Changes and Local Adjustment in the Faidherbia Albida Use as Fodder and Fuelwood among the Sereer, Senegal

Abstract

Despite numerous studies on the potential functions of Faidherbia albida, farmer’s contexts and practices in the tree use are largely unknown. The study described how the Sereer reshaped their techniques of foliage and branch collection for fodder and fuelwood in response to socio-economic changes. Married men turned to fattening livestock to highly increase its cash value, and promoted foliage growth through careful pruning to use as fodder. However, it became prevalent for married women to debark the standing trees for easier fuel collection, which caused the trees to die. Men at first did not make a public outcry, because they appreciated the women’s endeavors in fuelwood collection and small retail to provide foodstuffs. Whereas the villagers could not immediately resolve the disharmony between the logics of market economy and subsistence, they eventually coped with the debarking problem by applying the national Forest Code, which lead to a new method of outer bark collection, which was easy but also kept trees alive. Paying attention to people’s attempt against resource scarcity and emerging problems among the different social actors is important to understand the dynamics and sustainability of farmed parklands.