Elsevier

Land Use Policy

Volume 18, Issue 4, October 2001, Pages 309-319
Land Use Policy

Agricultural land use pattern dynamics in the Sudan–Sahel—towards an event-driven framework

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0264-8377(01)00020-5Get rights and content

Abstract

While addressing the issue of field encroachment and land use pattern changes in the desert margin regions, the paper proposes to develop a model which recognises land use pattern changes as event-driven. The picture that underpins development efforts and policy papers for environmental improvement in the Sudan–Sahel region often describes changes in agricultural landscape systems as a unidirectional expansion of fields onto marginal land in response to population pressure and resource degradation. It is proposed that models of land use pattern trajectories as well as of resilience of land use systems have to recognise a strong random element related to unforeseeable events.

Introduction

A priori judgements about the importance or character of man's use of land dominate official documents, such as international conventions and National Environmental Action Plans, which underpin environmental and natural resource management politics. Although, conventional wisdom about pertinent environmental issues has moved substantially in the scientific community, this has not always had a significant bearing on the political documents.

In this perspective, the present paper deals specifically with the issue of changing land use pattern, i.e. with the spatial structure and extent of various land use categories related to the human utilisation of land. It does so by first presenting briefly theories that concern the process of land use changes, mainly emphasising those that include spatial aspects in terms of land use patterns.

The second part of the paper exemplifies, drawing on case studies from Burkina Faso, how the spatial pattern of land use, including the use of different landscape units may change suddenly and in response to unpredictable events.

In the conclusion, it is proposed that more attention is paid to the spatial aspects of resource management in land use systems and the extent to which events play a major role in forming the land use pattern trajectories.

Section snippets

Background

During the latter half of the twentieth century, the majority of global land cover changes have occurred in the tropical regions, among these, the Sudano–Sahelian zone. Such significant alterations of man's physical environment are environmentally important in as much as they impact the land's resilience and capacity for sustained future use (Turner II et al., 1995). They may be caused by natural processes (Tucker et al., 1991), but increasingly important is the impact of human land use aimed

Land use patterns—theories about change

A comprehensive theoretical literature addresses the process of change in agricultural systems as regards intensification and parts of it also concern spatial aspects in terms of land use patterns.

The role of population growth has been given much attention, not least in relation to land use pattern changes. Simple cause-impact relationships between increased population size, agrarian change or eventual collapse of the ecological balance dominate. Malthus (1960, p.1798, 1803) presented a crisis

Putting light and shade into the explanation of agricultural landscape evolution

Based on empirical experience from the Sudano–Sahelian region, the following will discuss trajectories of land use changes, and the appropriateness of understanding changes as abrupt and driven by events as opposed to evolving gradually will be considered.

The four case studies that are used in the following as illustrations are located in two different agroecological zones in Burkina Faso (Fig. 1). The Sahelian zone is characterized by its low and irregular rainfall, with a mean annual

Conclusions and perspectives

A main message which can be drawn from the above is that predictions of land use pattern trajectories and evaluation of resilience of land use systems has to be based on a multidisciplinary analysis of the land use systems that recognizes a strong random element related to unforeseeable events.

Many documents that underpin the development discourse concerning Sahelian environmental issues assume that an unambiguous linkage between population pressure, land use, and adverse environmental impact

Acknowledgements

The results presented constitute a contribution to the multidisciplinary research activities of SEREIN (The Danish Sahel Sudan Environmental Research Initiative). SEREIN is initiated by the Danish Environmental Research Programme and financed by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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