Merging Local and Regional Analyses of Land-Use Change: The Case of Livestock in the Sahel

This paper argues against the dichotomization of “regional” and “local” analyses of land-use change by environmental geographers. Such dichotomization has led regional analyses to unnecessarily exclude from consideration ecological, sociocultural, and political factors identified to be important in local studies. Simple rules of evidence that systematically label such factors as “locally specific” facilitate such exclusion. For example, gender relations in rural Africa, while shown in local studies to play an important role in land-use change, are often excluded from consideration in regional analyses. This study analyzes the causes behind the regionwide shift toward small stock (sheep and goats) in the Sahel, using demographic and transaction histories (1984–1994) of livestock owned by members of fifty-four households in western Niger. Changes in the composition of this livestock population replicate that observed across the region in direction and magnitude. An analysis of these data demonstrates that the shift in species composition is not driven by changes in price or livestock productivity. While species preferences of individual owners (controlled by wealth) have not changed over the period, the distribution of livestock ownership has changed, with smallholders and women controlling a larger fraction of aggregate livestock wealth. The gendered shift in livestock wealth is closely associated with struggles between men and women over their relative obligations to support the family. Women's situation within the household has led some to accumulate large herds of small stock. Key features of intrahousehold struggles contributing to the shift in livestock composition in Niger are common across the Sudano-Sahelian region. The broader implications of these findings for the analysis of regional changes in land use are discussed.