New SPARC research on ‘Peace with Nature’ supports the UN Convention on Biological Diversity

In the heart of Senegal, the Ferlo Silvopastoral Reserve is more than just a protected area – it is a lifeline for the region’s farmers and herders. But as climate change, population growth, and changing land use pressures mount, this vital, mainly dryland region faces growing challenges. Silvopastoralism is a form of agroforestry that integrates trees, forage, and the grazing of domesticated animals in a mutually beneficial way.

Silvopastoralism: natural resource management (NRM) to preserve nature

Founded in the 1950s, the Ferlo silvopastoral zone was established to reconcile both pastoralism and conservation, as well as to curb the expansion of agricultural frontiers. Although the region consists of reserves and classified forests designated as protected areas, it is now trapped between three major agricultural basins, with evolving spatial dynamics and land use conflicts contributing to its shrinkage and the reduction of pastoral routes. Despite all these constraints, the reserve itself remains peaceful, hosting a significant portion of Senegal’s livestock, supporting the livelihoods of herders, preserving crucial ecosystems, ecosystem services and biodiversity.

More targeted NRM and peacebuilding interventions

Supporting Pastoralism and Agriculture in Recurrent and Protracted Crises (SPARC) has developed new research that seeks to better understand how examples like the Ferlo Silvopastoral Reserve and other local NRM initiatives including ‘conventions locales’ (local agreements between NRM users) in West Africa and participatory rangeland management (PRM) in East Africa can contribute more explicitly to peacebuilding.

Both these initiatives place strong emphasis on building sustainable and socially inclusive governance structures, as well as the capacities of communities to address land and resource management challenges technically. Recent SPARC research has shown how collective tenure and decision-making is a key characteristic of pastoralism resilience. The building of such governance structures, as well as collective planning based on land users’ common vision, are key building blocks for peace.

Through SPARC partner CGIAR Research Initiative Fragility, Conflict and Migration, research on ‘conventions locales’ has been carried out in Mali, and initial results will be presented at the Symposium on Agropastoralism in Africa in Dakar,  Senegal in November, as a contribution to a regional dialogue on land use conflicts supported by SPARC and its partners. In East Africa, SPARC member organisations the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Mercy Corps are working with the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD) to better understand and test how PRM can better (more explicitly) contribute to peace.

An early example of the role that PRM can play in peacebuilding in Ethiopia can be found in a new brief on Environmental Peacebuilding as a Pathway to Peace with Nature, launched at a UN CBD COP16 side event on Peace with Nature through Environmental Peacebuilding: Unlocking Biodiversity’s Potential for Conflict Resolution organised by the Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT.

Read the full story at sparc-knowledge.org.

Banner photo: A shepherd returning with his flock after a day’s grazing in the Dodji sylvo-pastoral reserve in Ferlo. Photo by Baba Ba/ILRI.