In many countries, pastoralism has historically been practiced in areas that are now partitioned by international boundaries. This is a major barrier to sustainable resource management and to pastoral development. However, there are examples from around the world of efforts to facilitate transboundary movements and transboundary ecosystem management by pastoralists.

The global agricultural sector today faces the double challenge of feeding a growing population while preserving the underlying natural resources of land, water and air. In the meantime, already a third of the world’s soils are degraded. Soil and nutrient management techniques aimed at restoring soil health will therefore be essential to meeting these challenges.

Pastoral livestock production is crucial to the livelihoods and the economy of Africa’s semiarid regions. It developed 7,000 years ago in response to long-tern climate change. It spread throughout Northern Africa as an adaptation to the rapidly changing and increasingly unpredictable arid climate.

Drought is one of the main causes of food insecurity. In 2011, the horn of Africa has faced the worst drought in 60 years. An estimated 12.4 million people suffered from a massive food shortage.

It took scientists more than three decades to transform a perceived desertification crisis in the Sahel into a non-event. Looking beyond the Sahel, the chapters in this book provide case studies from around the world that examine the use and relevance of the desertification concept.

Les études sur la transhumance ont souvent ciblé les pasteurs – notamment peuls – des zones sahéliennes. Pour en donner une autre perspective, la présente étude a été centrée sur les pratiques de la transhumance dans la zone soudano-sahélienne du Mali en intégrant la perception des agriculteurs et des pasteurs sédentaires concernés par la transhumance dans les zones d’accueil.

After the severe droughts in the 1970s and 1980s, and subsequent debates about desertification, analyses of satellite images reveal that the West African Sahel has become greener again.

Meeting Name: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA)
Meeting symbol/code: CGRFA-16/17/15
Session: Sess.16

Meeting Name: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Intergovernmental Technical Working Group on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
Meeting symbol/code: CGRFA/WG-PGR-8/16/Inf.9
Session: Sess. 8