Indeed, some had even given up harvesting altogether, even though the
gum-bearing Acacia senegal is plentiful in the area.
‘I’d stopped collecting gum,’ says Assatou Hama, ‘but with the arrival of
the project, many of us have begun again.’
In Burkina Faso, the project has looked at how livelihoods can be
improved through collective action. The villagers who harvest gum have been
encouraged by the project to establish producer groups and to sell their gum
through a union, rather than direct to buyers. During the first year of the
project, 2007, the main activities conducted by CIFOR and its local partner,
the Association des Volontaires pour le Développement au Sahel (VDS),
involved capacity building, establishing the union and conducting literacy
training.
‘Women are the main gatherers and they were the ones who showed the
greatest interest in the project,’ says CIFOR researcher Mathurin Zida, ‘but
most were also illiterate, so VDS had to begin by teaching them to read, how
to keep books and how to run an organisation.’
In the past, the task of harvesting gum arabic was often left to
children, whom the buyers would frequently look for before they got home.
‘They would buy the gum from the children at a price that was good for
them, but not for us,’ says Fadima Boubacar of Dowendou Village. Now, in
contrast, the buyers who come to the seven villages where the project
operates have to deal with the Yagha Gum Producers Union, which buys the gum
from the producer groups.
In the past, most buyers paid a maximum of 300 CFA a kilogram (60 US
cents)—a pitiful amount when you consider that it can take a day to collect
a kilogram. However, thanks to the new arrangements set up by the producer
groups and the union, gatherers received around 500 CFA in 2008. The union
initially paid them 300 CFA per kilogram, but later in the season, once the
union had sold in bulk to the buyers for 500 CFA, it was able to pay the
gatherers another 200 CFA per kilogram. In 2008, the union handled only 2
tonnes of gum, largely because low prices had deterred many from collecting
gum in previous years. In 2009, the target is 12 tonnes, and many women have
told Zida and his colleagues that they will start collecting as early as
possible next harvest season.
The Forestry Service in Burkina Faso is currently developing a new
strategy for the promotion of NTFPs, and CIFOR has a seat on the steering
committee. Zida concedes that it is too early to say exactly what role the
Burkina Faso government will play in the gum arabic trade in the future.
‘But they are certainly taking an interest in our work,’ he says, ‘and we
know from our discussions that policy makers are interested in the idea of
promoting the sort of production and marketing model that we are helping to
develop in Yagha Province.’ |
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