Isolation, encroachment and saturation: patterns and processes of pastoral intensification in the Sondré-Est pastoral zone of Burkina Faso

Farmer-herder conflicts are an enduring theme in agrarian studies. Several prominent studies suggest that competition over natural resources leads to the breakdown of cooperative relationships, which in turn promotes conflict between these two groups. Few works, however, provide empirical environmental evidence to support these claims. We present a case study of Fulbe pastoralists and Mossi farmers in Burkina Faso who interact in an area that was once empty and is now saturated. Combining ethnographic fieldwork with the spatial analysis of archival maps we describe a pattern of Mossi agricultural encroachment and enclosure of a Fulbe pastoral zone. Contrary to conventional wisdom, this has not resulted in increased conflict but instead fostered cooperation between the two groups. This is due to a unique process of pastoral intensification that occurred over time. A processual approach describes the history of settlement, intensification, and land-use/land-cover change (LULCC) surrounding the pastoral zone and how this has led to greater symbiosis. This spatial model of isolation, encroachment, and saturation has the potential to productively explain similar environmental patterns of farmer-herder dynamics while this framework of pastoral intensification productively explains the process behind enhanced cooperation.