Consultative Report: "Anaylise du decret d'application de la loi portant charte pastorale en republique Mali"

Local Organization : Reseau Gestion Decentralisee des Resopurces Naturelles - GDRN5 y Near East Fundation - NEF

Country: Mali

Content: Creating space for dialogue is a niche of the Coalition. There are few, if any, other institutions with a networking structure which links such a wide range of stakeholders. These spaces provide not only opportunities to test margins and provoke critical thinking on lessons learned, but also encourage the exploration of new approaches and the forging of organizational relationships in response to current changing contexts. These dialogues have heightened the importance of land access and related assets in broader development contexts, such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), territorial development, sector wide approaches, decentralization and globalization.

Results : The Mali experience has shown the capacity to move from inter-community to regional workshops to obtain political recommendations on the implementation of the Pastoral Chart, thus influencing the formulation of policy affecting pastoral communities.

A regional workshop was organized by GDRN5 and NEF to validate the results collected from the micro-regional workshops. They specifically invited legislators to clarify the difference between (a) pastoralists, breeders and drovers; and (b) territorial common proprieties and local common proprieties, in order to ascertain the legal land needs of the pastoralist.

Lessons learned, among others:

'Pastoralism' does not exist in a village context in Mali . Therefore, there is a need for reflection on the questions collective territory. The main lesson learned refers to the capacity of CSOs to influence political processes. Indeed, the bottom-up approach used to validate the Pastoral Chart in Mali is a good example of how to move on from a collective claim, to a formalized proposal. The result of this project shows a specific need for participatory and sustainable management of pastoral resources. Recognition of the existing conflict between farmers and pastoralists and the need to address their management through and effective mechanism represents lesson learned. The following questions are important in the follow-up process to this project:

• How can pastoralists use lands when the main production activity is agriculture? How can differences and conflicts between farmers and pastoral people be managed?

• In case of claim, what are the legal options open to pastoral people?

• Inter-communities in the management of shared resources: the resources crucial to pastoralists (water, salty land, etc.) are distributed at different geographical and administrative levels. Therefore, interchange and consensual processes are necessary to harmonize resource management.

• Prevention and management of conflicts: the most frequent conflicts are those between pastoralists and farmers. But, what are the operational solutions to better manage the pastoralist territories which have already been negatively affected by urban communities and agriculture production?

Use of generated knowledge and strategy for its dissemination:

There are few countries able to show the complexity and challenge of pastoralist territories: Mali is one of the most significant. The Pastoral Chart, supported by civil society consultation, could become a significant example of the value of pastoralist vision regarding natural resources management. The Mali experience, together with that of Uganda, will be used as a case study to nourish the political dimension of the land debate. The result of these experiences form part of the Land Coalition 's paper "Mobile Livelihoods, Patchy Resources & Shifting Rights: Approaching Pastoral Territories". The position paper has been written in consultation on Common Propriety Rights, realized with FAO and Capri. It will be presented during the workshop on Dry Lands in Nairobi (October 2005).