Community organizing for natural resource management: Strategies for mitigating farmer-pastoralist conflict through decentralized governance

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.