Brockhaus, M: Potentials and Obstacles in the Arena

In a period of environmental change, economic transformation and political uncertainty throughout West Africa, the problems of competition for and conflicts over natural resources are of growing concern. Farmer-herder conflicts are common and widespread. In the Southwest of Burkina Faso conflicts between `farmers¿ and `herders¿ are reported to be becoming more and more frequent and sometimes violent. The study presented gives a comprehensive analysis of the arena of conflict and natural resource management in Burkina Faso. As a first step, the situation at local level, where conflicts occur and need to be managed, was analysed including the local institutional environment. A further step analysed the links between the local arena and the policy level, which determines the design and implementation of accompanying institutions and policies and therefore affects the local level. An actor-oriented approach was chosen for the research. The basis of the research was a case study carried out by a multi-disciplinary team using PRA-techniques between October 2001 and June 2002 in six villages in the research area. This was followed by investigation of policy networks at the regional and national levels in Burkina Faso carried out between October 2001 and June 2003. The data was analysed by means of descriptive statistics and social network analysis. Beside the 'farmers' and 'herders', different actors in the arena of conflict management were identified: local authorities (mediators); administration (local/regional as mediator, national as setter of frame condition); 'politicians', influencing decision-making processes at local as well as at national level; development projects and NGOs, supporting negotiation processes. Local-level solutions for management problems are preferred by nearly all informants and capacity building, due to its impact on sustainable and equitable land use planning and resource management, has been seen as a prerequisite. Although the actor groups