Spatial Justice and Large-Scale Land Transformation : A study of spatial justice for transhumant pastoralists in the case of the Great Green Wall

Abstract: Transhumant pastoralist are highly dependent on their landscape. Their economic, cultural and political systems are directly shaped by and shaping space. The nomadic nature of transhumant pastoralists have therefore created unique pastoral socio-spatial relations. Due to their close interaction with local landscapes, land use change can heavily impact their socio- spatial relations and their spatial justice. This study therefore studied the impacts of the case of the Great Green Wall, a large-scale land use change project focusing on afforestation and land management, on transhumance pastoralists from a spatial justice lens. The study focused on de jure spatial justice through policy documents and perceived spatial justice through interviews with stakeholders, specifically in terms of recognition, procedural rights, and distributional effects. This study found that (1) the project did not recognise the socio-spatial relations of pastoralists and instead, pastoralists were perceived as having a negative influence on the landscape, (2) de jure procedural justice was lacking, and stakeholders perceived the role of pastoralists in the governance and implementation of the project as limited, and (3) policy documents revealed a lacking focus on the distributive effects on pastoral socio-spatial relations, and the perceived spatial justice in terms of mobility and access to spatial resources was low. Overall, the levels of both de jure and perceived spatial justice were interpreted as low, meaning that the Great Green Wall has negative impacts on pastoral socio-spatial relations and pastoralists’ ability to influence these.