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Climate change and demographic change in the Sahel
Last week we published an article on the importance of soil quality in climate change. It explained why industrial cultivation bears an important part of the responsibility for the degradation of soil and land on our planet. What about the situation in the Sahel?
Like in many other regions of the world, it is the climate itself which is volatile in the Sahel. Thus it is not easy to establish, on the spot, which part is due to the “climate change” presently under discussion and that which is the result of a climate that is by its very nature changing. Incidentally, it is not just the climate that is changing here, it is also – and one may say especially – the population density. In Burkina Faso the number of inhabitants double every 25 years! How does the population adapt to this increase? Often with some delay and after a period of serious imbalance.   When I arrived in Koudougou in 1997, I saw the women prepare their dolo - beer made from the local millet cereal - with just the bare stalks of the millet plant for fire wood. For the women this is not a choice or an easy way out, it is a very tiring process. They have to continually watch over the fire, standing in a cloud of smoke. It is by sheer necessity that they make use of the stalks in this way. In discussing this with the women, we came to the following result: as the population grows, the demand for wood grows. But also the need for new arable land! To make way for additional fields, the farmers start out by felling the trees of the selected land areas. Gradually, the demand for wood goes up, while forests are reduced … and inevitably there is a shortage of fire wood. This practice is therefore a sign of an imbalance. In order to find out more I went to the Mariatan and Dissin villages in the land of the Dagara. I learnt that there too the women make dolo using the millet stalks as fuel. These villages are also at the peak of the demographic increase. In the two regions, inhabited by the Dagara people, on this side of the border between Ghana and Burkina, the population growth rate is over 60 inhabitants/km². If you then go on to question the farmers about the fertility of their soil, you will quickly realise that disaster is near. There is not just a shortage of wood, the damage does not stop at that. It is the entire traditional cultivation system that is at stake. Indeed, in traditional agriculture, fallow land is a key practice, which can no longer be maintained, with growth rates exceeding 60 inhabitants/km². Finally, when analysing the problem further, we come to the following conclusion: the traditional techniques of burning land and letting it lie fallow for long periods of time have worked well for centuries, but with present growth rates it has attained its limits. Or, more precisely, the system works well at a density of 30 inhabitants/km². But from 30 to 60 the difficulties keep rising. Rates of over 60 inhabitants/km² are no longer sustainable and lead to disaster. In fact, all biomass that ought to nurture the soil (millet stalks, animal dejections) is carried back to the village to be used as fuel (for cooking, heating water …) and the soil becomes impoverished very quickly. It is urgent, therefore, to react! This prompted us to write an article, some time ago, on the subject “Fallow land is dead, long live compost!” (“La jachère est morte, vive le compost!” ). Here we enter into a different topic: “How has the population in the Sahel reacted to change si far?” As you will see, the Sahel can make its own contribution to the fight against climate change.Koudougou, December 2nd, 2009
Maurice Oudet
Président du SEDELAN |
