Cover Page The handle

Cover Page

The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/44711 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation

Author: Bergh, Michiel van den

Title: Bridging the gap between bird conservation and sustainable development :

perceptions and participation of rural people in Burkina Faso’s Sahel region

Issue Date: 2016-11-23

Bridging the gap between bird conservation and sustainable development.

Perceptions and participation of rural people in Burkina Faso’s Sahel region

Proefschrift

ter verkrijging van

de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden, op gezag van Rector Magnificus prof. mr. C.J.J.M. Stolker,

volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties te verdedigen op woensdag 23 november 2016

klokke 16:15 uur

door

Michiel Olivier Leonard van den Bergh

geboren te Haarlem in 1983

Promotor: Prof. dr. A.J. Dietz Co-promotor: Dr. D.W.J. Foeken

Promotiecommissie: Prof. dr. G.A. Persoon Prof. dr. J.W.M. van Dijk

Prof. dr. W.M. Adams (Cambridge University) Dr. S.W.J. Luning

Dr. A. Akinyoade

3

This book is dedicated to the late Georges Henry Oueda

v

Contents

List of figures, tables, boxes and annexes

vii

Acknowledgements

x

1 I

NTRODUCTION 1

A (research) project in the Sahel

1

Research objective and questions

9

Research methodology

12

2 L

AND USE

,

MIGRANT BIRDS

,

CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN A CHANGING

S

AHEL 24

Land use

24

Migrant birds

31

Conservation and sustainable development

44

Concluding remarks

54

3 L

AND USE

,

MIGRANT BIRDS AND CONSERVATION IN A CHANGING

B

URKINA

F

ASO AND THE RESEARCH AREAS 55

Burkina Faso

55

The research areas

66

Concluding remarks

81

4 L

OCAL PERCEPTIONS OF BIRDS

,

THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATION IN

B

URKINA

F

ASO

’

S

S

AHEL REGION 83

Introduction

83

Methods

87

Results: Natural environment

91

Results: Birds

98

Discussion

109

Concluding remarks and implications for conservation

116

vi

5. W

HO IS IN CHARGE

? T

HE SOCIAL INTERFACE OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ACTORS AND THE RURAL POPULATION IN

B

URKINA

F

ASO 121

Introduction

121

Methods

127

Results

130

Discussion

138

Concluding remarks

141

6 T

HE ROLE OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN INTEGRATED

CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT ROJECTS

: L

OCAL PERSPECTIVES FROM THE

S

AHEL REGION 143

Introduction

143

Methods

148

Major findings

150

Concluding remarks

160

7 C

ONCLUSIONS 163

A changing environment: Trends and perceptions

163

Local values of birds, the environment, and conservation

168

Local population participation

173

Bridging the gap between bird conservation and sustainable development

179

Annexes

186

References

197

Summary

220

Samenvatting

225

Curriculum vitea

227

vii

viii

List of figures, photos, boxes and tables

Figures

1.1 Dryland systems in western Africa 2 1.2 Living on the Edge project sites 4

1.3 Conceptual model of Living on the Edge project, which combines development and conservation goals 5

1.4 Sourou and Higa research areas and Burkina Faso’s climatic zones 8 2.1 Trends in greenness in the western Sahel, 1982-1999 26

3.1 Vegetation trend Burkina Faso 63 3.2 Vegetation trends in Sourou and Higa 74 3.3 Rainfall trends in Sourou and Higa 74

3.4 Linear vegetation trends in Sourou and Higa 75 3.5 Linear rainfall trends in Sourou and Higa 75

3.6 Polynomial vegetation trends in Sourou and Higa 76 3.7 Polynomial rainfall trends in Sourou and Higa 76

4.1 Environmental values mentioned (79) in the research areas (N=32) 92 4.2 Perceived environmental problems (112) by research area (N=38) 96

4.3 Suggested solutions (37) for increasing the number of trees in the research areas (n=17) 97

4.4 Perceptions of birds in Sourou and Higa by respondents’ characteristics (N=50) 100

4.5 Reasons (82) for people’s positive perceptions of birds by research area (N=45) 100

4.6 Perceived solutions (50) to eliminate threats to birdlife in the research areas (N=21) 103

5.1 Organization of Burkina Faso’s territorial administration 126

Photos

1.1 A one-day visit to an island in Sourou 18 1.2 An interview with a local inhabitant in Higa 18

1.3 LCG members participating in a bird monitoring training in Higa 20 1.4-1.6 PADev-inspired focus workshops in Sourou 22

2.1-2.3 Land-uses for which direct evidence exits of its impact on wintering migrant birds 35

2.4-2.7 Inhabitants sharing the (fallow) paddy fields with birds in Sourou, Burkina Faso 42

2.8 & 2.9 A-P migrant birds foraging in Acacias 43

2.10 & 2.12 A-P migrant waders in Ouagadougou’s drying water reservoirs 50 2.13 A woman drinking the juice from Neem tree Azadirachta indica leaves as a

remedy for her stomach complaints (Higa, Burkina Faso) 51

3.1 & 3.2 A seasonal village in the rainy and in the dry season in Higa, Burkina Faso 58 3.3 & 3.4 Vegetation greenness in the dry and rainy season in Higa, Burkina Faso 60 3.5 & 3.6 Agriculture and livestock husbandry put Burkina Faso’s environment under

increased pressure 61

ix

3.7 First record of Blackstart Cercomela melanura for Burkina Faso 64 3.8 & 3.9 A typical sight of the surface water-rich Sourou and the Sahelian landscape

of Higa 67

3.10 & 3.11 There is generally a difference between clothing and housing in Sourou (left) and Higa (right) 68

3.12 & 3.13 Typical livelihood activities for Sourou (fishing) and for Higa (herding) 72 3.14 An extreme example of increasing vegetation greenness due to irrigated

agriculture in Sourou 77

3.15-3.24 A-P migrant species in Burkina Faso and the research areas 80

4.1 & 4.2 A shortage of wood and trees is among the main perceived problems in the lives of many inhabitants in Sourou and Higa 93

4.3 Hippopotamus Hippopotamus amphibious and fishermen in Sourou 95 4.4 & 4.5 Different bird species are perceived differently by local inhabitants 99 4.6 & 4.7 Smaller bird species are often caught in nets or hunted with slingshots 105 4.8 Wooden baskets are sometimes installed to protect tree seedlings from

livestock 108

4.9-4.12 Different types of fuel-efficient fire stoves 108

4.13 & 4.14 Awareness raising and education can be valuable conservation tools 119 6.1-6.3 The planting of tree seedlings is done by most community members 156 6.4 Bird monitoring at the shores of the Sourou river 160

Boxes

1.1 A parallel initiative 6 2.1 Grazing pressure 30 2.2 Cambridge Workshop 38 2.3 Parks and protected areas 47 2.4 Financial resources 53 4.1 Human (land) conflicts 94 4.2 Hunting observations 104 6.1 A note on Oursi LCG 162

Tables

1.1 Research assistants 17 2.1 Population densities 31

3.1 General characteristics of Sourou and Higa research areas 69 3.2 Population characteristics of Sourou and Higa research areas 70 3.3 Livestock in Sourou and Higa 71

3.4 Location of four trend analysis points in Sourou and Higa

71 4.1 General characteristics of Sourou and Higa research areas 88 4.2 Population characteristics of Sourou and Higa research areas 88 4.3 Interviewees per research theme, excluding children

and local authorities. 91

4.4 Reasons for people’s positive perceptions of birds by research area 101 4.5 Reasons behind local authorities’ positive perceptions of birds in the research

areas 107

5.1 Development actors: research numbers and abbreviation 128 5.2 Local population: details and number of interviewees 128 5.3 ‘PADev’ research numbers by type of actor 130 5.4 Development actors: Type, sector and mission 132 5.5 Assessment of development actors’ projects 136

x

6.1 Comparison of the Sourou and Higa research areas 148 6.2 Community organizations studied, including two LCGs 149 6.3 Key characteristics of LCGs by research areas 151

6.4 Characteristics of the COs and LCGs 152

xi

Acknowledgement

This dissertation would not have been possible without the support of many. First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to my highly regarded supervisors at the African Studies Centre Leiden (ASCL): Ton Dietz and Dick Foeken. I would like to thank Ton for being a great motivator and for the many interesting and useful discussions we had. I would like to thank Dick for the many times he pa- tiently went through the whole text with me, and, in particular, for his much ap- preciated repeated checks on my data analysis. Equally appreciated was the valu- able support from Bernd de Bruijn, who provided practical and ecological super- vision from his position as a senior conservationist at Vogelbescherming Neder- land (VBN: BirdLife in the Netherlands).

It was a great pleasure to work on my dissertation at both the ASCL and VBN, and I would like to thank all my colleagues for the good time I had there. Special thanks to those who provided support in the form of feedback, discussions, or practical assistance regarding my thesis, including (in alphabetical order): Anke, Barend, Manon, and Robert (VBN); Akinyinka, Jan-Bart, Han, Harry, Karin, and Wijnand (ASCL research staff); Edith, Ella, Elvire, Jos, Machteld, and Monique (ASCL library staff); Gitty, Harro, Jan, Lotte, Maaike, Marieke, Mieke, Rebecca, and Trudi (ASCL support staff); Romain, Samson, and Samuel (ASCL visiting fellows). Also, many thanks to all my ASCL PhD buddies, including: Agnieszka, Angela, Anika, Doreen, Evelyne, Fatima, Inge, Iva, Karin, Lotje, Martin, Margot, Merel, Nilza, Peter, Rosine, Sebastiaan, Thijs, and Zjos. Last, but not least, many thanks to Anna and Ann (ASCL) for their language editing.

The support was by no means restricted to people from these two organisa- tions, and I am thankful to so many others. In particular to people from partner organisations in the UK, including BirdLife International (David Thomas), BTO (Phil Atkinson), Cambridge University (Bill Adams, William Sutherland), and the RSPB (Danaë Sheehan and Juliet Vickery). Back in the Netherlands, Chris Reij, Gerard Persoon, Huub Hendrix, Jan van der Ploeg, Joost Brouwer and Sab- ine Luning provided valuable feedback and insights, while Anton Vrieling great- ly helped with the analysis of climate and vegetation data. I wish to thank Peter Kaan and Magda El Zarki for the language check of a particular chapter.

I am probably most indebted to the people in Burkina Faso, who so kindly

shared their ideas, personal stories, and homes with me. I owe my gratitude in

particular to the Local Conservation Groups in Sourou and Higa, and especially

the groups’ presidents and secretaries, including Drabo Abdina, Pierre

xii

Ouédraogo (Sourou), Abdoulaye Hama, Alay Hama (and his brother) (Higa), and their welcoming families. NATURAMA (BirdLife in Burkina Faso) provided local contacts, information and other assistance and I would especially like to thank Idrissa Zeba, Nana Adama, Patrice Da, Prudence Tankoano, Bara Yacou- ba, and Safi Bamogo.

This book is dedicated to the late George Oueda, the former Director of Con- servation of NATURAMA, who sadly passed away in 2012. Georges Oueda was the single most knowledgeable expert in both ornithology and conservation in his country, and I have fond memories of our conservation-related discussions and the few beers we shared. I am also much indebted to my very talented and dedi- cated research assistants: Idrissa Ouédraogo, Achille Sougrinoma Ouédraogo, and Ibrahim Compaoré. I am also very grateful for the many interviewees who took the time to share their experiences and thoughts with me, and so often invit- ed me into their homes and personal lives. Special thanks to my local friends, Adama Belemvire (for assisting me with the research), Moctar and Franca (for lending their vehicle), Veronica and François (for all the nice BBQs), and Ama- dou and Anabel, François Ouedraogo, and Martin Ingemansson (for letting me stay at their homes). And for various reasons, thank you Henneke and Ernst IJkelenstam (Dutch Embassy), Karst Kooistra (BioVisio), Boro Sekou (LCG Sourou), Dicko Saido (LCG Higa), and Hamidou Mamoudou (LCG Oursi). To those who are not listed I emphasize that I have treasured each encounter, the many conversations, and especially the numerous cups of tea.

Lastly, I would like to thank my family – in particular my mum, dad and

brother: Elise, Alexander and Hugo (for their continuous support and enthusi-

asm) – as well as my friends – in particular Adriaan (for lending a vehicle in

Burkina Faso), Richard, Jan, Roderick and Rogier (for their continuous interest)

–, and my girlfriend Benthe (for her support and interest, and much more).