The National Transhumance Committee held its first ordinary session of 2023 from September 20 to 21, 2023, in Manga (Central-South region), placing the situation of transhumance at the heart of the debates. and conflicts in Burkina Faso, the provisions of the orientation law relating thereto and the status of implementation of the 2022-2024 transhumance action plan.

The members of the National Transhumance Committee (CONAT) were in ordinary session, for two days, on September 20 and 21, 2023, in Manga (South-Central region).

“This is a statutory session on the governance of transhumance in accordance with decree No. 2007-407 /PRES/PM/MRA of July 3, 2007 relating to the creation, responsibilities, composition and operation of the National Transhumance Committee (CONAT)”, indicated the Director of Pastoral Development at the General Directorate of Land, Training and Rural Organization (DGFOMR), Abroulaye Sanfo.

Mr. Sanfo, who spoke on the occasion of the second day of work, confided that for this first session of CONAT of the year 2023, communications and discussions focused mainly on the state of implementation of the recommendations. of the last session of CONAT, the situation of transhumance and conflicts at the national level, the situation of the rereading of the orientation law on pastoralism and the situation of the execution of the transhumance action plan 2022- 2024.

The CONAT sessions, he noted, have a great contribution to the development of transhumance in Burkina Faso, an activity defined as being an organized movement of a seasonal or cyclical nature of herds in search of water, pastures and/or salty cures.

“Transhumance experiences many difficulties and it is such frameworks which make it possible to give guidance to decision-makers so that they can anticipate or develop emergency plans to prevent crises linked to pastoral activity,” explained Abroulaye Sanfo.

Citing the obstacles to the development of transhumance in Burkina Faso, the Director of Pastoral Development mentioned, among other things, the conflicts due to the use of natural resources by several actors which reduces grazing areas and obstructs livestock trails and Conflicts linked to cross-border transhumance have become, in recent years, increasingly frequent and violent due, in part, to the security crisis facing the sub-region.

For Abroulaye Sanfo, the mobile system, that is to say transhumance, deserves particular attention because it “largely dominates livestock breeding in Burkina Faso and provides more than 70% of the meat and also the milk in the country”.

He also welcomed the holding of the CONAT session, calling for the recommendations which will be sent to the competent authority to enable the development of “peaceful transhumance”.

According to the representative of the Secretary General of the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal and Fishery Resources (MARAH), Diara Kocty/Thombiano citing statistical data from MARAH, during the year 2022, 561 national transhumance certificates and 1,179 certificates international transhumance agreements were issued to herders. The movements, she added, concerned 73,941 cattle and 15,829 small ruminants for national transhumance and 82,702 cattle and 12,731 small ruminants for cross-border transhumance destined, mainly, for Ivory Coast, Ghana and Mali.

The first 2023 session of CONAT was held thanks to the support of the Regional Project to Support Pastoralism in the Sahel phase 2 Burkina Faso (PRAPS 2-BF), an initiative common to six Sahelian countries (Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania , Niger, Senegal, Chad) which intends to “strengthen the resilience of pastoralists and agropastoralists in certain targeted areas of the Sahel region”.

Source: Burkina Information Agency