During the past decade, there has been a clear recognition of the relationship between environment and development, and that it is through the process of development that environment is often negatively affected. Therefore, to minimize the destructive effect of development, planning became a necessity. However, for any management goal, there are usually several alternative ways of developing a plan. My planning process began by a general resources inventory of the Republic of Mali including soils, vegetation, surface waters, groundwaters, land use, and population. Then, based on this inventory, I chose a planning area using pre-established criteria. The area chosen was the "Inland Delta of the Niger River." The Delta, with 30,100 km², has an enormous economic potential, and livestock raising is an important component of this potential. However, four main factors are limiting the development of livestock raising in the region: Lack of an official and consistent land right, uncontrolled increase of the number of animals, uncontrolled increase of cultivated fields, and persistent drought. The objective of this dissertation was to make a preliminary investigation which would help the Government of the Republic of Mali establish a coherent and integrated plan for all economic activities in the Delta. The economic, social and environmental components of the current livestock management and two management alternatives have been analyzed, using a model planning unit and also a herd model. The first alternative consisted of changing the herd composition, and the second alternative was a combination of changing the herd composition and the use of irrigation and fertilization to grow adapted forage species. The results showed that the two alternatives are better than the current management, and that the second alternative provided the highest economic returns and stability to the region. The implementation of the proposed plan will necessitate the creation of agro-pastoral units based on soils, vegetation, and social characteristics. The Government should adopt a more coherent and coordinated policy toward the different land users of the Delta, the final objective being high stable economic returns for the population, the preservation of the basic resources, and the equilibrium among different activities.

The literature on the demography of pastoral populations tends to consider pastoralism as an independent determinant of the levels and patterns of fertility and mortality. Despite a general lack of adequate data, there is a preoccupation with the low fertility of pastoral populations. Demographic data are presented for three Malian populations: sedentary Bambara cultivators and two Kel Tamasheq groups of nomadic pastoralists. These populations are compared and contrasted and internal social class differentials are examined. Bambara have higher fertility than the two pastoral populations and all three groups have different patterns of mortality. Child mortality levels vary significantly between Kel Tamasheq social classes. An examination of the intermediate determinants of fertility identifies marriage as the most important differentiating factor. For mortality a similar approach is unable to identify any particular intermediate variable as the dominant determinant of the observed patterns. The principal mortality differentials occur, however, within the pastoral populations, where high status, rich social classes have higher child mortality than poor, low status ex-slaves. Intensive, qualitative studies of marriage and social class variation show that although the pastoral Kel Tamasheq are demographically different from the Bambara, these differences are caused as much by socio-cultural factors as by economic ones. Kel Tamasheq kinship, household formation patterns and the importance of prestige and status mean that women may spend many of their child-bearing years between marriages, either divorced or widowed. This contrasts with the Bambara pattern of continuous marriage maintained through divorce, polygyny and inheritance, vhere much status and wealth is acquired through having children. The same socio-cultural factors create variation in Tamasheq child care patterns. Social constraints on high status mothers operate in the opposite direction from economic constraints, producing unexpected patterns of social class mortality differentials. The study concludes that nomadic pastoralists are not demographically different from cultivating populations because of their production system. To understand why the observed differences do occur, intensive qualitative studies are needed to supplement and explain the quantitative data.

While much research has examined the intricate interactions associated with the harvesting of wild animals for human consumption, little work has been undertaken in attempting to understand the greater socio-cultural significance of such use. In addition, to properly understand such systems of interaction, an intimate knowledge is required with regard to the rationale or motivation of resource users. In present day Mali, West Africa, the population perceives and upholds wildlife as a resource not only of valuable animal protein, in a region of famine and drought, but a means of generating income. The animal parts trade is but one mechanism within the larger socio-cultural structure that exploits wildlife through a complex human-environmental system to the benefit of those who participate. Moreover, this informal, yet highly structured system serves both cultural and outsider demand through its goods and services. By using traditional ethnographic investigation techniques (participant observation and semi-structured interviews) in combination with thick narration and multidisciplinary analysis (sociocultural and biological-environmental), it is possible to construct a better understanding of the functions, processes, and motivation of those who participate. In a world where there is but only a limited supply of natural and wild resources, understanding human-environmental systems is of critical value. / Graduation date: 2003

Diss.--Universität Bayreuth, 2002. / Bibliogr. p. 337-348.

Zugl.: Tübingen, Universiẗat, Diss., 2008.

Zugl.: Tallahassee (Fla.), Florida State Univ., Diss.

Thèses (M.Sc.)--Université de Sherbrooke (Canada), 2007. / Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 1 février 2007). In ProQuest dissertations and theses. Publié aussi en version papier.

Texte remanié de: Th.--Géographie--Paris 10-Nanterre, 1990. / Bibliogr. p. 315-323.

Tübingen, Univ., Diss., 2006.

Thesis--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 126-137). Also available via the Internet.