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Browsing by Author "Bertelsen, Michael"

Now showing 1 - 20 of 20
  • Community organizing for natural resource management: Strategies for mitigating farmer-pastoralist conflict through decentralized governance
    Bertelsen, Michael; Cissé, Salmana; Moore, Keith M.; Touré, A. (Ankeny, IA: Soil and Water Conservation Society, 2009)
    This chapter describes how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and local institutions are addressing the issues of decentralization, natural resource management (NRM), and ethnic conflicts in the Inland Delta in Sub-Saharan Africa. With an increasing population, political changes, a decrease in rainfall, and degrading natural resources, there has been an increase in violent conflicts between farmers and pastoralists. Local NGOs and institutions created the NRM Advisory Council (NRMAC) to build trust and new relationships among local communities, and establish long term institutional structures that will manage conflict, facilitate workshops and trainings, and encourage communication between villages and ethnic groups. Establishing these village level associations and bridging organizations will help to encourage a strong civil society, better ethnic relations, improved minority rights protection, and more sustainable natural resource management practices in West Africa.
  • Conflict and agropastoral development in the Sahel
    Moore, Keith M.; Bertelsen, Michael; Cissé, Salmana; Kodio, Amadou (London, UK: CAB International, 2005)
    This introductory chapter frames the issues of climate and technological change, population growth, and natural resource based conflict. In absence of the state effectively addressing this continued conflict, development assistance has played a major role in West Africa. Through outlining the different roles of development assistance actors, their methods for targeted and participatory interventions, this chapter also sets up an overview of the SANREM West Africa project and provides a general overview of the book.
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    Conflict and natural resource management in agricultural and pastoral systems of arid and semi-arid regions of West Africa: A review of the literature, key informant perspectives and lessons learned
    Moore, Keith M.; Kaboré, D.; Gnoumou, B.; Bertelsen, Michael (Blacksburg, Va.: SANREM CRSP WA, 1999)
    Recurrent drought-with its concurrent threat of climatic change, advancing desertification and the
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    Conflit et gestion des ressources naturelles dans les systems agraires et pastoraux des regions arides et semi-arides de l'afrique de l'ouest
    Moore, Keith M.; Kaboré, D.; Gnoumou, B.; Bertelsen, Michael (Blacksburg, Va.: Virginia Tech, Office for International Research and Development, 1999)
    La sécheresse endémique - avec sa menace concourante de changement climatique, de désertification avancée et de détérioration de la base des ressources naturelles ont intensifié les craintes d'une augmentation des conflits parmi les populations d'Afrique de L'Ouest. En particulier, les uniques systèmes agricoles et pastoraux et les peoples constitutifs du Sahel dAfrique de L'Ouest semblent de plus en plus vulnérables au conflit étant donné que les phénomènes liés à la pression démographique, au changement des conditions socio-économiques et aux conditions atmosphériques affectent tous dans la région. Cette communication a deux buts. Le premier but est de faire une synthèse des ouvrages publiés a ce sujet (formelle et "grise", comprise dans la bibliographie annotée ci-jointe) et les perspectives des informateurs clés impliqués dans les domaines de conflit, gestion des ressources naturelles, et système agropastoral du Sahel Ouest Africain (voir annexe A). Le deuxième but est d'analyser cette base de connaissance et d'expériences courantes afin didentifier où et comment le Programme collaborative de recherche de gestion durable d'agriculture des ressources naturelles de l'Afrique de l'Ouest (SANREM CRSP) peut intervenir d'une manière effective en vue de résoudre le conflit et améliorer la gestion des ressources naturelles (GRN) dans ces systèmes.
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    Cross-Cutting Research Activity 6: Economic and impact analysis
    Nguema, Abigail M.; Norton, George W.; Bertelsen, Michael (2011)
    This poster provides an introduction to the Cross-Cutting Research Activity (CCRA) 6 in the SANREM CRSP program. This particular research activity seeks to understand and determine the economic and social impacts of the SANREM CRSP's Long Term Research Awards (LTRAs). Highlights of the actions to date involving collaboration with LTRA 7 in Ecuador are given.
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    Economic impact analysis
    Bertelsen, Michael; Norton, George W.; Nguema, Abigail M. (Blackburg, VA: SANREM CRSP, OIRED, 2010)
    This presentation describes a research proposal to study the economic impact of the SANREM CRSP projects as a cross-cutting research activity. A linear programming model is proposed to measure the costs and benefits of conservation agriculture in the shorter and longer term. Data for the Economic Impact Cross Cutting Research Activity will be collected during the baseline surveys conducted by the individual LTRAs in years 1 and 4.
  • Economic interdependence among socio-economic groups in Madiama Commune of the Niger Delta of Mali
    Kaboré, D.; Brewster, Carlyle C.; Bertelsen, Michael; Wyeth, P. (2001)
    One aim of the SANREM West Africa Project is to identify the linkages among socio-economic groups in the Madiama commune of northern Mali. The results from compiling a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) were reported earlier. These results clearly demonstrated that transhumants are the least favored of the occupational groups, so that any development interventions should address this group separately. In this paper, the SAM is disaggregated further and decomposed multipliers computed. Three groups of decomposed multipliers are computed - direct effect, open loop and closed loop multipliers. The process of decomposition separates the impact of interactions among production activities from that due to interactions among socio-economic groups. These latter interdependencies are important to understand in a commune where rivalry among groups for resources is strong. Analysis of the multipliers and the pattern of primary commodity sales and microenterprise activity reinforces earlier conclusions about the importance of the livestock sub-sectors and the fragile position of the transhumant pastoralists.
  • Economic linkages among occupational groups in the commune of Madiama
    Brewster, Carlyle C.; Kaboré, D.; Bertelsen, Michael; Wyeth, P. (Wallingford, Oxon; Cambridge, Mass.: CABI Publishing, 2005)
    In chapter 13, Brewster et al. model the economic linkages between different groups of natural resource users and analyze the effect of the potential growth strategies. Using data from the PLLA (chapter 6) and an extensive household and enterprise level data set, a Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) model for the Commune of Madiama was developed. Application of this model demonstrated that the largest impacts from exogenous changes in demand are associated with rice and livestock sectors. Furthermore, impacts are shared differentially among socioeconomic groups with agropastoralists benefiting most and the transhumant group benefiting least.
  • Farm level impacts of conservation agriculture in Ecuador
    Norton, George W.; Alwang, Jeffrey R.; Taylor, Daniel B.; Barrera, Victor H.; Nguema, Abigail M.; Bertelsen, Michael (2012)
    Farmers in the Bolivar province of Ecuador face significant livelihood challenges including environmental degradation and low yields. Conservation agriculture (CA), which promotes reduced tillage, intercropping, and maintaining an organic soil cover, offers a potential solution. This article presents a two-year study analyzing conservation agriculture’s short-term effect on net income. Treatments of various combinations of conservation agriculture methods were applied in the Alumbre and Illangama sub-watersheds. Linear modeling was used to determine which practice would generate the highest net income based on land, labor, and other constraints. In Illangama, the optimal solution consisted of a combination of three treatments: one conventional agriculture plot and two plots implementing the CA practices of crop rotation and cover crops (under conventional tillage). In Alumbre, on the other hand, the optimal solution consisted of the same application on all fields of reduced tillage, crop rotation, and an oats-vetch cover crop. In both instances, the application of CA techniques resulted in a higher net income, indicating that CA is economically beneficial, even in the short run.
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    Holistic management in West Africa: A new approach to community-based natural resource management decision making and institutional development at the decentralized commune level
    Bertelsen, Michael (Watkinsville, Ga.: SANREM CRSP, 2000)
    SANREM West Africa's (SANREM WA) collaborative research support program seeks to improve natural resource and conflict management practices in agro-pastoral systems in West Africa s arid and
  • In the Great Desert's Shadow
    Bertelsen, Michael (Washington, D.C.: Washington Times Corp, 1999)
    This paper describes the sub-Saharan region of Africa, commonly known as the Sahel, and the environmental and economic issues the region faces. The author provides descriptions of the climate, landscape, and lifescape of the Sahel and explains their inextricable connectedness with the economy. There is an emphasis on the need for collaboration between the Sahelian countries as well as with international organizations.
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    Integrating economics, technology networks, soils and gender to remove constraints to conservation agriculture in the developing world
    Mulvaney, Michael J.; Moore, Keith M.; Christie, Maria Elisa; Norton, George W.; Bertelsen, Michael; Sutphin, L. K. (2011)
    The following poster provides an overview of the multidisciplinary approach of the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program (SANREM CRSP) in promoting the expansion of Conservation Agriculture (CA) practices in the developing world. The program currently pulls experts and ideologies from agricultural economics, technology networks/knowledge dissemination, soils, and gender fields within its CA research projects.
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    Integrating economics, technology networks, soils and gender to remove constraints to Conservation Agriculture in the developing world
    Mulvaney, Michael J.; Moore, Keith M.; Christie, Maria Elisa; Norton, George W.; Bertelsen, Michael; Sutphin, L. K. (Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, 2011)
    The following paper presented provides an overview of the multidisciplinary approach of the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program (SANREM CRSP) in promoting the expansion of Conservation Agriculture (CA) practices in the developing world. The program currently pulls experts and ideologies from agricultural economics, technology networks/knowledge dissemination, soils, and gender fields within its CA research projects.
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    Modeling district-level socioeconomic linkages and growth: Towards sustainable natural resource management in agricultural and pastoral systems under environmental stress and conflict in the Niger Delta region of Mali
    Kaboré, D.; Traoré, Boureima; Taylor, D.; Wythe, P.; Bertelsen, Michael; Holland, D. (Watkinsville, Ga.: SANREM CRSP, 2000)
    Using an extensive data set collected in the study area this paper develops a Social Accounting matrix model for the Madiama commune within the Mopti region in northern Mali, in order to better understand and analyze: (a) the linkages among different stakeholders and institutions, (b) growth interactions between sectors in the commune, and (c) the impact of potential conflict mitigation policies. Policy scenarios are evaluated in order to provide information to the commune, which is the administrative unit that is empowered to make natural resource management decisions.
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    Multi-temporal classification of land cover using Landsat7 imagery in Madiama, Mali
    Bertelsen, Michael; Heatwole, Conrad D.; Moore, Keith M.; Badini, Oumar (2001)
    Multi-temporal imagery from the Landsat7 satellite (ETM+) was classified using unsupervised and supervised techniques to develop a land use / land cover map of the Madiama Commune in Mali. The desired outcome of the imagery classification is to identify the basic land uses in the region, and to make inferences on overall land suitability and productivity as a resource for the commune. Since different land uses/land covers are best represented at different dates, radiometric information from different images is expected to improve classification in a difficult environment. Imagery from three dates (April 2000, August 2000, and October 2000) provide coverage of primary phenological periods in the region. Combining multiple dates improved the accuracy of the classification compared to single-date classifications. Additional field data is required to provide an adequate basis for classification and for evaluation of alternative techniques.
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    Natural resource management institution building in the decentralizing context of West Africa: the SANREM CRSP approach
    Moore, Keith M.; Bertelsen, Michael; Diarra, L.; Kodio, Amadou; Cissé, Salmana; Wyeth, P. (Blacksburg, Va.: SANREM CRSP WA, 1999)
    A far-reaching restructuring is beginning to take place in West Africa. There is general recognition in the region that central governments are poorly placed to make many decisions appropriate for local levels. Particularly in areas of agriculture and natural resource management (NRM), local populations are being asked to take leadership in deciding appropriate land uses and ownership/usufruct of resources. The continuing and accelerating degradation of the natural resource base and changes in the socioeconomic environment of the region has added urgency to decentralization strategies. However, the current policy of decentralization across West Africa has become largely a matter of deconcentration. Although village-level (terroir) management has demonstrated significant success in community-based NRM, authority and resources resulting from decentralization laws do not reach this level. This paper describes the SANREM CRSP s attempt to organize and support a provincial-level NRM advisory board and orient technical interventions by providing training in Holistic Management.
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    SANREM CRSP: Cross-cutting research adapts conservation agriculture for dryland smallholders in developing countries
    Mulvaney, Michael J.; Moore, Keith M.; Christie, Maria Elisa; Norton, George W.; Bertelsen, Michael; Sutphin, L. K. (2011)
    This poster provides an overview of the combined research efforts of the Cross-Cutting Research Activities (CCRAs) at the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program (SANREM CRSP). They include analyses of economic impacts, gender, technology networks, and soil in the SANREM CRSP's Long Term Research Activities (LTRAs).
  • Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management Collaborative Research Support Program
    Dillaha, Theo A. III; Moore, Keith M.; De Datta, S. K.; Bertelsen, Michael (2006)
    This program, funded by USAID and managed by Virginia Tech in the Office of International Research, Education and Development, applies research and development of sustainable agriculture and natural resource management. The SANREM CRSP sponsors long-term research in five areas in over ten countries in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Partners range from universities, governmental organizations, corporate partners and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). In addition, this project has been supported by the Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS). This resource links the work of the SANREM CRSP and SWCS projects, to allow for opportunities for future collaboration.
  • The Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management Collaborative Research Support Program (SANREM CRSP): Improving food security and rural livelihoods through conservation agriculture
    Ares, A.; Moore, Keith M.; Mulvaney, Michael J.; Christie, Maria Elisa; Bertelsen, Michael; Norton, George W. (2012-12-04)
  • What we have learned
    Moore, Keith M.; Brewster, Carlyle C.; Bertelsen, Michael (Wallingford, Oxon; Cambridge, Mass.: CABI Publishing, 2005)
    In chapter 17, Moore et al. review how the four pillars of SANREM (participation, landscape scale, multiple stakeholders, and interdisciplinarity) were applied in the Commune of Madiama. In the list of lessons learned, they highlight the difficulties involved in establishing and maintaining full participation of and communication between all stakeholders in the context of power relations and traditionally excluded groups. Building social capital and co-management agreements is a long term and iterative process requiring that project and government development agents be well-trained and integrated within the community in order to empower the population to act on its own behalf.