![]() French colonialists later expanded and territorially delineated the area as a national park in 1954.Īfter a long period of abandonment, the area gained renewed international attention in 1996 when United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated the "W" Region Park of Niger (part of the modern-day WTBR) as a biosphere reserve. The WTBR began as a smaller territory comprised of inhabited forests designated by the French government in the mid-1920s as the first refuge park in West Africa. ![]() The "W" Region Transboundary Biosphere Reserve The article is based on field research conducted by the Diathesis Cartographic Lab team of the University of Bergamo in a European Union-led (EU) conservation and local development project called the Regional "W" Park Program/ECOPAS (Protected Areas of Sahelian Africa). It argues that reflexive maps provide information that is useful for adequate land management in West Africa as well as rural contexts worldwide. This article examines migration and land-management challenges in the WTBR through the use of reflexive maps, which capture data not only about migrants' paths, long- or short-term projects, and ethnic groups, but also about the social values and knowledge that they carry with them. International and regional actors also have taken an interest in the WTBR for a variety of environmental and economic reasons. Financial speculators invest in large strips of land for cotton production toward the exterior of the park - a practice which, despite government support in Benin and Burkina Faso, can have devastating environmental and economic impacts well beyond the cotton fields themselves. Traditional farmers who exploit small fields for family production in certain zones compete with animal breeders and seasonal migrants looking for pastures for their cattle. ![]() There are also numerous local, national, and international actors with overlapping and competing interests with regard to the WTBR. Land is the most important resource in the region as it is the basis for all productive activities - from subsistence farming using traditional techniques (to grow crops such as grains and vegetables) and small-scale livestock raising to financial speculation on cotton production. Its name refers to the double meander, similar to a "W," created by the Niger River in the northeast area of the reserve (see Figure 1). The first internationally recognized transboundary biosphere reserve in Africa, the WTBR spans about 12,000 square miles in Benin, Burkina Faso, and Niger. Seasonal drought in the northern region of the park, known as WTBR or the W Transborder Park, continually pushes local populations southward along its periphery, impacting land-use practices and threatening environmental conservation and biodiversity throughout the region. Migration-driven population growth in these limited areas - including along the periphery of what is known as the "W" Region Transboundary Biosphere Reserve, a protected international park in West Africa - has produced a land-management crisis with important social, ecological, and economic implications both locally and regionally. Short- and long-term migrants cope with cyclical drought and desertification by settling areas with a more favorable climate and exploitable or arable land. Environmental changes - both natural and manmade - have long been a primary driver of migration in West Africa, one of the world's most mobile regions.
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