In the early 1990s decentralisation in Mali was primarily seen as a means of finding a viable political solution to the Tuareg rebellion. In the years that followed, the desire for certain aspects of Western democracy among a section of Mali’s urban elite and Western plans for African development combined to produce a French-style system of territorial decentralisation, albeit one where municipalities are composed of groups of villages.

Au Mali, au début des années 1990, la décentralisation fut d'abord un acte politique permettant de proposer une solution viable au problème de la rébellion touarègue. Ensuite, les aspirations aux idées occidentales démocratiques d’une partie des élites urbaines ont rencontré les plans des occidentaux pour le développement de l’Afrique pour donner un système de décentralisation territoriale à la française, mais où la commune est composée d’un ensemble de villages.

Rebuilding personal and collective confidences through a participatory process takes time, especially amidst the massive personal tragedy of lost loved ones, personal assets and livelihoods. This photo and film documentation is testimony of all that we have all learned during the past two years.

There has been increasing support in recent years for the use of payments for environmental services (PES) as a means to advance the goals of both poverty reduction and conservation. Payments for Environmental Services are compensation mechanisms that reward people for managing ecosystems and providing environmental services, and are based on the premise that positive incentives can lead to changes in land-use practices. The Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) is a longstanding initiative that shares many of the features of PES. CAMPFIRE began in the late 1980s in Zimbabwe and has been widely emulated in southern and eastern Africa. Under this programme, communities using land under communal tenure have been granted authority to market the wildlife in their area to safari operators. The revenue and other benefits received on behalf of the communities is paid out to them according to an agreed formula. In this paper, we describe the CAMPFIRE programme’s evolution and we explore some of the lessons learned about implementation, performance, outcomes and possible adaptations that may help in the development of PES programmes.

Cette étude se situe dans le cadre du programme de coopération de Helvetas Mali, qui vise à améliorer les relations entre agriculteurs et éleveurs. Ce dossier est le résultat d’une recherche effectuée dans les régions du Kaarta et du Fuladugu au Mali sur la gestion des ressources naturelles (GRN) et les conflits liés à leur utilisation.

This CD Rom includes the following titles: Governance and Land Relations. A Review of Decentralisation of Land Administration and Management in Africa by Liz Alden Wily Land Tenure and Administration in Africa: Lessons of Experience and Emerging Issues Lorenzo Cotula, Camilla Toulmin, Ced Hesse Making Land Rights More Secure: International workshop for researchers and policy makers. Ougadougou, 19-21 March 2002

In May 2002, there was a review of the approach taken in management of the Mamiraua Sustainable Development Reserve in Brazil. This review yielded many valuable lessons regarding how to begin to reconcile conservation and development objectives with an economically poor and socially marginalized area. It analyses the approach adopted for collaborative management in fisheries and forestry, in creating enabling policy frameworks, and the introduction of alternative economic activities based on conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.