, T. (1996). Tenure, agricultural practices and land productivity in Burkina Faso: Some recent results. Land Use Policy 13(3): 229-232.
Painter, T., Sumberg, J., and Price, T. (1994). Your “terroir” and my “action space”—Implications of differentiation, mobility and diversification for the “Approche Terroir” in Sahelian West Africa. Africa 64(4): 447-464.
Place, F., Roth, M., and Hazell, P. (1994). Land tenure security and agricultural performance in Africa—Overview of re search methodology. In Bruce, J. W., and Migot-Adholla, S. E. (eds.), Searching for Land Tenure Security in Africa. Kendall/Hunt Publishers, Dubuque, pp. 15-40.
Platteau, J.-P. (1995). The Evolutionary Theory of Land Rights as Applied to Sub-saharan Africa —A Critical Assessment. Cahiers de la Faculté des Science s économiques et Sociales, Notre-Dame de la Paix, Namur, no. 145.
Raynaut, C. (1997). Societies and Nature in the Sahel. Routledge/SEI Global Environmental Series, London.
Reenberg, A. (1995). SEREIN—A short historical introduction. In Reenberg, A., and Marcussen, H. S. (eds.), The Sahel-Ethnobotany, Agricultural and Pastoral Strategies, Development Aid Strategies. SEREIN Occasional Papers 1, Copenhagen, pp.161-166.
Reenberg, A., and Dybkjør, G. (1996). Land Use Intensity in the Boulgou Province, Burkina Faso—Aerial Photos and Satellite Images as a Means to Rapid Appraisals. SEREIN Working Paper 23, Insitute of Geography, Copenhagen.
Reenberg, A., and Fog, B. (1995). The spatial pattern and dynamics of a Sahelian agro-ecosystem —Land use systems analysis combining household survey with georelated information. GeoJournal 37(4): 489-499.
Reenberg, A., and Paarup-Laursen, B. (1997). Determinants of land use strategies in a Sahelian Agroecosystem—anthropological and ecological geographical aspects of natural resource management. Agricultural Systems 53: 209-229.
Saul, M. (1993). Land custom in Bare—Agnatic Corporation and rural capitalism in Western Burkina. In Basset, T. J., and Crummey, D. E. (eds.), Land in African Agrarian Systems. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, pp. 75-100.
Scott, E. P. (1979). Land use changes in the harsh lands of West Africa. African Studies Review XXII(1): 1-24.
Shipton, P. (1989). How Private Property Emerges in Africa—Directed and Undirected Land Tenure Reforms in Densely Settled Areas South of the Sahara. Harvard University (HIID and Deptartment of Anthropology), Boston.
Snrech, S. (1994). Population, environnement et economie au Sahel. In Reenberg, A., and Markussen, B. (eds.), The Sahel: Population; Integrated Rural Development Projects; Research Components in Development Projects. Proceedings from the Danish Sahel Workshop, January 6-8, 1994, AAU Reports 32, Aarhus University, Denmark.
Snyder, K. A. (1996). Agrarian change and land use strategies among Iraqw farmers in northern Tanzania. Human Ecology 24(3): 315-340.
Stamm, V., and Sawadogo, J.-P. (1995). Structures Foncières et Gestion des Terroirs au Burkina Faso. EDRES, Ouagadougou.
Stromph, T. J., Fresco, L.O., and van Keulen, H. (1994). Land use systems evaluation: Concepts and methodology. Agricultural Systems 44: 243-255.
Sutter, J. W. (1982). Peasants, Marchant Capital and Rural Differentiation. A Nigerian Case Study. Unpublished PhD thesis, Cornell University.
Tiffin, M., Mortimore, M., and Gichuki, F. (1994). More People, Less Erosion. Environmental Recovery in Kenya. John Wiley, Chichester.
Toulmin, C. (1992). Cattle, Women and Wells: Managing Household Survival in the Sahel. Oxford University Press.
Turner II, B. L., Skole, D., Sanderson, S., Fischer, G., Fresco, L., and Leemans R. (1995). Land-Use and Land-Cover Change. Science/Research Plan, IGBP Report No. 35, The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm.
van Duivenbooden, N. (1995). Land Use Systems Analysis as a Tool in Land Use Planning with Special Reference to North and West African Agro-ecosystems. Wageningen Agricultural University, Wageningen.
WHO/OCP/CTD (1994). Onchocerciasis Control Programme 1974-1994, WHO, Geneve.
Yaméogo, L., Hougard, J.-M., Baldry, D., and Calamar, D. (1996). The onchocerciasis control programme in West Africa (OCP): Present and future perspectives on the population and the environment. In Reenberg, A., Marcussen, H. S., and Nielsen, I. (eds.), The Sahel: International Environmental Conventions, Health and Environment, Afforestation and Environment. SEREIN Occasional Paper No. 3, pp.59-77.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Reenberg, A., Lund, C. Land Use and Land Right Dynamics—Determinants for Resource Management Options in Eastern Burkina Faso. Human Ecology 26, 599–620 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018749409139
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018749409139