The Great Green Wall in Senegal: Questioning the Idea of Acceleration Through the Conflicting Temporalities of Politics and Nature Among the Sahelian Populations

In January 2021, the Great Green Wall Accelerator was announced at the third One Planet Summit in Paris. Based on the notion of acceleration developed by Harmut Rosa and using the idea of conflicting temporalities in the study of social-ecological systems, this article analyzes how the political will to accelerate the Great Green Wall reveals power dynamics between Western and Sahelian countries. We put in tension this acceleration of the Great Green Wall with (1) temporalities with respect to nature and reforestation, and (2) temporalities of life among the Sahelian populations. Whereas our contribution is mostly theoretical, building on Hartmut Rosa’s work, we illustrate our approach in terms of political ecology and anthropology based on an empirical case study of the Ferlo region in Senegal, a key region with respect to the Great Green Wall initiative. Our analysis shows that by controlling the temporality of the Great Green Wall program through this Accelerator, Western powers dominate the Sahelian states, making the Accelerator part of a neo-colonial approach. Moreover, the desire to accelerate the Great Green Wall with a massive investment in a short span of time corresponds to the perception of a nature made available, incompatible with the time of ecological restoration. Finally, the acceleration advocated by Western economic liberalism seems to be coming up against resistance of local populations rooted in an identity that values community solidarity, the stability of social structures, and closeness between humans, their herds, and natur

La grande muraille vert et ses territoires : l’heure d’un nouveau rendez-vous?

UNCCD (United nations convention to combat desertification), Brief technique de l’Accélérateur de la Grande muraille verte, n°

La « crise » des pâturages dans le Ferlo : une commune tragédie des communs ?

The lack of pasture space in the Ferlo is nowadays the major concern of herders and various development actors in the sylvopastoral zone. It appears to be the main (re)known symptom, almost habitual, of the cyclical crises affecting pastoralism in Senegal. On the face of it, this situation can be interpreted as a banal ‘tragedy of the commons’, characterised by a significant increase in pressure on the resource, which is itself poorly managed since it belongs to everyone, and whose regeneration is furthermore hampered by both natural (climatic disruption) and anthropogenic (overgrazing, progression of the agricultural front) factors. However, in this situation as in others, the tragedy of the commons is a flawed, even simplistic, interpretative scheme, focusing mainly on the effects of animal demography and community management of grazing land, which are considered to be deleterious. A more detailed analysis of the various factors involved in this "grazing crisis" and the observation of the adaptive strategies of the farmers and the responses proposed by the differents organisations (ngos etc.) supporting the sector (fodder crops, food supplements in particular) lead to the formulation of other hypotheses: the fodder shortage might be the inevitable but underestimated consequence of a long series of interventions in the field of pastoral water supply. Also this crisis might reflect the exhaustion of the entire pastoral breeding model and the beginnings of a profound (and perhaps radical) transformation whose prospects remain uncertain. Rather than a tragedy with an inescapable end, should it not be seen as a turning point for the Ferlo and for pastoralist farming as it exists in the present conditions

Nothing in Excess: Physical Activity, Health, and Life World in Senegalese Fulani Male Pastoralists, a Mixed Method Approach

International audienceObjectives: The goal of this study was to evaluate the application of the short form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Survey (IPAQ-SF) in the rural Senegalese Fulani pastoralist population by combining quantitative and qualitative methods. Design and participants: For the quantitative method, 101 men completed the IPAQ-SF questionnaire measuring moderate, vigorous, and walking physical activity. Self-rated health, BMI, and sociodemographic variables were also collected. With regard to the qualitative methods, a total of 22 participants were recruited and interviewed. Four themes were addressed, including (i) physical activity (PA) and its definition, description, related experiences, and representations of social actors; (ii) PA and health; (iii) PA and sport; and (iv) the body and Fulani world of life (i.e., Pulaagu/Ndimaagu). Results: Sahelian herders have a high level of self-reported PA and a low amount of daily sitting time. The measure of PA as proposed by the IPAQ-SF is not adapted to the Senegalese Ferlo pastoralists, mainly because this scale gives too much importance to leisure-time PA, perceived as unproductive energy expenditure, which is factually and symbolically antinomic to the Fulani lifeworld. Thus, neither intense nor moderate PA is related to self-rated health. However, sedentary lifestyles are linked to self-rated health and, therefore, to mortality and morbidity in Fulani pastoralists. Finally, walking, which is the dominant PA during transhumance and herd surveillance, is related to BMI. It therefore represents a protective factor against the occurrence of overweight and associated chronic non-communicable diseases. Conclusion: The mixed method approach developed in this study has shown that the IPAQ-SF is not a valid measure of PA in the population of Fulani male herders from the Ferlo region, given that unproductive energy expenditure is incompatible with the Fulani way of life, which condemns excess and immoderation

Recueil de variables ou collecte de données ? Une réflexion méthodologique via une cartographie sémantique du Ferlo et de ses alentours (Sénégal) par zonage à dires d’acteurs.

The agriculture-livestock articulation is a structuring element of the farming production systems of northern Senegal, between the cropping Senegal River valley and the livestock-keeping Ferlo. A mapping based on the perceptions of local stakeholders (PBRM method) was carried out to assess the spatial extent of uses, practices and "countries" over a vast area around the Ferlo. By merging each map produced during interviews into a GIS, we obtain a spatialized database on the environmental determinants of this territory. If the structuring, ecological and historical elements remain and even tend towards the specialization of territories into "countries" of production, the low amount of months of presence of herds in the Ferlo (two months maximum) as well as the generalized use of supplementation during the lean season leads us to think about reorientations of this breeding towards the south but also to identify areas of possible tension where the transhumance flow crosses with the agricultural colonization front.L'articulation agriculture-élevage est un élément structurant des systèmes de production du nord du Sénégal, entre vallée du fleuve Sénégal agricole et Ferlo pastoral. Une cartographie basée sur les perceptions des acteurs locaux (méthode ZADA) a été réalisée pour évaluer l'emprise spatiale des usages, pratiques et « pays » sur une vaste zone autour du Ferlo. En fusionnant chaque carte réalisée au cours d'entretiens dans un SIG, nous obtenons une base de données spatialisée sur les déterminants environnementaux de ce territoire. Si les éléments structurants, écologiques et historiques, demeurent et tendent même vers la spécialisation des territoires en « pays » de productions, le faible nombre de mois de présence des troupeaux dans le Ferlo (deux mois maximum) ainsi que le recours généralisé à la supplémentation en période de soudure pastoral nous induit à penser à des réorientations de cet élevage vers le sud mais aussi à identifier des espaces de tension possible là où axe de transhumance et axe de colonisation agricole se croisent

Cartographie sémantique par zonage à dires d’acteurs : Le Ferlo (Sénégal) et l’observatoire de Tessekere

International audienceThe Ferlo territory is increasingly "occupied", humanly, environmentally and institutionally. A mapping based on the perceptions of local stakeholders (ZADA in French, PBRM or Perception-Based Regional Mapping) was carried out to identify the factors that, from the point of view of these stakeholders, structure the spatial organization of this territory and its surroundings: uses, practices, localisms or any other factor identified. By GIS-merging together all the maps obtained, each corresponding to an interview, we obtain a spatialized database on the determinants structuring this territory. Although the structural, ecological and socio-historical elements remain and even tend towards the specialization of territories into production 'countries', the short 2-months period herds graze in the Ferlo and the generalized use of supplementation during the pastoral lean season suggests a reorientation of these herds towards the south. It induces areas of possible tension where the north-south axis of transhumance and the West-East axis of agricultural colonization intersect. This experimental method allows us to reflect on the role of environmental observatories and the Ferlo in particular.Le territoire du Ferlo est de plus en plus « occupé », humainement, environnementalement et institutionnellement. Une cartographie basée sur les perceptions des acteurs locaux a été réalisée pour recenser les facteurs qui, aux yeux de ces acteurs, structurent l’organisation spatiale de ce territoire et de ses alentours : usages, pratiques, « pays » ou tout autre facteur recensé. En fusionnant toutes les cartes obtenues, chacune correspondant à un entretien, via une intersection spatiale via QGIS et une combinaison sémantique programmée sur JAVA, nous obtenons une base de données spatialisée sur les déterminants structurant ce territoire. Si les éléments structurants, écologiques et socio-historiques demeurent et tendent même vers la spécialisation des territoires en « pays » de productions, le faible nombre de mois de présence des troupeaux dans le Ferlo (deux mois) ainsi que le recours généralisé à la supplémentation en période de soudure pastorale nous induit à penser à des réorientations de cet élevage vers le sud, mais aussi à identifier des espaces de tension possible là où axe de transhumance nord-sud et axe de colonisation agricole ouest-est se croisent. Cette méthode exploratoire permet une réflexion sur le rôle des observatoires sur l’environnement et celui du Ferlo en particulier