WÉGOUBRI, the sahelian bocage: an integrate approach for environment preservation and social development in sahelian agriculture (Burkina Faso)

The NGO Terre Verte pursues the realisation of bocage perimeters (wégoubri in the mooré language) in Burkina Faso. They are an innovative concept of rural development that has been established in the 1990s in the experimental farm of Guiè and is now adopted in other experimental farms in Burkina Faso. The deterioration of the rural landscape in the Sahel region has worsened in the last decades, endangering local populations. The creation of bocage perimeters in this rural landscape is a way to remediate problems linked to overly extensive agriculture. Through a holistic approach to the problem, the experimental farm of Guiè has been able to integrate environmental preservation into the Sahel agriculture thanks to three axes of intervention: applied research, education and direct help to the peasants. An experimental farm relies on five technical teams, each supervised by a coordinator. The concept is based on the creation of bocage perimeters in a mixed propriety regime, comprising individually owned plots and common grounds, managed by an association of beneficiaries. The result is a restored environment, in which agriculture is no longer tantamount to erosion and livestock farming to overgrazing, where trees and bushes are harmoniously integrated into the environment. The increase in agricultural yields observed after a few years of soil restoration leads to the conclusion that those projects will be economically viable. A system of credits for farmers could allow the implementation of such a system, which represents the only solution for the millions of hectares of degraded soil in the Sahel region.