This graph illustrates the ties/relationships which exist in farmer-herder conflicts in southern Ghana. Contrary to what is often said the Fulani herders are not always those who cause conflict. They also develop strong ties with local associations, opinion leaders and represent an important workforce for large livestock owners. The density of relations does not end only with these relations above described, but it also involves the security agents and officials of the Ghanaian government who most often intervene in the resolution of conflicts.

Administrative Regions of Niger

The free list data was generated from ethnobotanical interviews which were carried out in northern Ghana and southern-central Burkina Faso. This dataset only contains 450 interviews from 15 villages (seven in Ghana and eight in Burkina Faso) to obtain a balanced dataset for further statistical analysis.

This study revealed that local agro-pastoralists were quite aware of their own actions that could influence the changing abundance of the natural forage resources. Moreover, the local informants suggested means through which their rich LEK in the traditional management and regulation of plant resources including forage plants could be applied. This is necessary for them to tackle negative effects of the ecological drivers to changing forage plants communities especially crops. One of the topmost suggestions made by local agro-pastoralists was that cutting down of trees for charcoal production and fuel wood should be stopped, while afforestation of useful trees should be encouraged by fellow farmers to increase the frequency of rainfall incidences and increase soil fertility.

This table contains survey data regarding ecological drivers which influence changes in trends of forage species abundance in both Ghana and Burkina-Faso.

Drainage Network and Inland Water Bodies of Senegal

The new maps, commissioned by the Africa Soil Information Services project (AfSIS), are important for studies on agricultural development, environment and food security. In Africa, significant amounts of soil nutrients are lost every year due to land degradation and soil exhaustion. However, improving land management is impossible without local information on soil properties such as sand-silt-clay content, water-holding capacity, or nutrient content. Unfortunately accurate soil information has been difficult to obtain for governments or research institutes, because existing soil profiles records are scattered over many sources. The aim of AfSIS, an international project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is to improve this situation, among others by creating up-to-date digital soil property maps at high spatial resolution. For further information see article: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0125814