1. Carbon sequestration from common property resources: Lessons from community-based sustainable pasture management in north-central Mali
- Author
-
Keith M. Moore, Karim Ouattara, Christine Jost, Carla Roncoli, Salmana Cissé, Adama Ballo, Carlos Pérez, and Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (SANREM) Knowledgebase
- Subjects
Carbon sequestration ,Ecosystem Governance ,Participatory processes ,Resource (biology) ,Natural resource economics ,Pastoralism ,Community-based organizations ,Natural resource management ,Pasture management ,Mali ,Conflict resolution ,Payments for environmental services ,Agricultural ecosystems ,Deforestation ,Institutional capacity building ,Savannah ,Ecological restoration ,Desertification ,Grazing systems ,Soil organic matter ,Transhumance ,Social learning ,business.industry ,Environmental resource management ,Decentralization ,Controlled grazing ,Livestock carrying capacity ,Semiarid zones ,Common-pool resource ,Grasslands ,Greenhouse gas ,Range management ,Local governance ,Soil erosion ,Rangelands ,Conflict management ,Cattle ,Animal Science and Zoology ,Over grazing ,business ,Community institutions ,Agronomy and Crop Science - Abstract
Carbon sequestration in soils has been presented as a potential mechanism to enhance productivity in semi-arid lands in Africa while contributing to the mitigation of greenhouse emissions. Most of the literature, however, focuses on assessing the capacity of existing technology to sequester carbon in soils. There is much less discussion in the literature on the social and institutional elements that need to be in place to realize the potential benefits of carbon sequestration. This paper contributes insights in this direction by analyzing a case of community-based pasture management in north-central Mali. The case study challenges common assumptions in carbon sequestration efforts, namely that land resources are devoted to a single use by resident users; have distinct boundaries and fall within identifiable territorial and administrative jurisdictions, and are subject to widely recognized claims and free of conflict. We suggest that this is not always the case. Findings indicate that carbon sequestration projects centered on rangelands need to allow for flexibility in livestock movements and resource availability and to account for the diverging interest of multiple stakeholders, including different types of pastoralists and farmers. We conclude that social capital formation and conflict management are key elements of a carbon sequestration strategy in supports of sustainable and equitable development in the Sahelian region.
- Published
- 2007
- Full Text
- View/download PDF