Sahel pastoralists: opportunism, struggle, con#ict and negotiation. A case study from eastern Niger

The livelihoods and life chances of pastoral communities in the West African Sahel are linked to: the complexity of the activities they must engage in to insure access to resources; to the nature of con#icts and co-operation between ethnic groups; to the inconsistent role of the state in assisting or constraining pastoral livelihoods; and to the negative discourse surrounding pastoralism that still circulates in some government and development policy circles. The paper reviews pastoral livelihoods systems in eastern Niger to illustrate changing modes of access to water and pasture, culminating in present-day tensions and con#ict between pastoral groups. State development e!orts to provide secure watering points for pastoral herds have initiated social con#icts and violence, rather than creating security. No viable solution has yet been found to control the use of public wells and boreholes. Enabling frameworks for negotiation and con#ict resolution must be developed locally, and centrally enforced in this, and many other regions of uncertain climatic change and overlapping systems of resource exploitation. ( 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved