Sheet n°257 - December 2006-January 2007
Tunisia’s arid regions:
how can desertification control
and socio-economic development
be reconciled?
ow can socio-economic
development and environmental conservation be
reconciled in the difficult
context of a region threatened
by desertification? That is the
objective of the research project IRD researchers and their
local partners (1) initiated in
Jeffara, in South-East Tunisia.
The team of sociologists,
hydrologists, economists,
ecologists and pastoralists
studied the interactions
between local societies and
their environment at different
temporal and spatial scales,
while including the effect of
public-sector interventions in
desertification control. The
recommendations for enabling rural populations to live
and prosper in their region
include diversification of farming practices while maintaining livestock farming, better
regulation of competition for
water supplies among the different sectors, incorporation
of the technical developments
in a long-term perspective for
the benefit of the people of
the region, enhancing the
commercial value of regional
produce and promote concerted management methods.
© IRD/Didier Genin
H
Intensification of agricultural land in the Jeffara, a region particularly exposed to the risk of desertification.
The pre-Saharan region of Jeffara, located in the South-East of Tunisia, is particularly exposed to the risk of desertification,
like most of the arid or semi-arid regions
of the Mediterranean Rim. It is also prey to
deep socio-economic changes. This situation
raises the major challenge of ensuring the
balance between protection of the various
ecosystems and the development of rural
populations who live in them. Increasing economic diversification, accelerated and amplified in the context of rural policy reform and
globalization of trade, has contributed to an
intensification of desertification processes, in
spite of the efforts nevertheless exerted by
government organizations.
In order better to understand the processes involved in changes taking place in
Jeffara and identify the limits beyond which
the pressure of human activity causes an
irreversible depletion of natural resources, a
multidisciplinary research programme was
set up in 2000 by the IRD, working in conjunction with local partners, over a study area of
about 120 000 hectares (1). The approach
adopted laid emphasis on the study of the
interrelations between changes among local
actors and their activities, on the one hand,
and those of the environments, on the other.
This revealed the issues, the assets and risks
involved, as well as the conflicts that arise for
the use of rare and fragile natural resources.
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Sheet n°257 - -January 2007
The analysis results were used as a basis for
recommendations drawn up to foster improved harmonization between desertification
control strategies and the legitimate socioeconomic development of local communities.
For futher information
CONTACTS :
DIDIER GENIN
IRD UMR 151 “Laboratoire
Population-EnvironnementDéveloppement” (LPED),
Marseille, France.
+33 (0)4 91 10 63 57
didier.genin@up.univ-mrs.fr
HENRI GUILLAUME
IRD UMR151, Représentation IRD
Maroc, Rabat Agdal, Morocco.
212 (0)37 67 27 33
hguillaume@irdmaroc.ma
MONGI SGHAÏER
IRA (Institut des régions arides),
Médenine, Tunisia.
(00 216) 75 633 00
s.mongi@ira.rnrt.tn
IRD PRESS OFFICE:
+33 1 48 03 75 19 ;
presse@paris.ird.fr
INDIGO BASE, IRD PICTURE LIBRARY
+33 1 48 03 78 99 ;
indigo@paris.ird.fr
IRD AUDIOVISUEL
+33 (0)1 48 02 56 24 ;
audiovisuel@bondy.ird.fr
www.audiovisuel.ird.fr/
REFERENCES:
“Entre désertification et développement - La Jeffara tunisienne”.
Scientific editors : DIDIER GENIN,
HENRI GUILLAUME, MOHAMED
OUESSAR, AZAIEZ OULED BELGACEM,
BRUNO ROMAGNY, MONGI SGHAÏER,
HOUCINE TAÂMALLAH. Co-edition
IRD, Cérès Editions, IRA, 2006,
345 p.
KEY WORDS
JEFFARA OF TUNISIA,
DESERTIFICATION, WATER RESOURCES,
SOCIETIES,
ENVIRONMENT, DEVELOPMENT.
The rural populations of Jeffara have
always known how to adapt themselves to the
region’s restrictive environmental conditions
by developing original practices in the use of
resources and by adopting diversified familybased strategies (multi-activity based way of
life, migration and so on). However, these old,
traditional ways of regulating resource use
are now being called into question. For 40
years now, pressure on resources has strongly increased, especially on water stocks. The
pattern has changed, from concentrated production on small areas alongside extensive
livestock rearing over much larger areas, to
the development of several economic activities at once that depend on the same catchment areas. The same groundwater thus
feeds drinking water supply, tourism, irrigation
of large plantation plots (olive groves) and the
food industry. In response to this pressure,
systems to foster rain water and run-off water
recovery have long been operating involving
jessour (2) or, more recently, water and soil
conservation schemes. The latter, set up
along the main run-off pathways and their
tributaries, slow down the run-off speed, thus
favouring infiltration and recharging of the
water tables.
In the Jeffara, the crop plantations established on weakened soils are increasingly
fragmenting the land space. Such land is now
reaching saturation level and soil degradation
has intensified. Between 1974 and 1999,
the areas cultivated increased by 180% in
the mountains, 356% on the piedmonts and
798% on the central plain. This intensification
of agricultural land uses stems partly from a
State policy which since the 1960s has been
resolutely in favour of land privatization, and
has generated a “land rush”. Arboriculture
has therefore developed at the expense of
livestock farming in the piedmonts and the
plains, even on land where the terrain is
unsuitable. This trend is a threat to a number
of ecosystems which indeed are in danger
of disappearing. Ecological studies reveal, in
addition to the disturbing erosion of original
vegetation assemblages, an increasing ove-
rall uniformity of the flora and hence a loss of
biodiversity.
Such degradation can be checked by prohibiting the development of endangered natural environments for cultivation. However,
real practical alternatives must in that case
be proposed to farmers, in the agriculture
sector, through maintenance of a certain
diversified production in their holdings and
enhancing commercial value of high-quality
local or regional produce, but also by means
of diversification of activities and of sources
of revenue other than farming. This diversification would offer people improved flexibility
to face up to climatic and economic hazards
and enable them to manage better their families’ financial resources. In addition, the effort
government has made in water management, through the CES, could be enhanced
by schemes for desalinating brackish water
and recycling waste water.
In the Jeffara, desertification control and
socio-economic development do appear to
be reconcilable, on condition that the specific
nature of each environment and the social
dynamics that make it up are taken as a
whole, with a long-term viewpoint, incorporating economic and social contexts going
beyond the regional territory. This issue is
crucial for the future of the local people, who
would no longer be obliged to leave their
region in search of better standards of living.
(1) This programme “Désertification dans la
Jeffara tunisienne: pratiques et usages des
ressources, techniques de lutte et devenir des
populations”, backed by the ‘Comité scientifique
français de la desertification’ lasted 4 years. It
involved the IRD, the IRA (Institut des regions
arides), the regional commissions for agricultural development and the provinces of Médenine
and Gabès.
Following this study, the Jeffara region became
one of the pilot sites in Tunisia for the ‘Réseau
des Observatoires de Suivi des Ecosystèmes
à Long Terme’ (ROSELT) promoted by the
Observatoire du Sahel et du Sahara (OSS) in
which the IRD is involved.
(2) Local name for the small traditional dams
emplaced in ravines and encased valleys for
upstream collection of water and the soil that
it carries.
Marie Guillaume-Signoret - IRD
Translation : Nicholas Flay
Marie Guillaume - Signoret, coordinatrice
Délégation à l’information et à la communication
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