nach oben

Erschienen in:

2015 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

5. Climate and Mobility in the West African Sahel: Conceptualising the Local Dimensions of the Environment and Migration Nexus

verfasst von : Clemens Romankiewicz, Martin Doevenspeck

Erschienen in: Grounding Global Climate Change

Verlag: Springer Netherlands

Einloggen

Aktivieren Sie unsere intelligente Suche, um passende Fachinhalte oder Patente zu finden.

search-config

KI-gestützte Suche

Aus

Abstract

Despite the theoretical and methodological critique of deterministic and linear explanations of migration under changing climatic conditions, many empirical case studies in this field remain deeply entrenched in static push-pull frameworks and tend to reproduce simplistic causal relationships. Drawing on results from an interdisciplinary research project in Mali and Senegal, the chapter presents a methodological approach that emanates from past analytical shortcomings. By adopting a local perspective on migration, we consider cultural norms, the migration history and people’s interpretations of weather and environmental changes. Moreover, we argue for a multilevel, multi-method research that seeks to separate the two research topics of migration and climate/environment; for example, by avoiding explicit questions about possible linkages. Contrasting results from ethnographic fieldwork concerning migration, climate and environment with ‘hard’ data on climate and vegetation allows us to become more susceptible for the social construction of alleged ‘facts’ such as droughts and land degradation as drivers for migration. We place a focus upon local meanings of weather and environment by considering how they are being assessed by the people, within a context of not only climatic but rather multiple changes.

Sie haben noch keine Lizenz? Dann Informieren Sie sich jetzt über unsere Produkte:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

Jetzt informieren

Springer Professional "Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 390 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

Jetzt informieren

Vorheriges Kapitel Anthropology in the Anthropocene: Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Interdisciplinary Research

Nächstes Kapitel Animal Belongings: Human-Non Human Interactions and Climate Change in the Canadian Subarctic

Essam El-Hinnawi (1985, p. 4) defines environmental refugees as “those people who have been forced to leave their traditional habitat, temporarily or permanently, because of a marked environmental disruption (natural and/or triggered by people) that jeopardized their existence and/or seriously affected the quality of their life. By ‘environmental disruption’ in this definition is meant any physical, chemical, and/or biological changes in the ecosystem (or resource base) that render it, temporarily or permanently, unsuitable to support human life.”

International Organization for Migration.

Agence Nationale de la Statistique et de la Démographie.

Direction de la Prévision et de la Statistique.

Institut National de la Statistique.

Ministère de l’Environnement et de l’Assainissement.

World Food Programme.

The development of soil fertility has been considered in ethnographic research yet is not explicitly integrated here because there are no ‘hard’ data on soil quality that could be compared with people’s statements.

Data from Climate Research Unit (CRU) 2011 (see Mitchell and Jones 2005). Here, temperatures changes are considered for the Western Sahel and not on the level of the study regions, since available temperature data has been interpolated for larger areas between meteorological stations, and because temperature trends do not show significant differences within the region.

Various interviews in Kadji, Khogué (Senegal) and Kowa, Doucombo (Mali), February–April 2011.

Interviews in Loumbel Mbada (Senegal) and Yawakanda (Mali), March–April 2011.

For example, more than 720 mm for Linguère in 2010 (interview at meteorological station in Linguère, March 2011).

Satellite data from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) (see Huffman et al. 2007).

Interviews in e.g. Kadji in Senegal, Yawakanda and Kowa in Mali, 2011 and 2012.

Various interviews in Kadji, Khogué (Senegal) and Doucombo, Yawakanda, Tiembara, Bamako (Mali), 2011 and 2012.

Various interviews in Khogué, Loumbel Mbada (Senegal) and Kowa, Yawakanda, Doucombo, Diamnati, Tiembara (Mali), 2011 and 2012.

Informants in Kowa, Tiembara (Mali), 2011 and 2012.

Interviews in Kowa, Diamnati (Mali), 2011 and 2012.

Data from Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC).

Especially due to the growth of the construction, telecommunications, service and petty trade sectors (Kilroy 2008; OECD 2008).

Various interviews with migrants in Bamako in 2011 and 2012 showed that they are self-employed or engaged in informal economic activities.

Various Interviews in Doucombo, Yawakanda, Kowa and Bamako in 2011 and 2012.

Interview in Kowa, April 2011.

Various interviews in Nianangali, Kowa, Yawakanda, Doucombo, Balaguina Baboye, Bamako, 2011 and 2012.

One reason is that there is less competition between migrants for work in Bamako during the rainy season (interviews in Bamako in 2012).

Interviews in Kowa, Diamnati, Tiembara and Bamako in 2011 and 2012.

Interviews in Khogué, Kadji, Linguère town, Nguith, March 2011 and Dakar, February 2012.

This became evident by considering the large and still increasing community of migrants from Nguith in Dakar, April 2011, February 2012.

Chef de village in Khogué and Kadji, March 2011.

Interview with wife of chef de village in Khogué, March 2011.

Informant in Khogué, March 2011.

Interview with chef de village in Khogué, March 2011.

Adamo, S. B. (2008, August 18–29). Addressing environmentally induced population displacements: A delicate task. Background paper for the population-environment research network cyberseminar “environmentally induced population displacements”. www.populationenvironmentresearch.org. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.

Ammassari, S., & Black, R. (2001). Harnessing the potential of migration and return to promote development—Applying concepts to West Africa (IOM migration research series, 5). Geneva: International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

ANSD. (2007). Situation Economique et Sociale de la Région de Louga. Année 2006. Louga: Service Régional de la Statistique et de la Démographie de Louga. http://www.ansd.sn/publications/annuelles/SES_Region/SES_Louga_2006.pdf. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.

ANSD. (2008, June). RGPH III – Résultats Définitifs du Troisième Recensement Général de la Population et de l’Habitat (RGPH III) – (2002). Rapport National de Présentation. Agence Nationale de la Statistique et de la Démographie, Ministère de l’Economie et des Finances. http://www.ansd.sn/publications/rapports_enquetes_etudes/enquetes/RGPH3_RAP_NAT.pdf. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.

Anyamba, A., & Tucker, C. J. (2005). Analysis of Sahelian vegetation dynamics using NOAA-AVHRR NDVI data from 1981–2003. Journal of Arid Environments, 63, 596–614.CrossRef

Bakewell, O., & de Haas, H. (2007). African migrations: Continuities, discontinuities and recent transformations. In P. Chabal, U. Engel, & L. de Haan (Eds.), African alternatives (pp. 95–118). Leiden: Brill.CrossRef

Bates, D. C. (2002). Environmental refugees? Classifying human migrations caused by environmental change. Population and Environment, 23(5), 465–477.CrossRef

Bilsborrow, R. E. (2002). Migration, population change, and the rural environment. Environmental Change and Security Project Report, 8, 69–94.

Black, R. (2001).Environmental refugees: Myth or reality? New issues in refugee research (Working Paper No. 34). Geneva: UNHCR.

Bocquier, P., & Diarra, T. (1999). Migration internes et internationales. In P. Bocquier & T. Diarra (Eds.), Population et Société au Mali (pp. 63–74). Paris: L’Harmattan.

Boko, M., Niang, I., Nyong, A., Vogel, C., Githeko, A., Medany, M., Osman-Elasha, B., Tabo, R., & Yanda, P. (2007). Africa. In IPCC [M. L. Parry, O. F. Canziani, J. P. Palutikof, P. J. van der Linden, & C. E. Hanson] (Eds.), Climate change 2007: Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of working group II to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change (pp. 433–467). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Büscher, M., & Urry, J. (2009). Mobile methods and the empirical. European Journal of Social Theory, 12(1), 99–116.CrossRef

Castles, S. (2002). Environmental change and forced migration: Making sense of the debate. New issues in refugee research (Working Paper No. 70). Geneva: UNHCR.

Castles, S. (2011). Concluding remarks on the climate change-migration nexus. In É. Piguet, A. Pécoud, & P. de Guchtenaire (Eds.), Migration and climate change (pp. 415–427). Paris/Cambridge: Cambridge University Press – Editions de l’UNESCO.

De Haan, A., Brock, K., & Coulibaly, N. (2002). Migration, livelihoods and institutions: Contrasting patterns of migration in Mali. Journal of Development Studies, 5, 37–58.CrossRef

De Haas, H. (2007). The myth of invasion—Irregular migration from West Africa to the Maghreb and the European Union (Research report). Oxford: International Migration Institute, University of Oxford.

Doevenspeck, M. (2005). Migration im ländlichen Benin—Sozialgeographische Untersuchungen an einer afrikanischen Frontier (Freiburger Studien zur Geographischen Entwicklungsforschung, 30). Saarbrücken: Verlag für Entwicklungspolitik.

Doevenspeck, M. (2011). The thin line between choice and flight: Environment and migration in rural Benin. International Migration, 49(1), 50–68.CrossRef

Dougnon, I. (2007). Travail de Blanc, travail de Noir—La migration des paysans dogon vers l’Office du Niger et au Ghana (1910–1980). Paris/Amsterdam: Karthala/Sephis.

DPS. (2004). Rapport de synthèse de la deuxième enquête Sénégalaise auprès des ménages (ESAM-II). Direction de la Prévision et de la Statistique (DPS), Ministère de l’Economie et des Finances. http://www.ansd.sn/publications/rapports_enquetes_etudes/enquetes/ESAM_2.pdf. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.

El-Hinnawi, E. (1985). Environmental refugees. Nairobi: United Nations Environmental Programme.

Findley, S. E. (1994). Does drought increase migration? A study of migration from rural Mali during the 1983–85 drought. International Migration Review, 28(3), 539–553.CrossRef

Gbetibouo, G. A. (2009). Understanding farmers’ perceptions and adaptations to climate change and variability, the case of the Limpopo Basin, South Africa. Washington/Addis Ababa/New Delhi: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRS), Environment and Production Technology Division.

Gonzalez, P. (2001). Desertification and a shift of forest species in the West African Sahel. Climate Research, 17, 217–228.CrossRef

Gonzalez, P., Tucker, C. J., & Sy, H. (2012). Tree density and species decline in the African Sahel attributable to climate. Journal of Arid Environments, 78, 55–64.CrossRef

Henry, S., Boyle, P., & Lambin, E. F. (2003). Modelling inter-provincial migration in Burkina Faso, West Africa: The role of socio- demographic and environmental factors. Applied Geography, 23, 115–136.CrossRef

Herrmann, S. M., Anyamba, A., & Tucker, C. J. (2005). Recent trends in vegetation dynamics in the African Sahel and their relationship to climate. Global Environmental Change, 15, 394–404.CrossRef

Huffman, G. J., Adler, R. F., Bolvin, D. T., Gu, G., Nelkin, E. J., Bowman, K. P., Hong, Y., Stocker, E. F., & Wolff, D. B. (2007). The TRMM multisatellite precipitation analysis (TMPA): Quasi-global, multiyear, combined-sensor precipitation estimates at fine scales. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 8, 38–55.CrossRef

Hulme, M. (2001). Climatic perspectives on Sahelian desiccation: 1973–1998. Global Environmental Change, 11, 19–29.CrossRef

Hulme, M. (2008). Geographical work at the boundaries of climate change. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 33(1), 5–11.CrossRef

INSTAT. (2009). 4ème Recensement Général de la Population et de l’Habitat du Mali – R.G.P.H. 2009 – Résultats Provisoires. Bamako: Institut National de la Statistique – INSTAT, Bureau Central du Recensement – BCR.

IOM. (2009). Climate change, environmental degradation and migration: Addressing vulnerabilities and harnessing opportunities. Geneva: International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Permanent Mission of Greece.

Jónsson, G. (2010). The environmental factor in migration dynamics—A review of African case studies (Working Paper 21). Oxford: International Migration Institute, University of Oxford.

Kandji, S. T., Verchot, L., & Mackensen, J. (2006). Climate change and variability in the Sahel region: Impacts and adaptation strategies in the agricultural sector. Gigiri/Nairobi: Word Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)/United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Kilroy, A. (2008). How does the spatial configuration of a rapidly-growing city impact on urban insecurity? A case study of Bamako, Mali. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

Kniveton, D., Schmidt-Verkerk, K., Smith, C., & Black, R. (2008). Climate change and migration: Improving methodologies to estimate flows (IOM migration research series, 33). Geneva: International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Maddison, D. (2007). The perception of and adaptation to climate change in Africa (Policy Research Working Papers, 4308). Washington, DC: The World Bank.CrossRef

Marcus, G. E. (1995). Ethnography in/of the world system: The emergence of multi-sited ethnography. Annual Review of Anthropology, 24, 95–117.CrossRef

Massey, D. S., Axinn, W. G., & Ghimire, D. J. (2010). Environmental change and out-migration: Evidence from Nepal. Population and Environment, 32(2), 109–136.CrossRef

McLeman, R., & Hunter, L. M. (2010). Migration in the context of vulnerability and adaptation to climate change: Insights from analogues. Climate Change, 1, 450–461.

McLeman, R., & Smit, B. (2006). Migration as an adaptation to climate change. Climatic Change, 76(1–2), 31–53.CrossRef

MEA. (2009). Evaluation intégrée des écosystèmes: cas de la région de Mopti au Mali. Ministère de l’Environnement et de l’Assainissement (MEA), Direction Nationale de la Conservation de la Nature (DNCA). http://www.environnement.gov.ml/uploads/IPE/IPE%20Mali%202011/mopti.pdf. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.

Mengistu, D. K. (2011). Farmers’ perception and knowledge of climate change and their coping strategies to the related hazards: Case study from Adiha, Central Tigray, Ethiopia. Agricultural Sciences, 2(2), 138–145.CrossRef

Merabet, O., & Gendreau, F. (2007). Les Questions Migratoires au Mali. Valeurs, Sens et Contresens. Version Finale. Paris: Civipool Conseil & Transtec Project Management.

Mertz, O., Mbow, C., Reenberg, A., & Diouf, A. (2009). Farmers’ perceptions of climate change and agricultural adaptation strategies in rural Sahel. Environmental Management, 43, 804–816.CrossRef

Mertz, O., Mbow, C., Nielsen, J. Ø., Maiga, A., Diallo, D., Reenberg, A., Diouf, A., Barbier, B., Moussa, I. B., Zorom, M., Ouattara, I., & Dabi, D. (2010). Climate factors play a limited role for past adaptation strategies in West Africa. Ecology and Society, 15(4), 25.

Meze-Hausken, E. (2000). Migration caused by climate change: How vulnerable are people in dryland areas? A case study in Northern Ethiopia. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 5(4), 379–406.CrossRef

Mitchell, T. D., & Jones, P. D. (2005). An improved method of constructing a database of monthly climate observations and associated high-resolution grids. International Journal of Climatology, 25, 693–712.CrossRef

Mortreux, C., & Barnett, J. (2009). Climate change, migration and adaptation in Funafuti, Tuvalu. Global Environmental Change, 19(1), 105–112.CrossRef

OECD. (2008). Mali. In African Development Bank (AfDB) & Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (Eds.), African economic outlook 2008 – Country statistics (pp. 415–428). http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/13/9/40578262.pdf. Accessed 27 Nov 2013.

Olsson, L., Eklundh, L., & Ardo, J. (2005). A recent greening of the Sahel–Trends, patterns and potential causes. Journal of Arid Environments, 63, 556–566.CrossRef

Orlove, B. S., Broad, K., & Petty, A. M. (2004). Factors that influence the use of climate forecasts: Evidence from the 1997/98 El Niño event in Peru. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 85, 1–9.

Peterson, N., & Broad, K. (2009). Climate and weather discourse in anthropology: From determinism to uncertain futures. In S. A. Crate & M. Nuttal (Eds.), Anthropology and climate change—From encounters to actions (pp. 70–86). Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.

Piguet, E. (2008). Climate and migration: A synthesis. In T. Afifi & J. Jäger (Eds.), Environment, forced migration & social vulnerability (pp. 73–86). Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer.

Piguet, E. (2010). Linking climate change, environmental degradation, and migration: A methodological overview. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 1(4), 517–524.

Piguet, E., Pécoud, A., & De Guchteneire, P. (Eds.). (2011). Migration and climate change. Paris/Cambridge: Cambridge University Press – Editions de l’UNESCO.

Renaud, F., Bogardi, J. J., Dun, O., & Warner, K. (2007). Control, adapt or flee. How to face environmental migration? (InterSecTions No. 5). Bonn: UNU-EHS.

Roncoli, C. (2006). Ethnographic and participatory approaches to research on farmers’ responses to climate predictions. Climate Research, 33, 81–99.CrossRef

Roncoli, C., Ingram, K., & Kirshen, P. (2002). Reading the rains: Local knowledge and rainfall forecasting among farmers of Burkina Faso. Society and Natural Resources, 15, 411–430.CrossRef

Roncoli, C., Ingram, K., Kirshen, P., & Jost, C. (2003). Meteorological meanings: Understandings of seasonal rainfall forecasts by farmers of Burkina Faso. In S. Strauss & B. S. Orlove (Eds.), Weather, climate and culture (pp. 181–202). New York: Berg.

Schneider, U., Becker, A., Finger, P., Meyer-Christoffer, A., Ziese, M., & Rudolf, B. (2014). GPCC’s new land surface precipitation climatology based on quality-controlled in situ data and its role in quantifying the global water cycle. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 115, 15–40.CrossRef

Sheller, M., & Urry, J. (2006). The new mobilities paradigm. Environment and Planning A, 38, 207–226.CrossRef

Sieveking, N., & Fauser, M. (2009). Migrationsdynamiken und Entwicklung in Westafrika: Untersuchungen zur entwicklungspolitischen Bedeutung von Migration in und aus Ghana und Mali. Bericht für das Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (COMCAD Arbeitspapiere – Working papers, 68). Bielefeld: Centre on Migration, Citizenship and Development (COMCAD).

Stabinsky, D. (2011). Climate change impacts on agriculture in Africa and the UNFCCC negotiations: Policy implications of recent scientific findings (Working paper). United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and African Climate Policy Centre. http://climate-justice.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Climate-and-agriculture-AGN-paper.pdf. Accessed 25 Nov 2013.

Tappan, G. G., Sall, M., Wood, E. C., & Cushing, M. (2004). Ecoregions and land cover trends in Senegal. Journal of Arid Environments, 59, 427–462.CrossRef

Urry, J. (2007). Mobilities. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Van der Geest, K., Vrieling, A., & Dietz, T. (2010). Migration and environment in Ghana: A cross-district analysis of human mobility and vegetation dynamics. Environment and Urbanization, 22(1), 107–124.CrossRef

Verne, J., & Doevenspeck, M. (2012). Bitte da bleiben! Sedentarismus als Konstante in der Migrationsforschung. In M. Steinbrink & M. Geiger (Eds.), Migration und Entwicklung aus geographischer Perspektive (pp. 61–94). Osnabrück: IMIS.

Vincke, C., Diedhiou, I., & Grouzis, M. (2010). Long term dynamics and structure of woody vegetation in the Ferlo (Senegal). Journal of Arid Environments, 74(2), 268–276.CrossRef

West, C. T., Roncoli, C., & Ouattara, F. (2008). Local perceptions and regional climate trends on the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso. Land Degradation and Development, 19, 289–304.CrossRef

WFP. (2006). Mali. Analyse de la Sécurité Alimentaire et de la Vulnérabilité. Strengthening Emergency Needs Assessment Capacity (SENAC). Bamako: World Food Programme & UNICEF.

Yossi, H., & Diakité, C. H. (2008). Dynamique de l’occupation du sol et de la végétation en zone guinéenne nord et soudanienne du Mali: Etude de cas dans les régions de Sikasso et de Mopti. Bamako: Etude Sahel.

Titel: Climate and Mobility in the West African Sahel: Conceptualising the Local Dimensions of the Environment and Migration Nexus
verfasst von: Clemens Romankiewicz
Martin Doevenspeck
Verlag: Springer Netherlands
Buch: Grounding Global Climate Change
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9321-6

Electronic ISBN: 978-94-017-9322-3

Copyright-Jahr: 2015
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9322-3_5