Population, Environment, and Land Tenure in Burkina Faso

Santa Clara University, Santa Clara CA

Investigators

Abstract

This research project will investigate the environmental and socioeconomic effects of population change in southwestern Burkina Faso, a region of widespread immigration. It examines an on-going debate in African studies literature about the role of population growth in causing environmental degradation. The investigator argues that the scale of investigation is important in determining conclusions. In the cotton-growing zone of southwestern Burkina Faso, population growth has led to large reductions in forest cover and fallow periods. Yet analyses at the macro-level may ignore other types of population-induced landscape changes, such as the micro-level adaptive responses of farmers. Although the research in this project counters dominant neo-Malthusian portrayals of the relationship between people and their environments in this region, population growth has led to several important socioeconomic and institutional dislocations, particularly in the arena of wealth distribution, land rights, community relations, and government policy. Among the questions that the research will ask are: How have demographic and socioeconomic changes affected the environment at multiple spatial scales? How are norms about land tenure changing with population influx by migrants, particularly regarding rights, agricultural investment, tenure security, conflict, and conflict resolution? How do international environment, land, and population policies interact with other government policies to affect changes on the local level, and how do local farmers react to new policies? The research project will be a one-year pilot project in three villages using different methodological frameworks. Principal methods will include structured and unstructured interviews, aerial photographic interpretation, soil and vegetation sampling, and collection of national level data and policy reports. This research project will have important outcomes for the advancement of scientific knowledge. It will contribute to a growing literature on how African environments are changing, on how population growth is affecting local resource use, and on land tenure relations and agrarian change. This research also will contribute to development of more effective policies dealing with land rights in sub-Saharan Africa at a time when many governments, through pressure from international institutions, are rethinking land policy in ways that have serious implications for the welfare of villagers.