Actors of transhumance in the municipality of Djidja in southern Benin
Based on information from focus groups and interviews, our study shows that the actors involved in the practice and management of transhumance in the municipality of Djidja are diverse. Two large main categories of actors have been identified: (1) users of ecosystem services of pastoral resources (transhumant herders, agro-pastoralists, farmers, hunters, fishermen, loggers), and (2) various government or institutional officials at various levels: local and national. By institution, these are the communal authorities, the district chiefs, the village chiefs, the communal transhumance committees, the SCDA, the gendarmerie, the Garso or scouts, the Forest Management Technical Unit (CTAF), the associations of ruminant farmers (UCOPER- Union Communale des Organisations Professionnelles d’Eleveurs de Ruminants, UDOPER- Union Départementale des Organisations Professionnelles d’Eleveurs de Ruminants), associations of crop farmers. The roles and practices related to the use and management of transhumance in the municipality of Djidja were listed.
Transhumant herders
Central actors of transhumance, transhumant herders, are involved in the use and to a lesser extent in the management of pastoral resources in Djidja. They are mobile actors around the use of pastoral resources. Cattle herds in transhumance are generally mixed, made up of several cattle breeds, and belong to three sub-categories of pastoralist stakeholders: (1) cross-border transhumant, (2) inter-communal transhumant and (3) semi-sedentary transhumant. For transhumant herders, their movement with large cattle herds (more than 100 heads) in the municipality of Djidja in southern Benin from Nigeria, Niger, Burkina-Faso and Togo depended on the availability of water, pasture and crop residues during the dry season. Cross-border herders have herds with a large average number of 102 cattle head and intercommunal transhumant herders an average of 80 cattle head, while semi-sedentary farmers have 53 cattle head associated with small ruminants.
Thus, to access these resources, transhumant herders must meet certain conditions, which are to announce their arrival to the management services (UCOPER, Communal Transhumance Committee, etc.) through the head of herders' organizations in the district or the host village. The modes of use of pastoral resources are also based on a certain number of successive stages: before the departure on transhumance, during the transhumance and the return of the transhumance from the host areas. The organization of transhumance was thus divided into three periods among all the transhumant herders (100%) surveyed and varied according to the pastoral calendar. The fodder resources available consist of herbaceous plants, fodder trees and harvest residues.
Agro-pastoralists
As producers who have associated livestock farming to their main activity, agro-pastoralists are actors who not only have a field to cultivate but also a herd of cattle that they can entrust or not to a local breeder. During the rainy season, agro-pastoralists move their herds away from the villages in order to avoid any intrusion into the fields under cultivation and to use remote pastures as well as the numerous temporary surface water resources. These used pastures are mostly open access, they are not subject to any surveillance, the strategies of these actors are guided by the presence of resources and the search for the smallest competition with other cattle farmers. After the harvest, the animals move closer to the villages where they graze in the fields and fallow land. They drink from local natural or developed resources (streams and reservoirs, rivers, etc.). In the dry period, agro-pastoralists (86%) with a large number of cattle and labor drive their animals further from the home area. Harvest residues from food crops (maize, peanuts, millet, sorghum, etc.) and others are directly used by their cattle herds.
Crop farmers
Agriculture is the dominant production activity in the municipality of Djidja. Farmers are very active in activities related to the use of pastoral resources. They allow cattle farmers to access crop residues while they benefit from manure. The activity of the crop farmers consists of preparing the fields for the onset of the “Seeto” rains, marked by the return of herds from the great transhumance. The first harvests of the grazing area are made and it is after the second harvest of "Djaamdè" whose harvest residues are available for transhumant herders. Installed in all the host and transit villages of transhumant herders, farmers are now aware of the value of crop residues. Some cattle farmers do not ask for permission before accessing crop residues, which sometimes leads to conflicts. However, the majority of respondents (72%) blame herders, who allow cattle to enter their fields without any pre-authorization. Very active in organizing transhumance and/or the use of pastoral resources, they rarely negotiate with herders when damage occurs in their crops. Twenty-seven percent (27%) of farmers surveyed acknowledged that they cultivate plots of land reserved for animal pasture.
Hunters
They play the role of trackers while accompanying the agents of the gendarmerie and the SCDA in search of cattle farmers who commit crimes in the fields. They are also called upon to control the transhumance routes of the municipality. In the exploitation of wildlife resources in classified and other forests, hunters make use of bush fires on pastoral resources, which is attested by various transhumance organizations. Hunting is practiced mainly during the dry season and a few rare traps are set in the rainy season to capture wild animals.
Fishermen
The municipality of Djidja has significant fishing potential. As a result, fishing is an economic activity in certain districts and villages. Fishermen use traditional fish farming techniques, and one can therefore observe the development of small areas (acadja) on the bodies of water, particularly on the Zou and Couffo rivers. These actors take care of the reservoirs and various waterways in the municipality of Djidja to harvest fishery resources. The rivers of this municipality being for the most part seasonal, it is especially in the rainy season that they are used as a source of water for domestic uses, but also for watering animals. During the recession, fish holes (houédo) are exploited in the flood plains. The uncontrolled disposal of these facilities leads to conflicts within fishermen and also between fishermen and transhumant herders. Fishing is thus practiced by a few anglers and reprehensible practices consisting of killing fish with toxic products are observed sometimes that could lead to adverse effects on herd’s health status.
Loggers
These actors deal with forest and/or natural resources and their exploitation. They thus exploit the classified forests of Dan and Setto to collect wood. These forest or non-forest species are also used by transhumant herders in the dry period to feed livestock. Before any logging operation, a summary inventory of pastoral and/or natural resources and confirmation of their use must be undertaken. These operations are carried out by community groups or private operators depending on whether it is firewood, service wood or lumber. The forest agents mandated with the management of natural resources raise awareness at the beginning of each season of activity, all operators. They explain to them the conditions for exploiting the resources if necessary. This is how it issues operating permits to users who have registered. All checkpoints deploy officers for patrols to detect potential fraudsters, to whom they will pay the fines.
Gendarmerie
It participates in the assessment of damage in the fields and mainly carries out actions to protect the population, investigations in the event of death. It also accompanies SCDA agents and hunters for their safety during the various checks.
Garso
The role of the Garso is to enlighten the transhumant throughout the process. They carry out translation actions during meetings, intermediation in the event of damage to the fields and facilitate negotiations with village and district chiefs in favor of transhumant herders. They are very active in the field, especially with regard to interpretation. According to the results of the survey, the Garso or the scout provides information and advice to transhumant herders on the transhumance axes (92%) during the dry season. Well before this stage, he surveys the municipality in order to identify the most areas abundant in fodder resources and establish a prior agreement with the various actors in the areas selected with the aim of welcoming transhumant herds.
Forest Management Technical Unit
The Forest Management Technical Unit (CTAF) deals with the protection and sustainable management of the natural resources of the classified forest of Dan and Setto. Its function is to develop and/or implement the participatory development plan(s) with the various other stakeholders. This cell gives access to transhumant herders to stay according to well-defined clauses but are amended as soon as these clauses are not respected.
Cattle farmers’ associations
It brings together organizations such as ANOPER (Association Nationale des Organisations Professionnelles des Eleveurs de Ruminants), UDOPER (Union Départementale des Organisations Professionnelles des Eleveurs de Ruminants), UCOPER (Union Communale des Organisations Professionnelles des Eleveurs de Ruminants). They are much more interested in raising the awareness of herders (61.6%) on the behavior to adopt regarding the practice of transhumance, especially in the reception areas where conflicts are recurrent. Technical support (21.3%) and management of transhumance (18.3%) among transhumant herders were also reported as other concerns. These organizations represent herders in the defense of rights and interests with public authorities and partners and ensure a good flow of information between their members and manage conflicts during transhumance in Djidja. Closer to cattle farmers, it also works to ensure compliance with the texts in force. These associations "collaborate with that of farmers for a peaceful transhumance and continue to work for better management of pastoral resources" according to the spokesperson for the cattle farmers of the district of Setto.
Crop farmers’ associations
The creation of the Associations of crop farmers is made by the producers of food crops and others in order to be involved in transhumance. The main functions of this association are to prevent conflicts between crop farmers and herders, to raise awareness of transhumance routes, to prevent theft and robbery of certain herders and to control activities that contribute to the degradation of natural formations and the overexploitation of pastoral resources. During the interview session, all the members (100%) of this association recognize that the authorities, in particular the agents of the gendarmerie, take money from transhumant herders by authorizing them to graze in the lowlands. They also point out that the heads of the Cattle farmers’ associations disrupt the progress of transhumance on corrupt funds according to 100% of the farmers surveyed. In the event of the destruction of crops in the fields, these cattle farmers refuse to pay the solidarity guarantees to the victim farmers and threaten them for the most part.
Communal Sector for Agricultural Development
The Communal Sector for Agricultural Development (SCDA) represents and provides a service at the level of the municipality of Djidja on behalf of the MAEP which consists of advising and assisting crop farmers and cattle farmers with regard to the various agricultural practices. The SCDA also intervenes in transhumance as an adviser and technical supervisor. As indicated by the interviewed agents, the interest of the SCDA is to contribute to the improvement of agricultural production in the municipality and to advise users and managers on the sustainable management of natural resources. Thus, he participates in the control of the flow of transhumant herds in the municipality, to enforce the texts and laws related to transhumance, to the observation and evaluation of damage to crops and possibly to animals, as well as to the control of vaccination of animals. Other actions concerning the provision of veterinary services to pastoralists and especially the control of the possession of the international transhumance certificate (ITC).
The communal transhumance committee
Composed of several stakeholders including at its head the Mayor of the municipality of Djidja (President), it should be noted the presence of the heads of various agricultural associations, the commander of the gendarmerie of the municipality and the agents of the SCDA. This committee plays a central role in relations with the other stakeholders and has the function of organizing the transhumance, monitoring the progress and providing solutions to the problems, in particular the cases of conflicts which arise according to a participatory approach. It also has the role of monitoring: (1) the movement of herds from one district to another and (2) the arrival, stay and return of herds from surrounding municipalities or not, in particular reception, control and registration of herders accompanying herds, orientation to defined grazing areas, improvement of rangelands, settlement of disputes, etc.
Evaluation of transhumance actors in the municipality of Djidja in southern Benin
Power of stakeholders
The answers to this item of questions enabled to estimate the value of the power variable for each of the stakeholders interviewed during this study (Table 2). Multiple comparison tests showed significant differences (p<0.001) between the power level of one stakeholder to another in the transhumance process. Thus, all respondents share the view that the level of power of the communal transhumance committee was significantly higher.
Nearly 80% of crop farmers' association officials rated their power level as moderate. They acknowledge that they do not have the power to decide financial matters. Respondents also think that structures such as CTAF and SCDA, agro-pastoralists and farmers have a certain capacity to bring about changes in the organization of transhumance. Furthermore, respondents admit that the level of power of hunters, fishers and loggers in managing transhumance was low.
Proximity to stakeholders
All of the respondents (100%) believe that only the CTAF works directly and is involved full-time in all transhumance activities and its management methods, with significant differences (p<0.001). The mean obtained by the communal transhumance committee (5.00 ± 0.00) was significantly higher (p<0.001) than that of the other stakeholders. At the same time, most of the other stakeholders such as transhumant herders and hunters and the gendarmerie brigade, the CTAF, the Garso and the association of herders have directly participated in other activities related to the same cause without no significant variation (p>0.05).
Stakeholder legitimacy
Most of the respondents to the question items consider that the communal transhumance committee and the herders' associations enjoy a high degree of legitimacy (p>0.05), because they are internal stakeholders and have been integrated into all the processes of this theme. The results presented in Table 2 show the communal transhumance committee occupying the 1st rank (1) therefore having the highest average while the herders' association and Garso have slightly lower averages of 4.11 and 4.00. respectively. Differences were also significant between the association of herders and hunters, loggers and fishermen (p<0.001) on the one hand, and the communal transhumance committee and the three stakeholders mentioned above (p<0.001) on the other hand. The group made up of CTAF, gendarmerie brigade, etc. has moderate legitimacy because there are legal demands that should be taken into account in the management of resources towards these stakeholders. Nevertheless, it is not surprising that 82% of the respondents think that the legitimacy for both fishermen, loggers and hunters is low and has not varied (p>0.05), because the legal requirements towards these three stakeholders are not significant from the respondents' point of view.
Urgency of stakeholders
In general, the communal transhumance committee takes measures to respond to the requests of all the stakeholders concerned (p>0.05) although there is no significant difference between it and the farmers' association, the association of cattle farmers and crop farmers. More specifically, more than 65% of the committee members interviewed during their meeting on the progress of transhumance at the time of the study immediately respond to requests from farmers' associations (92%), Garso (84.57%), farmers (79.16%) and SCDA (63.88%). At the same time, queries from other stakeholders are addressed and responded to in a timely manner to maintain cohesion among the various stakeholder groups. It was without effect (p>0.05) between the transhumant herder; the Garso, the gendarmerie brigade, the CTAF and the SCDA.
Knowledge of stakeholders
The results in Table 2 show that most respondents (88.6%) agree that only the communal transhumance committee can have full knowledge of transhumance activities in southern Benin. His better knowledge did not vary (p > 0.05) compared to other stakeholders such as Garso and transhumant herders who also have a great knowledge of fodder and water resources and their use in the municipality of Djidja. The results also show a significant difference (p<0.01) between agro-pastoralists and transhumant pastoralists.
Direct interest of stakeholders
Stakeholders are characterized as having an “interest” in the transhumance process; whose influence complements individual interests. Thus, the transhumant herder has a particular and higher interest in transhumance-related activities, which did not vary significantly (p>0.05) between these actors and the Garso and the communal transhumance committee. On the other hand, significant differences were observed (p<0.001) between transhumant herders and the association of cattle farmers, crop farmers and agro-pastoralists despite their moderate interest (respectively 2.44; 2.7 and 3.17) in the theme in the municipality of Djidja. As for farmers, fishermen and loggers, their interest is relatively low.
Stakeholder attitude
In Table 3, most of the respondents think that the communal transhumance committee and the association of herders express an attitude of active support towards transhumance activities. These attitudes were significantly (p<0.001) different for crop farmers and herders association and transhumant herders. The communal transhumance committee must therefore show a positive attitude towards the activities because its success improves its professional competence. It is also evident that loggers, crop farmers and fishermen show an inert attitude (p>0.05) towards transhumance management activities as shown by the results.
Calculation of the influence index and prioritization of stakeholders
The results for individual important factors, the stakeholder impact calculation, the stakeholder vested interests impact index, and the stakeholder influence index are reported in Table 3. As a result, a ranking thus produced shows the priority of the stakeholders following the order of the index of influence, from the highest (rank = 1) to the lowest level (rank = 13) which reflects the most influential stakeholder in the transhumance in the municipality of Djidja. The communal committee of transhumance (rank = 1), the association of breeders (rank = 2), the Garso (rank = 3) and the transhumant breeder (rank 4) are at the top of the list with the index of influence greater than 1, which shows that these stakeholders have the greatest influence on the course of transhumance. The CTAF, the agro-pastoralists and the SCDA follow with more or less high scores of 0.95; 0.7 and 0.66 respectively. This means that, although they are slightly lower than the communal transhumance committee score (rank = 1), these stakeholders have a high level of influence on livestock activities.
Another group of stakeholders is composed of the Gendarmerie (0.48), the association of farmers (0.44), hunters (0.35), fishermen and loggers (0.11 and 0.12) which rank lower than the others. It should be noted that farmers (rank = 13), whose index value is negative, would have a direct influence whose impact is negative or passively oppose transhumance activities in the study area.