Unpacking Decades of Multi-Scale Events and Environment-Based Development in the Senegalese Sahel: Lessons and Perspectives for the Future

Hugo Mazzero, Arthur Perrotton, Abdou Ka and Deborah Goffner
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Hugo Mazzero: UMR 5319 Passages (CNRS), Université Bordeaux Montaigne, Maison des Suds, 12 Espl. des Antilles, 33600 Pessac, France
Arthur Perrotton: Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD)—UPR 105 Forêts et Sociétés, CEDEX 5, 34398 Montpellier, France
Abdou Ka: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)—IRL 3189 “Environnement, Santé, Sociétés”, 13015 Marseille, France/Université de Bamako, Mali/CNRST Burkina-Faso, Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal
Deborah Goffner: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)—IRL 3189 “Environnement, Santé, Sociétés”, 13015 Marseille, France/Université de Bamako, Mali/CNRST Burkina-Faso, Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal

Land, 2021, vol. 10, issue 7, 1-22

Abstract: A major challenge faced by human societies is to promote development that truly makes difference for people without jeopardizing their environment. This is particularly urgent in developing countries where, despite decades of development programs, local populations often live under poverty thresholds. With this study, we participate in the ongoing debate about the necessary global revision of development theory and practice in the rural Sahel. We retrace the development trajectories in the Ferlo, the northern silvopastoral zone of Senegal. We highlight how development has evolved from the 1940s to the present, from centralized development action programs focused on hydraulic infrastructure to current polycentric development with growing environmental concerns. We highlight multi-scale events that have influenced the successive development paradigms in the area. Focusing on the past thirty years, we analyzed twenty-five environment and natural resource management-oriented projects, describing the evolution of their objectives and actions over time and identifying recurring flaws: redundancy, lack of synergy, and questionable relevance to local needs We put forth that a more resilient thinking-based development paradigm is necessary to guide the growing number of environment-oriented development actions, including the African Great Green Wall, for which massive investments are ongoing throughout Ferlo and across the Sahel.

Keywords: Senegal; Ferlo; Green Wall; development; environment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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