Sahel pastoralists: opportunism, struggle, conflict and negotiation. A case study from eastern Niger

The livelihoods and life chances of pastoral communities in the West Africa n Sahel are linked to: the complexity of the activities they must engage in to insure access to resources; to the nature of conflicts and co-operation between ethnic groups; to the inconsistent role of the state in assisting or constraining pastoral livelihoods; and to the negative discourse surroun ding pastoralism that still circulates in some government and development p olicy circles. The paper reviews pastoral livelihoods systems in eastern Ni ger to illustrate changing modes of access to water and pasture: culminatin g in present-day tensions and conflict between pastoral groups. State devel opment efforts to provide secure watering points for pastoral herds have in itiated social conflicts and violence, rather than creating security, No vi able solution has yet been found to control the use of public wells and bor eholes. Enabling frameworks for negotiation and conflict resolution must be developed locally, and centrally enforced in this, and many other regions of uncertain climatic change and overlapping systems of resource exploitati on. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.