Frexus Project // Workshop for the mapping of animal corridors in the municipality of Bellen
In the municipality of Bellen in Mali, old animal crossing corridors are no longer usable due to the uncontrolled expansion of cultivation plots. A workshop conducted by the Frexus Project enabled participants to delineate two new animal crossing corridors with a total length of about 65 km.
According to the information from the baseline study, livestock farming plays an important role in the socio-economic development of the Frexus project's intervention communes in Mali. It is therefore the main economic activity in the rural community of Bellen.
Due to the uncontrolled expansion of the cultivation plots, the former animal passageways have fallen victim to acts of vandalism. Some of the road signs that used to line the routes are broken.
Thanks to the Frexus project, local actors, including officials from the Bellen town hall, representatives of the communal land commission (COFOCOM) and grassroots commissions (COFODEB), young people, NGOs, and the State's technical services (Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries), were able to meet in Segou on 8 December 2022 to review the occupation of existing corridors and at the same time to delimit new corridors in areas where there are difficulties for animals to pass the commune.
Frexus aimed to undertake participatory social mapping to demarcating/ materialising the boundaries of existing/ new (customary or conventional) livestock tracks in order to avoid animal exits and untimely encroachment on agricultural plots, as well as the installation of crop plots on livestock tracks, and vice versa, due to the lack of knowledge of the boundaries of the livestock passage corridors.
For the mayor, the Frexus project's support for socio-economic development initiatives has not been lacking over the past two years. The demarcation of the animal corridors and the marking of the edges of the corridors will undoubtedly make a significant contribution to reducing conflicts between farmers and herders in the municipality of Bellen.
The workshop enabled the participants to designate two new animal passage corridors with a total length of about 65 km.
The elected communal officials and members of the land commissions (communal and village) continue to raise awareness among producers/breeders about the acts of vandalism observed on some of the beacons of the old corridors and to apply the sanctions provided by the pastoral code and the communal convention in the case of a recidivism.
This article is also available in French.
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