Community Development & Protecting Half Of Nature Are Interdependent

No. Half is a global target, not a regional one. Not every country can protect Half, although it is essential for the populations within many countries to protect as much nature as possible. Also, some landscapes — like grasslands — remain functional when only 40% is intact, while others — like rainforests — require 80% intact to preserve the integrity of the landscape and its life-support systems. Where setting aside Half is not possible, restoration combined with wildlife and ecological corridors help improve the functionality of the land.

The short answer is: biodiversity.

The longer answer is that abundant biodiversity supports subsistence farmers/producers with game that can be hunted, pollinators to help crops succeed, stability for landscapes and watersheds, as well as wild foods and medicine.

In the Gourma, biodiversity improves livelihoods through all of these ecosystem services. Additionally, it translates to monetary benefits from selling grazing rights and hay — as well as healthier livestock that are worth more in local markets. Protecting natural resources means a direct source of income, including a massive cash increase for individual women participants. (On average, a 458% increase.) This, in turn, means an increase in access to education.

The Mali Elephant Project proves that a region need not be wealthy or ideally situated to protect nature and everyone who depends on it.

The Gourma is an extensive Sahelian landscape situated between the bend of the Niger River and the Burkina-Faso border. The area is dominated by deserts, plains, sandy steppe, and shrubby woodland stands. The climate is generally dry and hot and rainfall gradients vary from 450 mm in the extreme southern range to 150 mm in the extreme north. Surface water is sparse and water points are few, unevenly distributed, and mostly impermanent.

This intra-annual climatic variation induces a variation in the local availability of resources (arable land, pastures, water points) which is partly responsible for the movements of populations in the Gourma. The people of the Gourma live from agriculture, extensive livestock farming, foraging, hunting, and to a lesser extent fishing.

Their existence is therefore largely linked to natural resources and the spaces that support them, and human distribution and activity is therefore also largely a function of the distribution of these resources. In addition, there is significant inter-annual climatic variation marked by great uncertainty as to the arrival of the rains, their duration and quantity. Thus, from one year to the next, the location of pastures, arable areas, and water points can vary enormously.

Population density is low with most being concentrated along the main road. While the north of the elephant range is predominantly a pastoral area, the south is an agricultural and agro-pastoral area. Multiple ethnicities coexist in the with their own particular socio-economic systems:

• The pastoral system of the Tuareg

• The agropastoral system of the Peulh, Sonrhai, Bellah and Dogon

• The Dogons, Sonrhai and Peulhs rimaïbes for whom agriculture is their principal activity and cultivate large fields of grain

• Gardening is practiced by sedentary populations (chiefly Bellah and Sonrhai) around some perennial water-holes. This has only become significant since the mid-1980s due to the work of a development NGO.

• The long distance migratory herds of the Peulh who use this area as wet season pasture

Conservation where communities have responsibility for delivering conservation over defined areas and receive the benefits that accrue. These are distributed among the community in a way that is fair and transparent.

Without expensive technology or mind-boggling budgets, the Mali Elephant Project uses local community resource management systems and people power to improve livelihoods for local communities — and contribute to humanity’s larger goal of Half.

The two big problems in the Gourma were (1) that there was a high degree of over-exploitation of natural resources by distant, urban commercial interests (2) individual ethnicities and clans have systems of resource management to prevent over-exploitation and degradation, but they were reluctant to respect each others’ systems.

The Mali Elephant Projects brings together all those using a particular area to discuss their problems and the causes, then devise solutions. When additional information is required and/or precision is needed, a study is conducted to inform the discussion. This generally involves using traditional governance systems that are inclusive and representative, transparent, and fair.

A representative management committee establishes the zonation and rules of resource management (including protecting elephant habitat and the migration route); and teams of youth are elected to enforce the rules as well as conduct habitat protection and restoration activities. As more resources become available, the Mali Elephant Project helps establish natural resource based income-generating activities, such as the planting and harvesting of gum arabic, which provide an additional incentive for sustainable resource management.

In 2003, a resident of Gourma noticed a paradox. There were historic numbers of cattle in the Gourma, but the people seemed poorer than ever. This resident, Nomba Ganame, went on to become the Mali Elephant Project’s field manager, and they knew Gourma needed coordination to fix the problem — up to 96% of the cattle were run on the land by outside commercial interests, and the different ethnic groups in the area were reluctant to respect one another’s’ resource management systems.

After three years of careful study, the Mali Elephant Project was formed in 2007. The project began working with the communities to develop environmental management systems that were based on traditional models — but which included all local groups. Local resource management conventions protected elephant habitat and their migration route, as well as managed the other areas in a way that restored and increased productivity, providing scope for alternative livelihood models whose success was enhanced by wise resource management. These conventions provided provision for charging outsiders for use of resources within the communities’ area of influence. These systems proved very popular, effective, and have since spread across the elephant range.

This has been replicated on the supra-communal scale with the creation of a biosphere reserve with core area covering the most important late dry-season elephant habitat and the rest managed by the local community agreements.

30 by 30 — protecting 30% of Earth’s lands and seas by 2030 — is a critical milestone for achieving Half. Many within the 30 by 30 campaign recognize this fact and are equally supportive of protecting Half.

This situation has recent historical precedent in the environmental movement. In the lead up to the (Climate) COP 21 in Paris, two ambitious targets generated international attention: the scientifically supported 1.5 Celsius and the politically more feasible 2 Celsius. Due to the strength and support of the movement supporting 1.5 Celsius, the politically more feasible target was achieved without further compromise. Additionally, while the world committed to 2 Celsius, they also acknowledged that 1.5 Celsius was the scientific recommendation.

The goal is Half, with 30 by 30 as an important step along the way.