In Search of Shelter - Center for International Earth Science ...

©CARETraditionally pastoralism has represented an importantmechanism for adjusting to climate variability, since pastoralistscan move their herds along with the rainfall. 65 A symbioticrelationship often formed between herders and agriculturalists,with agriculturalists receiving animal manure to fertilize theircrops in return for allowing livestock to graze on plant stubble.However, as the Sahel has become more densely settled,increasingly severe conflicts over land and water resources haveerupted between pastoralists and sedentary farmers. 66In Senegal, fieldwork revealed that environmental changesnegatively affect agricultural livelihoods, and contribute tomigration through different mechanisms. For areas whereirrigated agriculture is possible, farmers living close to theSenegal River expect their way of life will continue to bepossible and therefore do not intend to migrate in the future.But in areas like the Peanut Basin, where land degradation issevere, interviewees said they plan to move away if agriculturallivelihoods do not improve. Most migrants who already migratedsaid they would return home to the countryside if agriculturallivelihoods improved. In Senegal experts observe an increasingmovement of people back to the countryside due to the globaleconomic crisis. However, that coping mechanism is runninginto counter-pressures because areas people are returning toare in many cases already degraded. Conflict over access to landseems to be increasing. 67Some farmers do manage to find alternative livelihoods thatallow them to return home. In Niger, a returned migrant fromthe village Talcho, Filingue (Tilabéri, Niger) remarked, “I losthope in producing crops, since the soil got too poor due to thedroughts. I used to be a farmer in my home town. Therefore Ifirst went to Lomé (Togo) and then Libya. Now, I have decidedto return back to Niger where I will start a new business withthe money I managed to collect in Libya.” 68Rather than returning after migrating, the trend goes in theopposite direction. 69 People increasingly migrate step-by-step inpursuit of environments that will support them. The residents ofthe village Caré in the Tilabéri region of Niger is now home tomigrants from another village called Farka where soil degradationhas made crop cultivation impossible. A migrant remarked:“We were farmers in Farka, but the production level worsenedtoo much and the harvest got completely unreliable due to therain fall shortage and soil degradation. We had no alternativerevenues. Therefore, we had to flee this village in the year1987…there is no other reason why we left the original village;if this deterioration in the land quality had not happened, wewould have stayed. Currently in Caré we are suffering from similarproblems and might therefore leave the village for another aswell. We have never planned to leave, but we just ´crept´ afterour living.” 70In another study in Burkina Faso, researchers found that peoplefrom drier regions are more likely to migrate temporarily andto a lesser extent permanently to other rural areas (rural–ruralmigration), compared with people from wetter areas. A rainfalldeficit increases the rural-rural migration but decreasesmigration to abroad. No rush to cities has been observedduring periods of drought. 71 A fisherman in the village of Sirba(Tilabéri, Niger) recounts, “I have been suffering from therain water shortage which made the river very shallow anddecreased my fish production, which had negative implicationson my income. If the situation does not improve, I might leavefor another country like some of my friends and relatives did;they left for Nigeria and Burkina Faso and settled there.” 72Studies in other regions support this finding, and suggestthat environmental conditions often play a more direct rolein short-term moves rather than long-term ones. 73 And yet,if environmental changes render “home” unlivable, shorttermmigration can develop into a pattern of creeping onwardmovement.Robert Ford of the Centre for GIS Training and Remote Sensing,National University of Rwanda noted, “Those of us living withthese issues here in Africa are already seeing some majormovements of people. In many parts of Africa, people livingon the margin seem to quickly pick up signals that indicatewhether on balance life is better by going to the city orreturning to the land. That this much ferment is happeningnow, before climate change really hits, tells me that we hadbetter get prepared.” 7410