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Migration in West Africa has been taking place for centuries for different reasons. Many dimensions of migration remain insufficiently documented and poorly understood. In particular, factors of migration in destination areas and areas of origin are still lacking comprehensive analysis. In this paper, we bring a new perspective to the model of push and pull factors of migration in West Africa by reviewing and analyzing interview-based case studies of migration related to Ghana, Burkina Faso, and Nigeria, as well as to the associated migration routes. The overall aim of this study was to determine the areas that individuals historically chose as destinations for migration and what they perceived to be the distinctive conditions in those areas. Hence, characteristic features about destination areas and areas of origin were identified and located in maps, whereas interrelationships among push and pull factors were illustrated by means of Sankey diagrams. With these tools, we provide a novel combination for visualizing the reasons for migration. The literature review emphasizes the complex relationships between different drivers of migration, with environmental and economic factors emerging as the most important drivers of migration in the focus countries. Moreover, the identified and mapped migration patterns suggest that individuals migrate mainly from the northern part of a particular country to its center or southern regions. This scientific approach shows that the spatial allocation of migratory movements can facilitate assessments on how to meet specific Sustainable Development Goals and to improve regional policies.

Peri-urbanisation is a dynamic process consisting primarily of the expansion of artificial areas into natural, semi-natural, and agricultural areas. This process reduces peri-urban open spaces, thus it is threatening peri-urban biodiversity and hampers the provision of ecosystem services. In this manuscript, we introduced the concept of peri-urban open spaces and exemplified it on the level of regional policy-making in the following six European case study regions: Basque Country (Spain), Flanders (Belgium), Gorenjska (Slovenia), Hajdú-Bihar (Hungary), Mazovia (Poland), and Saxony-Anhalt (Germany). Our study aimed (1) to analyse land cover changes related to peri-urban open spaces in the case study regions, (2) to identify and classify policy improvements that are useful to protect peri-urban open spaces, and (3) to provide recommendations for regional policy instruments to improve the protection of peri-urban open spaces. We designed a mixed-method approach combining Geographical Information Systems, an explorative questionnaire, and a semi-quantitative survey to fulfil our research aims. Our results showed that peri-urban open spaces are decreasing in all case study regions but with different scale and dynamics over time. Mostly (non-irrigated) arable land was transformed into non-peri-urban open space. Moreover, we identify 15 policy improvements that are suitable to support the protection of peri-urban open spaces at the level of regional policy-making. Our results indicated a potential for improving the regulatory instruments and showed the usefulness of multi-level governance that better address the protection of peri-urban open spaces at regional level. Using our research results, we provided recommendations for regional policy-makers who are willing to pay more attention to the protection of peri-urban open spaces.