KARITÉ
The environmental history of a Cinderella tree: shea tree renewal question in Burkina Faso and its colonial legacies
Karen Rousseau, Denis Gautier et D. Andrew Wardell
Article présenté au colloque DOPE (dimensions of political ecology) à Lexington USA en février 2015.
Abstract:
In western Burkina Faso, as in neighbouring countries in West Africa, the shea butter consumption and the shea products trade have been important parts of rural livelihoods for centuries. This is even more the case since the shea trade boom in the early 2000s. Although the published evidence is not conclusive, most studies express concern about shea tree regeneration and reduction of shea trees density in agroforestry parklands. To address the question of shea tree regeneration, actors from commercial companies and governments have shown recent interest in developing grafted and planted shea trees. We aim to explore underlying colonial legacies that influence the way shea regeneration projects are thought and designed. Current endeavours are rooted in a narrow technical way of framing the ecological question of the shea tree as developed by colonial scientists and that assumes away the social meaning of the tree and its complex and evolving tenure. Based on this analysis and a case study on shea tree tenure in west Burkina Faso, we argue for decolonizing the way projects on shea parklands are designed. There is a window of opportunity to develop alternative solutions for shea
regeneration based on thorough understanding of local practices and local social dynamics around the shea tree.
Keywords: Burkina Faso, Political Ecology, Shea, Colonial present, Plantation
I. INTRODUCTION
In the Sudano-Sahelian region of Burkina Faso, the shea tree is the most frequent parkland tree (Fischer et al. 2011). Shea production belongs to the peasant economy, and particularly to the women’s one. The shea nut trade and shea butter consumption have been important parts of rural livelihoods for centuries. This is even more the case since the shea trade boom in the early 2000s. Our data from a survey on 268 households in western Burkina Faso, as well as data from Lamien et al. (1996), show that shea butter still is the main source of fat in the rural diet. A recent survey in two rural shea producing areas in Burkina Faso showed that 94% of households collect shea nuts (Rousseau et al. Submitted, Pouliot 2012). Research in western Burkina Faso also demonstrated the significance of shea nuts to women’s incomes, as they represent in average 20 percent of women’s personal cash incomes (Rousseau et al. Submitted).
Although very few evidence about the dynamics of shea trees population can be found in the literature, most studies express concern about shea tree regeneration in agroforestry parklands. To address the concern about shea tree regeneration, research organisms, commercial companies, and governments have shown interest in developing grafted and planted shea trees. Such efforts take root in the colonial efforts to regenerate shea parklands. Plantations of shea trees in managed forest reserves were first a colonial idea to increase and rationalize shea production for exportation (Chipp 1923, Vigne 1935). Plantation have been and are still thought as a technical solution which do not take into account the social meaning of the shea tree and the management practices of farmers.
In this article we aim to explore underlying colonial legacies that influence the way regeneration projects are thought and designed. We adopt the political ecology approach of discourse analysis (Fairhead and Leach 1995, Adger et al. 2001, Forsyth 2003) to deconstruct how a coalition of private and public actors have created and brought forward a dominant discourse about the shea tree regeneration. We cross the political ecology corpus with environmental history approach to unravel the way some key theme of colonial science are persistent in nowadays discourses. Assuming away local practices and social dynamics and political process at local level, the emerging discourses on shea tree regeneration are designing projects in a narrow technical way.
Finally, we demonstrate how a close understanding of the shea tree tenure and the local management practices of the trees are a prerequisite for successful future programs tacking the
question of regeneration of shea tree and how this understanding leads to revisit the colonial heritage and help to bypass it (Adams and Mulligan 2012).
II. MATERIAL AND METHODS
The analysis of past projects and policies of shea regeneration are based on francophone and Anglophone archival sources. Insights on past and present projects of shea plantations in West Africa will be balanced against a case study of shea tree tenure in western Burkina Faso. We have chosen six villages in three culturally different areas in western Burkina Faso (Figure 1) to assess the extent to which changes in access to shea are cross-cultural and cross regional. We conducted qualitative interviews on shea tree tenure arrangements and practices from August to December 2013 after the shea nut collection period. Between 75 and 80 informants were interviewed in each socio-cultural area, giving a total of 235 informants interviewed, of whom 48 per cent were women.
III. A GROWING CONCERN FOR SHEA TREE REGENERATION
AND SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTION
1. A
GROWING CONCERN ABOUT SHEA TREE REGENERATION IN THE LITERATUREPublished evidence is not conclusive on the evolution of shea tree density in the parklands of West Africa. Gijsbers et al (1994) showed a decline in all tree density in a village of Burkina Faso (from 16 trees/ha in average in 1957 to 10 trees/ha in 1988). Other authors such as (Bernard et
al 1996 in Boffa 1999) showed an expansion of shea parklands in northern Côte d’Ivoire in the
late 20st century due to the increase demand for shea. Finally, authors agreed on balancing effect: on the one hand a decreasing effect of the severe drought of the 1973s and 1983-1984s on tree density in Sudano-Sahelian parklands, but on the other hand they found a recovering density of shea trees in some areas (Boffa 1999).
If the trend on shea density evolution is not clear, nevertheless, since the 1980s, several studies have expressed concern about shea tree regeneration and hence, a possible future decrease of shea tree density in parklands despite the fact no breakdown has been observed yet in the supply chains of shea nuts. Already in the 1980s, some scholars expressed concern about ageing shea parklands (Bonkoungou 1987). Louppe (1994) found a positive dynamic of regeneration of shea trees only in one out of four villages’ parklands studied in northern Côte d’Ivoire. Gijsbers et al (1994) showed a lack of tree regeneration in parklands. Elias (2013) stressed the fact that regeneration potential of shea depends on the time scale of the analysis. In her field study (Gurunsi area, Burkina Faso), a static picture showed a high density of shea trees of all sizes and fallow and harvest conditions which enable regeneration of shea trees. Elias showed also that in the future it is possible that fallows will reduce in space and time and shea nut harvest practices will become more intensive, thus undermining future shea regeneration. In a study in northern Ghana, Poudyal (2011) found that 38% of households had no young shea trees in their fields, suggesting a problem of regeneration of the shea trees. Kaboré et al (2012) showed an ageing of shea trees parklands in Burkina Faso that endangers the sustainability of shea parklands. This renewed scientific interest in shea tree ecology has probably been fuelled by the development discourses.
2. T
OWARD A DOMINANT DISCOURSE ON SUSTAINABLE SHEA TREE PRODUCTIONWith the boom of shea market for export and the increasing concern about shea regeneration in the research area, industrial companies47, NGOs and governments are willing to rationalize shea
47 The three main industrial companies or CBE (cocoa butter equivalent) manufacturers operating in Burkina Faso are AAK (AarhusKarlshamn AB, Sweden), IOI Loders Croklaan (IOI group, Malaysia), and 3F (Foods Fats and Fertilizers Ltd., India).
production and make it more sustainable. The 2014 Shea conference (organized by the Global Shea Alliance48) was organized in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. After a decade of war, the Minister of Agriculture announced that shea will be a priority for Côte d’Ivoire. The government wanted shea production to become industrial and based on the successful model of cocoa and coffee plantations. In September 2014, at the start of the marketing year of shea, the Minister of Trade of Bénin urged research organizations to develop ‘short cycle’ shea trees in order to develop shea plantations and enhance shea production. In March 2015, the government of Ghana announced the funding of a project by the state-owned Edaif (Export Trade Agricultural and Industrial Development Fund) to develop higher yielding trees and cultivate shea trees in plantations. Almost one million dollars have been promised and the aim was to nurse one million shea trees which would bear fruit at age 5 or 6 years old. Nowadays political discourses are based on the same ideas as in colonial times: to rationalize and intensify shea production through improved variety of shea trees and plantations.
The Burkinabè government has approved in June 2015 a national sustainable development strategy for the shea value chain for the 2015-2019 period. The first objective stated in this strategy is to increase the volume of shea nuts produced through a sustainable management of the resource, the protection of the environment, and a better access to the production areas49
(Government of Burkina Faso 2015, 84). Specifically, the strategy “aim at decelerate or even reverse the process of degradation of shea parklands through : i) the protection and regeneration of the national shea parkland, ii) the promotion of best forestry practices in the shea value chain, iii) the support for the creation of professional shea trees orchards, iv) the strengthening of the applied research for the shea production, v) the strengthening of the enforcement of national regulation on trees protection […]”50 (Government of Burkina Faso 2015, 85). Moreover, a 2007 report on the diversification of exports of Burkina Faso pinpoints the importance of research to enable the development of shea tree plantations (English et al. 2007, 12).
The first CBE51 industrial, AAK, is developing an initiative to promote shea planting by farmers. AAK works directly with more than 30,000 women in Burkina Faso in order to meet demand of sustainably produced shea for cosmetic industrial customers. They want to give each woman shea seeds or young shea trees to promote shea plantations.
At the 2014 Shea conference, ICRAF proposed a strategy to develop an active management and planting of the shea tree, based on assisted natural regeneration (ANR) techniques and grafting
48 The Global Shea Alliance (GSA) is an association established in 2011 and based in Accra, Ghana. The GSA gathers the stakeholders of the shea industry worldwide and aims to develop and improve the shea value chain.
49 “Objectif spécifique 1 : Augmenter les volumes d’amandes produites par une gestion durable de la ressource, la protection de l’environnement, et une meilleure accessibilité aux zones de production”.
50 « La stratégie nationale de développement durable de la filière karité vise à ralentir voire inverser le processus de dégradation du parc à karité à travers : i) la protection et régénération du parc national à karité ; ii) la promotion des bonnes pratiques sylvicoles dans la filière karité ; iii) l’appui à la création de vergers professionnels de karité ; iv) le renforcement de la recherche appliquée en faveur de la production de karité ; v) le renforcement de l’application de la réglementation sur la protection des arbres […] »
51 CBE (cocoa butter equivalent) is the first outlet for shea export. CBE industries absorb 90% of total shea exports from West Africa (Rousseau et al. 2015a).
(Boffa 2014). Their idea is to select improved shea trees and to spread grafting and ANR through local village-based extension agents.
In connection with the growing institutional concern about shea regeneration, since the early 2000s, researchers have advanced the knowledge on improved shea variety, shea in vitro propagation and shea grafting techniques (Bouvet et al. 2004, Sanou et al. 2004, 2006, Fotso et
al. 2008, Yeboah et al. 2010, 2011, Raebild et al. 2011, Adu-Gyamfi et al. 2012, Lovett and Haq
2013). In 2015, the GSA commissioned a study to synthesize key insights from the literature for improving the management of shea trees and identify opportunities and constraints for program development (Boffa 2015). It seems that, today, the aim of shea actors is to use this knowledge at large scale to enhance shea trees regeneration. But to our knowledge, apart from such research projects, no large projects of plantation or ANR have been developed so far in shea producing countries.
Finally, in the recent years, the theme of the sustainable shea tree production has been put at the core of the concern on shea in the public and private political arenas. The coalition of actors has defined the environmental problem of the regeneration of the shea tree in relation to their own goal of enhancing the production of shea trees. The solutions have been framed in a relatively narrow technical way. The following section investigate how this coalition of public and private actors has collectively converged toward a definition of the shea tree regeneration problem, and how they have defined a homogeneous set of technical solutions. We do so by an historical analysis, and through an analysis of today’s conditions for the reappearance of the colonial way of framing the issue.