From subsistence to commercialisation: Legal implications of ‘ECOWAS Regulations on Transhumance’ on livestock investment options

• Citation: (2023) 10(1) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 83
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.47348/JCLA/v10/i1a4
• Published date: 11 September 2023
• Pages: 83-102
• Author: Ezirigwe, J.
• Date: 11 September 2023

83 https://doi.org/10.47348/JCLA/v10/i1a4

FROM SUBSISTENCE TO

COMMERCIALISATION: LEGAL

IMPLICATIONS OF ‘ECOWAS REGULATIONS

ON TRANSHUMANCE’ ON LIVESTOCK

INVESTMENT OPTIONS*

Jane Ezirigwe**

Abstract

West Africa is expected to experience rapid population growth with a projected

population of 796, 494, 188 in 2050, most of whom will be unemployed youths

in quest of job and business opportunities. The increasing growth in population

with an increasing demand for livestock products and a ready workforce presents

exciting opportunities for investment in livestock production, job creation, poverty

reduction, and food security. Nonetheless, private investment may not happen

in a form that will achieve these gains if the ECOWAS texts are left in their

current form, in promoting the transhumance business model to the detriment of

meaningful large-scale investments that will increase productivity and create jobs for

the region’s booming young population. This article adopts a socio-legal approach

to examine the ECOWAS Decision and Regulation on Transhumance in order

to determine whether they have adequately promoted transhumance in a form that

is not inimical to other business investment options for livestock production in the

region. Its aim is to show that the regulatory framework has not effectively ensured

that transhumance exists in a form that will still provide other business models

with opportunities to competitively engage in livestock production. This is given the

fact that the transhumance method has been commercialised and even criminalised

in ways that produce significant negative consequences for the livestock business. It

recommends concrete plans with a view to phasing out transhumance across borders

and designating rangelands in semi-arid areas of the region.

Keywords: Transhumance; pastoralism; ECOWAS Regulation; livestock

production

Résumé

L’Afrique de l’Ouest devrait connaître une croissance démographique rapide avec

une population estimée à approximativement de 796 494 188 habitants en

2050, dont la plupart seront des jeunes sans emploi à la recherche d’opportunités

* This work was produced while the author was a research fellow in 2019 at the Centre for

Comparative Law in Africa (CCLA) under the Olu Akinkugbe Business Law in Africa Fellowship

administered by the CCLA, Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town. The author gratefully

acknowledges the Olu Akinkugbe Fellowship and the Centre for Comparative Law in Africa.

** LLB (Hons.) (Abuja) LLM (London) MBA (EBS) PhD (UCT); Senior Research Fellow,

Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies; ezirigwejane@gmail.com.

(2023) 10(1) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 83

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84 JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE LAW IN AFRICA VOL 10, NO 1, 2023

https://doi.org/10.47348/JCLA/v10/i1a4

professionnelles. L’augmentation de la population avec une demande croissante

de produits de l’élevage et une main-d’œuvre prête à travailler présente des

opportunités intéressantes pour les investissements dans la production animale,

la création d’emplois, la réduction de la pauvreté et des atouts en matière de

sécurité alimentaire. Néanmoins, les investissements privés risquent ne de ne pas

permettre de réaliser ces gains si les textes de la CEDEAO restent dans leur

forme actuelle, en favorisant le modèle commercial de la transhumance au détriment

d’investissements significatifs à grande échelle qui augmenteront la productivité et

créeront des emplois pour la jeune population en plein essor de la région. Cet article

adopte une approche socio-juridique pour examiner la décision et le règlement de

la CEDEAO sur la transhumance afin de déterminer s’ils ont adéquatement

promu la transhumance sous une forme qui ne porte pas aux préjudice autres

options d’investissement commercial pour la production animale dans la région.

L’objectif est de montrer que le cadre réglementaire ne garantit pas efficace que la

transhumance existe sous une forme qui permette à d’autres modèles commerciaux

de s’engager de manière compétitive dans la production animale. En effet, la

méthode de transhumance a été commercialisée et criminalisée d’une manière ne

conséquences négatives importantes sur le climat commercial de l’élevage. Cet ar ticle

recommande des plans concrets en vue d’éliminer progressivement la transhumance

transfrontalière et de désigner des terres de parcours dans les zones semi-arides de

la région.

Mots-clés: Transhumance; pastoralisme; règlement de la CEDEAO;

production animale

Introduction

The economic implications of legal texts and rules on businesses and the

economy have been canvassed and established in the literature.1 This has

prompted a need to ensure that legal texts and rules which are targeted at

promoting productivity and business growth are not crafted in ways that

undermine the realisation of the same goals they seek to promote. It then

compels that a careful deliberation on the possible implications of rules

and more importantly that they are revised, where it has been shown that

they were initially made to promote economic growth but, unfortunately,

they are stifling it. A revision becomes necessary even where the main

aim of the law is targeted at the alleviation of poverty but where in reality

1 See for examples Weber, Max Law in Economy and Society (1984); Casey, Donal & Scott, Collin

‘The crystallization of regulatory norms’ (2011) 38 (1) Journal of Law and Society 76–95; Coutu, Michel

& Kirat, Thierr y ‘John R. Commons and Max Weber: The foundations of an economic sociology of

law’ (2011) 38(4) Journal of Law and Society 469–49; Pahlow, Louis & Teupe, Sebastian‘Introduction:

Business and the law’ (2019) 14(4)Management & Organizational History 311–16; Anand, Bithika

‘The role of the law in the growth of an economy, with a special focus on developing economies’

Nov 26, 2018 available at https://www.edge.ai/2018/11/the-role-of-the-law-in-the-growth-of-

an-economy-with-a-special-focus-on-developing-economies/[Accessed on 7 February 2020].

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