The World Bank/WBI’s CBNRM Initiative
Case Received: February 10, 1998
Author: Boubacar Fofana
Tel: +223 57 30 43 / 57 30 45
Experiments in Environmental Rehabilitation
and Protection Through Community-Based Management in Djombougou
This draft presents some of the actions carried out by a rural community in the context of environmental rehabilitation and protection. The purpose of the study was to experiment with this type of management with a view to its wide-scale replication.
The draft covers three major points:
PRESENTATION OF THE PROJECT AREA
Djombougou is located in the northern part of Mali's first administrative region (Kayes). The area is termed arid, since it is located within the 500-mm isohyet, with a rainfall pattern that is irregular in both time and space.
Djombougou falls within that strip of the Sahel that is characterized by serious soil degradation and an almost complete absence of vegetation.
In the past, farming systems were oriented toward minimizing risks rather than maximizing production, but today's attitudes toward production have turned around completely, with a major impact on the environment. Droughts and insecurity of land tenure have become factors contributing to soil degradation and to the intensification of conflicts both within the farming community and between farmers and herders.
In addition, ill-suited cultivation practices have contributed to loss of soil fertility and in some cases to the complete desertification of the land immediately encircling the village. All of these actions are the result of development of the agrarian system.
The fact that the area is also regarded as an excellent location for livestock has also contributed to environmental degradation, particularly in the form of erosion resulting from overgrazing and the trampling and packing down of the soils by the herds.
And destruction of the overhead browsing potential through the mutilation of forage trees and the uncontrolled burning of bush fires have all resulted in radical changes in the entire area. Deforestation has been accelerating alarmingly as a result of uncontrolled clearing and shortening of the fallow period (three years). All of these factors have led to a disappearance of the area's natural resources and impoverishment of its environment.
Given this alarming situation of environmental degradation, agreement was reached with the local communities to create a more organized structure within which it would be more feasible to work for environmental rehabilitation and protection. As a result, an inter-village committee was set up, embracing the four villages covered by the study.
To protect the environment and control its degradation.
Each committee comprises an executive team consisting of representatives of all levels of village society.
The heads of household in each village are required to make a contribution to a fund to support the committee's actions.
A system also exists whereby individuals caught in flagrante (setting fires, mutilating trees, abusive exploitation of slopes, etc.) are subject to a tax. Violations are reported to the authorities to ensure the effectiveness of this measure (? meaning not clear - Translator).
Each committee appoints certain of its members to be responsible for bush surveillance, an activity financed out of a percentage of the taxes collected from violators.
Beyond the institutional aspect, the local inhabitants are trained and counseled in those methods of environmental rehabilitation and protection that are the easiest for them to replicate.
The farmer/herder committees have introduced some very good innovations, with excellent results:
To sum up, this experiment represents an attempt at reorganization through involvement of the community in the process of environmental rehabilitation and protection.