Transhumance pastoralism in West Africa – its importance, policies and challenges

Abstract

and Niger. The mandate of ECOWAS is to promote economic integration among member states, which includes livestock production.A year after the formation of ECOWAS, the Club du Sahel was formed by the Sahelian West African countries. This was expanded in 2001 to involve all West African countries, including Mauritania, Cameroon and Chad, under the new name Sahel and West Africa Club (SWAC). The purpose of this expansion was to take advantage of the interdependence and complementarities between the landlocked Sahelian countries and the coastal countries in the subregion (SWAC-OECD/ECOWAS 2008). In effect, this review covers pastoral activities in all the 15 West African countries in addition to Cameroon, Chad and Mauritania (Figure 1).Transhumance pastoralism involves the production of various livestock, such as cattle, sheep, goats, camels, donkeys and horses, whereby the animals are herded from one place to another seasonally in search of feed and water for their sustenance, while escaping extreme temperatures, diseases and pests (Samuels et al. 2008). The natural resources provide a wide diversity of herbaceous (grasses, sedges and forbs) and woody plants (shrubs and trees) that serve as feed for the animals as well as water found in natural and manmade reservoirs. In view of the seasonal fluctuation of forage and water availability over varying spatial scales within and between host countries, cross-border grazing of these animals also becomes necessary to exploit the natural resources. To institutionalise cross-border grazing, ECOWAS saw the need to formulate policies to regulate livestock movements across borders to ensure peaceful cohabitation among member countries and to promote livestock production in the subregion. This review sought to understand: (1) the importance of transhumance pastoralism in West Africa; (2) whether the ECOWAS

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Forage Preference, Voluntary Intake, and In Vivo Digestibility of Six Tropical Tree Leaves by Sheep in Semi-Arid Areas in Benin Republic (West Africa)

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African Rangelands and Pastoralism in a changing continent: Perspectives and Opportunities

“…The ten papers included in this special issue demonstrate the multiple facets of rangelands and pastoralism, ranging from spatiotemporal changes in rangeland dynamics(Arena et al 2023;Mlaza et al 2023;Momberg et al 2023), pastoralists' indigenous knowledge(Finca et al 2023: Nyambali et al 2023) and rangeland management innovations and policy(Anane et al 2023;Maguraushe et al 2023;Mwamidi et al 2023;Scholtz et al 2023;Timpong- Jones et al 2023). …”