文章基本信息

标题：Rebuilding Resilience in the Sahel: Regreening in the Maradi and Zinder Regions of Niger
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作者：Jan Sendzimir ; Chris P Reij ; Piotr Magnuszewski 等
期刊名称：Ecology and Society
印刷版ISSN：1708-3087
电子版ISSN：1708-3087
出版年度：2011
卷号：16
期号：3
出版社：The Resilience Alliance
摘要：The societies and ecosystems of the Nigerien Sahel appeared increasingly vulnerable toclimatic and economic uncertainty in the late twentieth century. Severe episodes of drought and faminedrove massive livestock losses and human migration and mortality. Soil erosion and tree loss reduced awoodland to a scrub steppe and fed a myth of the Sahara desert relentlessly advancing southward. Overthe past two decades this myth has been shattered by the dramatic reforestation of more than 5 millionhectares in the Maradi and Zinder Regions of Niger. No single actor, policy, or practice appears behindthis successful regreening of the Sahel. Multiple actors, institutions and processes operated at differentlevels, times, and scales to initiate and sustain this reforestation trend. We used systems analysis to examinethe patterns of interaction as biophysical, livelihood, and governance indicators changed relative to oneanother during forest decline and rebound. It appears that forest decline was reversed when criticalinterventions helped to shift the direction of reinforcing feedbacks, e.g., vicious cycles changed to virtuousones. Reversals toward de-forestation or reforestation were preceded by institutional changes in governance,then livelihoods and eventually in the biophysical environment. Biophysical change sustained change inthe other two domains until interventions introduced new ideas and institutions that slowed and then reversedthe pattern of feedbacks. However, while society seems better at coping with economic or climatic shockor stress, the resilience of society and nature in the Maradi/Zinder region to global sources of uncertaintyremains a pressing question in a society with one of the highest population growth rates on Earth
关键词：agro-forestry; farmer managed natural regeneration; Maradi Region; Niger; pastoralism;reforestation; regreening; resilience; vulnerability; West Africa; Zinder Region