Dynamics of ecosystems cultivated under Influences – INFLUENCES

The objective of Influences project is to scientifically evaluate the environmental, agronomic, social, economic and anthropological impacts, from the plot to the landscape scale, of the introduction of woody resource restoration techniques started 17 years ago in the northern and central regions of Burkina Faso. Today, nearly 400 sites, 30,000 ha, 13,000 farmers and tens of thousands of households are involved. This initiative is the joint work of a Burkina Faso association (tiipaalga) and an international NGO (newTree). The techniques include fenced-off areas (MED) on initially degraded or marginal soils, assisted natural regeneration (ANR) in the crop fields and improved cooking stoves. Today, this device has visibly transformed the socio-ecosystems in which it is implemented: the vegetation cover is regenerating, biodiversity and agricultural production are increasing, and agricultural practices and resource uses are diversifying. Can it then contribute sustainably to both the intensification of agricultural production, food security and ecological restoration ? The originality of the project is to include anthropological, social and economic dimensions that are rarely analysed and yet crucial in West Africa, while using robust methods in geography, geomatics, agronomy, plant ecology and soil science. It thus contributes to the deepening of theoretical issues around the "sustainability science" turned towards the needs of local populations, but also towards the global interests of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by reinforcing carbon stocks (REDD+). More specifically, the aim is to optimise this apparent success by identifying its locks through a multidisciplinary systemic approach : i) identify the success factors of the techniques adoption and evaluate the possible hidden costs; ii) provide highly portable multidisciplinary monitoring indicators with a view to extending the system to the national and sub-regional levels, in particular via the CILSS (Comité inter-État de lutte contre la sécheresse au Sahel), one of the main partners in the project. The project will test the hypothesis that the techniques implemented by tiipaalga affect social and economic dynamics, and that their adoption success depends on their articulation efficiency with the dynamics that govern gender, age and generational relations in West Africa, particularly with the increasing economic pluri-activity of rural populations in the region. Influences also proposes to transform the constraint of civil and health insecurity in Burkina Faso into a technological opportunity. Thus, the co-design and construction of an innovative digital data collection tool, carried on digital media and disseminated in territories that are difficult or forbidden to access, is planned, involving tiipaalga's beneficiaries and their entourage in the data collection. Tiipaalga will provide pre-existing data (inventories, maps). The data will be both measured, from surveys and observations, quantitative and qualitative, collected in situ and remotely. To bring together and consolidate the different disciplinary views on various study objects the project calls for an innovative methodology that will optimise the overall integration of disciplinary results, in particular the linkages between socio-economic dynamics (family constellations) and landscape dynamics (remote sensing). The chosen approach is defined by the issues addressed rather than by the disciplines involved. The alliance of human sciences and life and environmental sciences, research actors and development actors is at the heart of the project.