- encourage donors intervention
- formulate & adopt best practices in livestock sector during conflicts
- exchange of ideas & experiences & sharing of information
- identifying the causes & proposing solutions for present conflicts.
- Provide basic land resources data to help decision makers and planners in setting up plans for sustainable development and enable development agencies to select the most potential areas for feasibility studies for investment and initiation of new projects
Issues to be discussed :
1/ Overview of Pastoralism.
2/ Current status of pastoralism in Sudan.
3/ The natural resources available for pastoralists.
4/ Conflict: history , causes and possibility of avoidance .
5/ Mechanisms of peace achievement.
6/Prediction of the future.
Lists of the expected participants:
Governmental bodies (e.g.: Federal / state ministries of animal resources , agriculture & fisheries . Ministry Science & Technology . Ministries of Social , Humanitarian affairs , External & Internal affairs, Finance,…etc)
Partners in veterinary services (private sector )
Farmers union
Pastoralists union
Research centers
Universities
NGOs
UN agencies
List of contributers
Ministerial council
Fedral ministry of Finance
Sudan Airways
Drug companies
Ministry of social affairs
Petroleum companies
HAC
Table of content:
Welcome to Khartoum
Lists of guests from abroad
Overview of the conference
The organizing committee
The scientific committee
The social &welcoming programme
Financial committee
Sudan
is the largest country in Africa. It is roughly the size of Western Europe with a population of 35 million people. Most of the economic activities in rural areas are based on limited resources and depend fully on rainfall for crop and fodder production. Settlements are in form of clusters (villages) around water points. Due to the extensive use of the limited resources the villages, in such dry land, contribute to land degradation. Uncontrolled practices such as over-cultivation, over-grazing and deforestation are among the main driving forces.
Many development strategies and programs for natural resources utilization in Sudan lack the accurate information upon which one should base the vision of sustainability. Land degradation, desertification, internal displacement and conflicts over the resources are the outcome of the lack of such information. Generally natural resources information in Sudan in both the urban or rural sectors is very limited. Natural resources development needs to be based on accurate and up-to-date land use mapping upon which land use planning need to be based, a concept which is not well recognized in Sudan. The state-of-the-art land use mapping now is mostly based and enhanced through the utilization of Satellite data using remote sensing and utilizing geographic information system (GIS). GIS capabilities provide ways to integrate multiple data types (remotely sensed data, topographic maps, censuses data, etc.) and make it possible to produce alternatives land use options. It has been proven that the successful implementation of development projects, particularly, projects on the sustainable development and conservation of the natural resources at any level (county, state or locality) depends largely on the availability of spatial data infrastructure This proposed land use mapping exercise aims at creation of spatial data infrastructure as a perquisite for land use planning to support sustainable development
History and War
The war in southern Sudan is complicated. Sudan, like many countries in Africa, was newly created this century. Many different tribes with age old differences in beliefs, customs and ways of life were put together as one of the largest countries in the world. Suddenly the people were expected to get along and work together - a difficult challenge. The prolonged civil war, which has festered more or less since Sudan became an independent country, arises from this fundamental difficulty. Modern weapons have made traditional disputes very destructive.
Britain played a major part in the creation of Sudan as a single state and is one of the world's largest suppliers of military equipment. We therefore have some responsibility for helping to end the conflict and to alleviate some of the misery that it has caused.
The present situation is a by-product of the war. War stops people from cultivating as much land and growing as much food as they could. Military activity tends to take place during the dry season as it is easier for soldiers and their equipment to move around when the ground isn't muddy, so displacing people at the time when they are already short of food. Militias will deliberately disrupt civilian community life at the time when people ought to be planning crops just to create instability. People choose to live in remote places because they are safe from conflict, even if they are known to be not so productive.
People driven from their homes and villages become 'displaced' and have no alternative than to move to distant areas of safety and throw themselves on the mercy of relatives, friends or even complete strangers. The custom in southern Sudan is to share food with visitors. Even though everyone was anticipating a difficult dry season, they used their food reserves to help the displaced, so leaving themselves short as the dry season progressed.
There is no absolute shortage of food in southern Sudan - famines generally result from political manipulation and greed.
Geography and climate
Sudan is the largest country in Africa (about ten times the size of the UK). The Dinka and Nuer live in an area about twice the size of the UK, in the band of country that stretches between Zaire in the West and Ethiopia in the East, from around the level where the White Nile is joined by the rivers Bar el Ghazal and Sobat, south to the rising land that borders Uganda and the Central African Republic. The population of southern Sudan is only about 5 million; the same as Scotland.
South Sudan is a land of swamps and open savannah. The swamps of southern Sudan are the largest in the world and are formed when the waters of the White Nile and its tributaries flow down from the highlands of Ethiopia, Uganda and the Central African Republic into the low clay basin that forms much of southern Sudan. The swamps swell with the torrential rain that inundates the area between May and September, then recede gradually during the dry season. From this vast reservoir, the White Nile moves sluggishly north on its long journey up towards Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, where it is joined by the Blue Nile, on into Egypt, and eventually to the Mediterranean Sea. The swamps of southern Sudan abound with an enormous variety of birds. Indeed with its big views and huge skies, the whole area is unusually beautiful.
The temperature year round is between about 27-45oC. When the temperature drops below 30oC people start to feel cold and put on warm clothes! Because there is no industry in southern Sudan and no cars, the air is clean and clear and smells sweet.
A typical year - Livestock
Like many other livestock keeping tribes in Africa, the Dinka and Nuer are 'trans-humant agro-pastoralists'. This means they have a regular, semi-nomadic lifestyle moving between their crop growing village areas in the wet season, and the toic (pronounced toych - the swamps and water-meadows), that provides grazing for their livestock during the dry season. With unpredictable floods and rains, crop growing during the short wet season is a precarious activity, so life is based around livestock.
Livestock are central to Dinka and Nuer culture. They provide subsistence food (milk, blood and meat), food reserves when crops fail (meat), and can be bartered for other comestibles (particularly grain); their needs determine human social structure; they are the cause of rights being wronged, and the means by which wrongs are righted; they represent savings; they are the currency of social contracts and the cement of social cohesion. Cattle are their most treasured livestock, but they also keep sheep and goats, some chickens, and in some places, donkeys. They also keep dogs for hunting, security and companionship. From a children's point of view, animals provide food, companionship, social and economic security, and cultural identity.
There is one rainy season each year, between May and September, during which time people live in permanent villages. For the rest of the year, most members of the family move with the animals following the new grass which grows on the receding water meadows. The need to find water and grazing for their animals governs life for the Nuer and Dinka. Cattle need to be watered every 1-2 days, sheep and goats every 1-4 days.
