The World Bank/WBI’s CBNRM Initiative

Case Received: February 5, 1998

Author: Négueba Fane

Telephone: +223 64 0103

The Mali Textile Development Society (CMDT) is an agro-industrial company involved in the processing and sale of cotton. The CMDT is responsible for joint development of the cotton network through providing agricultural advice to village communities and agricultural companies in its region.

The viability of manufacturing systems in the CMDT zone has for two decades been threatened by the following factors:

• The spread of cultivated land (7 % per year) propelled by population growth (2 to 3 % per year) and the mechanization of agriculture through farm credits.

• The change to a money-based rural economy is an important factor. It encourages agricultural companies to increase their cotton production, especially through a strategy of extensive culture.

• The growth in livestock (by the of cotton revenues) which leads to over-exploitation of pasturelands.

• The decline in annual rainfall.

The combination of these factors led to a degradation of ecosystems. Hence the implementation of the project Battle Against Erosion (PLAE) in 1986 by the CMDT. This project led to the Sustain Production Potential (MPP) program.

The object of the program’s creators is to ensure that village communities become responsible for the natural resources on their lands. Around 2 million people are affected by the program.

INITIAL SITUATION  The CMDT popularizes          Rural communities are    
                    measures that maximize          increasingly faced with    
                    production.                    soil-degradation problems.    

                    The sectoral LAE method                        
                    is employed.                                  

Change occurred in several stages:

- Implementation of a package of anti-erosion measures and a participatory scheme to introduce those measures.

Characteristics, principles:

• technical measures accessible to rural communities

• a global approach that placed battle against erosion within the context of the overall need to mange the region’s natural resources;

• an approach at village level in which all or most of the people within a particular village were made aware of the problems of erosion and degradation suffered by their environment and to act on the problem together. Thus, whole villages, including both men and women, became committed to the program.

The project was introduced in two CMDT regions (Sikasso and Koutiala), and in around 40 villages. A village development plan was implemented, through agricultural research (ESPGRN: Team on Production Mechanisms and Management of Natural Resources) and the application of the participatory LAE approach at the village level.

Public education about anti-erosion measures.

Principles:

• the use of the training program of the already-existing CMDT supervisory framework;

• transfer of competence to the rural community via CMDT training;

• Villages were supervised according to a cyclical approach in which planning and assessment phases recur each year, to allow villages to develop gradually, at their own pace, toward the management of their own natural resources.

- In this way, institutional structures were created, along with specialized positions responsible for introducing new techniques and methods and ways to support the CMDT supervisory structure and support the implementation of the plan.

This phase was dominated by reflection on the prospects f or intervention and for the fight against erosion within the framework of the CMDT’s rural development program.

This policy and this program were drawn up with sustainable development in mind (sustainable development meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs).

This integration was achieved by a dual approach.

First, the program Sustain Production Potential was conceived. It comprised:

• A common denominator CMDT-farmer, that is a commitment to sustaining the production of natural resources, which are the foundation of the region’s rural economy (revenues for farmers, currency for State/CMDT );

• A synergy comprising a collection of "classic" measures (popularized by the CMDT…) and innovative the Battle Against Erosion (LAE) measures.

In fact, all these activities and disciplines presented to the CMDT are part of the MPP.

Second, the village organizational approach was implemented. This approach:

• allows the measures recommended by the CMDT to be communicated to the rural communities of its region;

• allows the LAE measures and the other CMDT measures to be communicated, thus creating a synergy between these measures.

The MPP concept and the village organizational approach were adopted after a series of workshops within the various departments of the CMDT.

RESULTS            The CMDT communicates     Rural communities adopt the LAE
                    the measures needed to          measures, which define the                      ensure sustained               process by which the management
                    production, and integrates      of natural resources becomes
                    the concept of sustainable      accepted as the responsibility
                    development (MPP) into its     of the rural communities
                    structure and its working      themselves ("SIWAA" case,
                    methods.                    "U Sigignon"…)          

The integration of the sustainable development (MPP) concept by the CMDT.

The realities of the CMDT must be respected

• through the use of its supervisory structure;

• by offering a gradual approach, which is implemented via the CMDT’s supervisory structure and which quickly produces results. This approach is ideal for creating village-based institutional structures, and it can also be repeated elsewhere.

All the CMDT staff members involved must be included in the study process

• by working from the results of research and public communication efforts;

• by ensuring that consultation is available at every level of the process.

Rural communities must be educated about the issues involved and they must be empowered to manage their own natural resources.

Continuous supervision should be provided, with innovative measures offered according to villagers’ concerns and schedules. This approach encourages the transition toward self-management.

There must be a transfer of competence and self-management by rural communities must be assured.

Measures must be accessible to them.