Paper short abstract:

This paper offers a critical empirical analysis of the changing dynamics of conflicts between farmers and pastoralists in Nigeria. Available evidence suggests that the conflicts are driven by religion, ethnicity, the emergence of new actors and contesting claims to land and territorial control.

Paper long abstract:

Historical accounts of the interactions between farmers and herders in Nigeria suggest that the relationship between the two groups was symbiotic and cordial. Though there were skirmishes arising from encroachment on cultivated farmlands and cattle rustling - a function of their divergent livelihoods, these were amicably resolved through dispute resolution mechanisms overseen by traditional rulers. However, recent episodes of farmer-herder conflicts in Nigeria are characterised by arson, brutal murders, rape, destruction of settlements and massive displacement of people. Efforts by state governments to manage these conflicts have at best, resulted in temporary relief. The intractable nature of the conflict and the ineffectiveness of the peacebuilding interventions employed have raised questions as to whether the local nature of the grievances that drive the current farmer-herder conflicts has changed. This research investigates the changing dynamics of farmer-herder conflicts in Nigeria, providing insights into the complexities that characterize the interactions between farmers and pastoralists. The study steps in the gap of an absence of conflict analysis which is a crucial but often neglected step in understanding the causes of conflicts and determining appropriate solutions. Empirical evidence generated suggests that the causes of conflict between farmers and herders go beyond the competition for grazing fields. Contesting claims to land and territorial influence, the emergence of new actors, ethnicity, religion and the settler/non-settler dichotomy were identified as some of the underlying drivers of farmer-herder conflicts in Nigeria. The findings are significant because understanding the drivers of conflict is fundamental to conflict management.

Paper short abstract:

This paper seeks to identify legal loopholes, particularly constitutional and economic factors that require reforms to put an end to the lingering crisis. It argues that the current Land Use Act is particularly outdated and must be reformed to match current socio-economic realities.

Paper long abstract:

The recent surge in the spate of violent clashes between nomadic herders from northern Nigeria and sedentary agrarian communities in the North Central and Southern parts of the country have raised a number of legal and political questions that had been long overlooked. Issues arising from the phenomenon range from the questions over constitutionally guaranteed rights such as the right to life, the right to freedom of movement, the right to own property, to questions over the inadequacies of Nigeria's security apparatus as well as calls for land use reforms. The constant conflicts between the Fulani who are culturally cattle herders and agrarian communities have reached unprecedented levels leading to accusations of coordinated attempts at land grab, ethnic cleansing, jihad and insurgency, threatening the country's security and stability in the process. Fiscally, the destruction of lives and property and the state of insecurity emanating from the clashes has come at a great cost of $16 billion in potential revenue. In no small measure have these clashes been precipitated by climate change and the consequent drought in the Sahara region. This paper analyses the role of the Nigerian state in balancing the various interests of affected groups in the clashes. At its core, it seeks to identify legal loopholes, particularly constitutional and economic factors that require reforms to put an end to the lingering crisis. It argues that the current land use regime in the country is particularly outdated and must be reformed to match current socio-economic realities.

Paper short abstract:

This paper seeks to discuss the increasingly tense relations between farmers and herders on one hand and the state of Ghana on the other.It explores the background but importantly analyses the state's responses to what is increasingly seen not only as a domestic but a regional security challenge.

Paper long abstract:

This paper seeks to discuss the increasingly tense and violent relations between farmers and herders on one hand and the state of Ghana and its agents on the other. It explores the background, but importantly analyses the state's responses to what is increasingly seen not only as a domestic but a regional security challenge.

While the paper argues that this crises has caught the attention of securocrats and policymaker alike, we argue that the manner in which the crises has been handled by the Ghanaian state - from the sub-regional, national, regional and district - demonstrates a lack of appreciation of the complexity of intervening and interlocking interests and factors driving the farmer/herder crises in the country. To that end, the paper will seek to explore these factors and how they function in individual or combine in complex ways to create a state of insecurity and how the narrative and of exclusion, victimhood and dispossession all aggrieved parties fuels further violence and increasing instability.

Paper short abstract:

The paper explores the interplay between climate change, economic upgrading by political elites and low-key conflicts. The paper's perspective focuses on conflictive interests between political elites, investors and local actors by developing a new conflict typology for conflicts among local actors.

Paper long abstract:

Multiple studies link environmental changes to resource degradations, scarcity and violent conflict. Hence, the geographical focus of these studies is mostly concentrated on areas which experience resource shortages due to climate change and violent conflicts most time of the year. However, the increased concentration of the Kenyan government to promote economic development in order to create employment opportunities but also to strengthen the Kenyan GDP, more often contributes to inequality, generates instability, and challenges the relationship between different local actors. As a result of the commercialisation of the water resources at Lake Naivasha, a growing number of national and multi-national companies have arrived around this lake since the late 1980s. Accelerated by the population increase, the available amount of water for farmers, fishermen, and pastoralists is deteriorating. At first glance, this seems surprising given the enormous water levels at Lake Naivasha. Yet, today's water shortage is less aggravated by climate change than by the chemical and waste disposal of the flower farms and the hotels. Drawing on my research trip to Lake Naivasha in summer 2018, my findings illustrate how national and multi-national companies impact on various local conflicts around the lake. Strikingly, local populations challenge the investors through non-violent protest, while violence occurs only among farmers, fishermen and residents around Lake Naivasha. The paper intends to develop a conflict and actor typology for conflicts arising between local level actors linking national and global (economic) process of decision-making and their impact on water shortages at water-abundant.

Paper short abstract:

A literature exists on transhumant peasant-pastoralist conflicts. In the peanut basin, the analysis focuses on the obstruction of transhumance corridors. A Survey reveals the reconfiguration of the plot, the exacerbation of conflicts and the responsibility of the state in these conflicts.

Paper long abstract:

There is abundant literature today on the causes and consequences of conflicts between peasants and transhumant pastoralists. The causes have always been attributed to climate change (and its corollary the recurrence of bad rainy seasons), to the high demographic pressure, etc. Both have, among others, led to a steady increase in agricultural front on pastoral areas, longer distances transhumance and competition for access to resources or overuse of these. Relations between peasants and pastoralists are therefore conflicting. This contribution aims to analyze, in the old Senegalese groundnut basin, a new situation, in this case a destabilizing effect Highway Ila Touba on obstruction of traditional breeders passages corridors nomadic Fulani or Sereer. During a two-week mission in the Thies and Diourbel regions, we targeted the villages adjoining this infrastructure. So we made two round trips Dakar-Touba for a landscape observation. Thus, the analysis of the results of this qualitative and quantitative survey first revealed the reconfiguration of the parcels crossed by the motorway. Secondly, it has exacerbated conflicts between sedentary peasants and transhumant pastoralists. Indeed, all transhumance corridors established by the communes following deliberations were disrupted. Livestock damage on crop plots has resumed. Finally, there is the role of the state in aggravating these conflicts. Pastoral mobility has not, once again, been taken into account in this national project.

Key words: conflicts between peasants and pastors; transhumance; old groundnut basin; Ila Touba Highway; transhumance corridors; Senegalese state.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the politico-economic aspects of the conflict between farmers and pastoralists in the Sahel and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Paper long abstract:

In 2017, conflicts between farmers and pastoralists resulted in more fatalities than terrorism and other forms of violent conflict. This is because there has been a sharp increase in this form of conflict in the last few years. While issues such as climate change, receding lake Chad, drought and population increase have been identified as possible causes of the rise in conflict, several questions are left unanswered especially in relation to the mode of attacks and the perpetrators of this violence. Smith (2005) projected the image of African pastoralism as that of a ' dusty herd moving across the landscape, and of the herder with the sticks across his shoulder standing on one leg leaning on his spear, gazing into the distance'. This image is no longer entirely correct as there is an increase in the use of sophisticated arms and weapons by pastoralists across several countries in Africa. The questions explored by this paper are; who are the real owners of the cattle and who is responsible for arming pastoralists? How has changes in cattle ownership across the Sahel and Sub-Saharan Africa contributed to conflict? What is the role of the state in the conflict and how have they addressed the economic and political aspect of the conflict? The paper argues that although some of the issues highlighted above might have contributed to the conflict, the politico-economic dimension of the conflict remains unexplored and this might hold the keys to uncovering the latent aspects of the conflict.

Paper short abstract:

The paper examines the political economy of nomadic pastoralism and conflict in Nigeria. It argues that structural factors like demographic changes and environmental factors cannot fully explain the phenomenon of farmer-herder conflict in Nigeria. It establishes the implications of the Conflict.

Paper long abstract:

This paper critically examines the political economy of nomadic pastoralism and conflict in the pastoral corridors of Nigeria. Conflicts between pastoralists and farmers are not new phenomena, as they have existed since the beginnings of agriculture. However, the past decade has witnessed an upsurge in conflicts between these two groups. Consequently, considerable amount of research has been conducted since the 1990s on conflicts between farmers and pastoralists in Nigeria. Some of these studies have focused on population growth, farmland expansion, the quest for greener pastures by herdsmen, environmental stress and irrational resource management as causes of conflicts between farmers and herders in Nigeria. However, none of them have addressed the critical issue of how these conflicts, which are supposedly caused by population growth and environmental stress, articulate with other ethnic, political, religious conflicts. In this paper, I seek to fill the gap in the literature and policy discourses by focusing on this fundamental, but yet scarcely studied facet of the farmer-herder conflicts in Nigeria. By interrogating political, ethnic, religious and other dimensions of the conflict, this paper seeks to underscore the fact that the conflicts are rooted in history, ecology and political economy of Nigeria; hence, a single explanatory variable cannot be adduced as being responsible for analyzing and understanding the dynamics and dialectics of the farmer-herder conflict in Nigeria.