Revue d'ethnoécologie (Jun 2018)
Les « terroirs » maritimes revisités
Abstract
The diverse forms of sea spaces’ socialization and coastal societies’spatialization is reflected in the wealth of words for designating the traditional property rights of the sea and its resources. This paper intends to revisit the notion of marine “terroir”, based on empirical studies, particularly in Senegal in the 1980s and an analysis of the international literature in the social sciences, and re-exploring the concept from diverse fieldworks, in West Africa and in the light of recent discources and mecanisms regarding the sea policies.This concept of terroir, typically French and even Africanist, was originally used to designate portions of territory which rural communities depend for their livelihoods. It seems relevant to qualify the coastal and maritime areas controlled by the farmers-fishers and that we distinguish from the moving territories of fishers. From colonial times and then with the Independence, these spaces, not permanently managed, but owned and controlled collectively (they are "commons"), are subject to public and private grabbing.In this paper, we discuss the relevance of this concept of sea terroir and propose a conceptual and methodological framework. We trace the chronicle of the end of the traditional tenure and their questioning with public and private enclosure process (public domain, EEZ, MPA, etc.); then we analyze their revival, given the changes of paradigm in terms of biodiversity conservation and the new approaches to co-management (or shared and sustainable governance), focusing on the local level. This dynamic is discussed through various West African examples, from global to local scales: the proposed regionalization of West African sea spaces of the World Bank, Act III of decentralization, completing the process of communalization of traditional terroirs and the creation of Marine Protected Areas and Areas of Community Heritage or the current craze for local sea-food products or meroir.
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