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Human migration and mobility have always been an important feature of how people interact with their environment and, in recent years, there has been an increased interest in understanding mobility drivers and effects. Yet links between mobility, migration and landscape changes have been largely overlooked in the landscape-related literature and the environmental impacts of human mobility are missing in the migration research field. This paper aims to fill those gaps by capturing and analyzing the diversity of linkages between human mobility or migration and landscape dynamics. These linkages can be framed in different ways. Mobility and migration induce significant changes in rural and urban areas, by direct demographic and social changes or indirectly through the investment of remittances in the landscape of origin. Using a pathways analysis approach, we examined different migration trajectories and their impact on the use and the management of ecosystems in several case studies in dryland areas. We explored the impacts of remittances on various human activities and ecosystem use or management. We also analyzed how knowledge, values and rules evolved along the migratory pathways and affect ecosystem management. The results highlight different types of feedback between human migration and social and ecological processes in the landscape of origin. They also show various feedback loops between migration and landscape recovery or degradation. Migration can induce adaptive or maladaptive pathways, which have profound consequences for landscape sustainable or unsustainable trajectories. Rather than conceptualizing mobility and landscape dynamics separately, development and landscape conservation policies need to better integrate mobility and migration in their analytical frames in order to achieve long-term, desired, landscape conservation and development outcomes.

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are receiving increasing attention for adapting to change climate and reducing its impacts on water resources. There is a growing interest and awareness of the value of managing, conserving and restoring ecosystems for their role in regulating water, protecting soils and increasing the resilience of social–ecological systems in watersheds. In the Peruvian mountains, some adaptation programs emphasize NBS options, such as the conservation of cloud forests, the restoration of forest cover, and the conservation or restoration of wetlands and grasslands. At the same time, other adaptation programs focus on technological and infrastructure options based on bricks-and-mortar, such as dams, reservoirs and water treatment facilities. In between, traditional options have been used for centuries by local communities to address water problems by combining NBS and small-scale infrastructure. The different options have a potential for providing water adaptation benefits but they differ greatly, for example, in terms of equity (e.g. when a dam benefits mostly urban and powerful actors) and co-benefits (e.g. scenic beauty, carbon sequestration or wild plant supply). Decision-making on adaptation options is challenging because of the lack of knowledge on the effectiveness of different solutions and because of the diverging opinions on their relevance among decision-makers. Using mixed methods, this study analyzes options for adaptation and water management in the Andes in Peru. We propose a critical analysis of decision contexts and the implications of adaptation options for ecosystem services and equity. We identify different doctrines and preferences for technological or NBS options and relate them to stakeholder worldviews. The contrasting discourses on adaptation options can be associated with different conceptions of equity and different opinions on the role of government, communities and the private sector in water management. We also explore whether some options are favored by decision rules and power relations. Analyzing the interactions between stakeholders and ecosystem services and understanding the trade-offs between ecosystem services can help explain the different positions in favor of or against NBS. This research highlights the importance of power relationships in adaptation decision-making, as such relationships favor the values and knowledge of some stakeholders and give priority to their preferred adaptation options.

People and species living in drylands have adapted over millennia to cope with extreme climatic variability. Diverse human populations in the drylands have created behavioral dynamics and social relations that enable reciprocity and mutual responsibility to use highly variable resources. For instance, mobility is a complex socio-ecological mechanism that relies on highly fine-tuned rules and norms to build the strategic exploitation of sporadic water and pastoral resources in an ecosystem characterized by high spatial and temporal climate variability. It allows different social groups to mutually manage and share resources through long-term traditional, negotiated tenure agreements, rights and responsibilities. Mobility is rooted in a broader governance system, and it is central to the identity of mobile pastoralists. While considerable attention and resources have been made available for the humid tropical forests, there has been a lack of comparable sustained attention on drylands. Local knowledge systems in drylands, the adaptive alliances woven through the coexistences of multiple identities and visions to manage and negotiate the landscape and the future are precious human experiences and knowledge systems, yet they sit on the periphery of the climate change agenda. Furthermore, within and outside the drylands, the repertoire of marginalization in the climate change debate includes those of major groups without social power: women, pastoralists and poor farmers. Taking deliberately an opposite approach – focusing on climate change from the margin – this presentation will use case studies from the West African Sahel to illustrate the profound socio-ecological interactions and environmental and sociological shift happening within drylands systems. The analytical approach used in the case studies aligns with theories on gender and climate change to include social differentiation. It relies on intersectionality as a tool to bring together existing concepts (e.g. vulnerability, adaptive capacity) to critically assess and enrich both common climate change and gender debates and theories. Using an intersectionality approach unveils emancipatory pathways and challenges the dominating narratives on vulnerability research. Through the examination of the intersecting factors and conditions by which power is not only produced and reproduced but also actively resisted, intersectionality calls for a more complex approach to address the system that creates power differentials, rather than the symptoms of it.

Mobility in its different forms has been always an important feature of societies in different contexts. In recent decades, however, new patterns of human mobility by larger populations over wider geographical extent have been interpreted in opposite ways. Migration has been described either as an adaptive strategy or as a failure of adaptation to environmental, political or socioeconomic changes. It has also been considered either as “development from below” or as a failure of state and development, and either as an emancipatory pathway or as a passive reaction to change. Hence migration, a well-established livelihood strategy is mostly associated with tensions, the politics of fear, and the separation between the privileged and the poor. In addition and beside the fact that mobility and migration induce significant demographic changes in rural and urban areas, yet links between migration or mobility and landscape or ecosystems have been overlooked in the literature on migration and vice versa migration and mobility has been overlooked in the environmental literature. To fill those gaps and to capture the diversity of linkages between migration, adaptation and ecosystems, we analyzed adaptation and migration pathways in several cases studies in drylands. We explored the impacts and feedback loops of different migratory patterns on ecosystems and adaptive pathways of people, including the long term different impacts of remittances on wellbeing. We also analyzed how knowledge, values and rules evolved along the pathways and affected ecosystems. The findings show that policies and the intervention of state agencies, development planners and local organizations should better account for mobility and migration. Learning from case studies can help develop strategies, incentives and policies that can transform landscapes and improve human wellbeing.

Climate change and related adaptation strategies have gender-differentiated impacts. This paper reviews how gender is framed in 41 papers on climate change adaptation through an intersectionality lens. The main findings show that while intersectional analysis has demonstrated many advantages for a comprehensive study of gender, it has not yet entered the field of climate change and gender. In climate change studies, gender is mostly handled in a men-versus-women dichotomy and little or no attention has been paid to power and social and political relations. These gaps which are echoed in other domains of development and gender research, depict a 'feminization of vulnerability' and reinforce a 'victimization' discourse within climate change studies. We argue that a critical intersectional assessment would contribute to unveil agency and emancipatory pathways in the adaptation process by providing a better understanding of how the differential impacts of climate change shape, and are shaped by, the complex power dynamics of existing social and political relations. (Texte intégral)

Changes in land use and management affect the capacity of ecosystems to deliver services that contribute to the well-being of societies and their resilience to climate variations. For example, forest ecosystems help regulating water flows during extreme rains depending on species characteristics (roots and leaves) and people's inputs and decisions (planting trees in specific areas) determined by governance and economic settings (land ownership and labour). The linkages between ecosystems services and people's resilience to climate variations are mostly studied indirectly and findings are scattered in the literature. In particular, the social-ecological systems interactions for resilience have often been described generically (as ecosystem services and land management), considered as unidirectional (flows of services from ecosystems to people), and neglected multiple aspects (ecosystems own sensitivity or role in livelihoods diversification). The study aimed to identify mechanisms or mediating factors that enable or constrain the supply of ecosystem services to build people's resilience to climate variations. We reviewed the literature on forest ecosystems' contributions to increase rural people's resilience and proposed a framework that was applied to case studies in Indonesian communities affected by drought and floods. Forest ecosystem services and their benefits to local people were assessed through forest inventories, satellite images, focus group discussions, and household surveys. People's response strategies to climate-related events partially relied on the benefits provided by forest ecosystems but surprisingly in less forested places there were more strategies based on trees. This difference between potential and actual use suggested that human inputs and other favourable conditions determine whether ecosystems service can effectively contribute to increase people's resilience. In fact, the provision of benefits was mediated by ecological and anthropogenic factors such as knowledge & skills, values & beliefs, access to services & markets, land tenure & use rights, technology & infrastructure, and social norms & networks. Therefore, functional ecological processes might need to be actively maintained, complemented or partially modified by human actions before becoming actual benefits. A better understanding of how ecosystem services contribute to people's resilience can support the design of more effective and sustainable land management practices. (Texte intégral)

Rural communities have long been using forested ecosystems to sustain their livelihoods and support development aspirations. In times of extreme climatic events, which can affect people's sources of income and exacerbate poverty, forest ecosystem services have often been recognized as playing an important role as safety nets and natural buffers. However, recent literature has highlighted the need for a better understanding of how climate variability drives changes in land use and its implications for people's vulnerability, especially in forested rural areas. We examined how the ecosystem services from forests and trees can enhance people's resilience by influencing elements of risk: exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. We conducted several participatory rural appraisal exercises, with a total of 24 focus group discussions and 256 household surveys in smallholder-dominated rural landscapes in Indonesia. The Sustainable Livelihoods Framework was used to analyse people's abilities to respond and maintain their wellbeing in the presence of climate-related stresses such as floods, drought and disease outbreaks. Our results suggest that forests and trees are important in supporting community resilience to climate-related stresses in different ways. The role of trees for adaptation varied according to the type of ecosystem service, whether provisioning or regulating, in relation to the time of the disaster (before or after). Communities' recognition of environmental conditions, climate variability and their linkages encouraged the development of practices that actively use natural resources and ecosystems to address climate-related hazards. For example, people avoided locating infrastructure and production activities in hazard prone areas, spread the risks with livelihoods diversification, maintained or enhanced trees on hilltops, near cultivated areas or along rivers to prevent erosion and regulate water run-off. An increased consideration of the complex linkages between vegetation cover and human vulnerability and their temporal dimension, would help ecosystem services to be a valuable option to reduce disaster risk and climate-related vulnerabilities.

The effects of climate change have already been felt in many parts of the world and are expected to increase over the next decades, affecting sources of revenue and exacerbating poverty. In times of extreme climatic events, the literature has often indicated that forests play an important role as livelihood safety nets and natural buffers. However, it remains unclear how land-use changes affect people's vulnerability and how climate variability influences peoples decisions regarding land use, especially in forested rural areas. We examined social-ecological systems' interactions and dynamics in two smallholder dominated rural landscapes in Indonesia affected by multiple climate-related stresses, such as floods, drought and disease outbreaks. These interact ions were analysed through mixed quantitative and qualitative participatory approaches, including 28 focus group discussions, 256 household surveys, and 120 forest inventories. To assess land-use changes, we analysed historical and future trends combining geospatial information with people's perceptions and visions. The findings suggest that communities' recognition of changes in environmental conditions, climate variability and their linkages encourage active management of natural resources and ecosystems to address climate - related hazards. In particular, because of the perceived role of forests and trees in watershed regulation and erosion prevention, people started maintaining or enhancing the vegetation cover in strategic places, such as hilltops, near cultivated areas or along rivers. In addition, people's previous exposure to climatic stresses and resource scarcity seem to increase the adoption of land-based solutions. Although climate considerations only partially influenced land-use changes undertaken by communities, they helped to determine how current land uses are managed, which in turn have a great potential to affect climatic risks. Other external factors included technological improvement and market prices, whereas internal factors were presence of alternative opportunities and land accessibility. An improved understanding of the linkages and trade-offs between land uses and people's vulnerabilities and their changes over time, can inform the design of appropriate ecosystem-based interventions that contribute to a sustainable resilient development.

In most regions of West Africa, livelihoods depend on goods and services from savannah ecosystems, in interplay with agricultural and livestock production systems. Economic, ecological, social and political changes represent challenges for the governance of the commons. In the international development agendas, adaptive co-management appears as an emergent and promising strategy in complex and multi scale, overlapping, governance mechanisms among socio-ecological systems. In Burkina Faso, under state control, forest policies have been introduced since the 1980s' that give more rights to communities to access and collectively manage forest resources in bounded areas. In two villages involved in this devolution process, we conducted vulnerability assessment surveys and focus group discussions. We analyse how vulnerability and adaptive capacity of people, belonging to different social groups, using common resources, evolve under the implementation of this co management system promoted by the state on behalf of sustainable development. We also analyse how the management norms shape people's collective action and adaptive capacity and how they reflect their ordinary priorities. We discuss the pertinence of this resource management system to both incremental and transformational adaptation to climate change. Our results show that comanagement applied without reinforced rights and leadership of the most vulnerable, including a radical change in behavioural and institutional patterns, tends to maintain existing power relationships, renders powerless groups vulnerable and inhibits institutional adaptive transformation to climate change.

Adaptation to climate change is largely envisioned as increments of adjustments that society has made or might make to reduce its vulnerability to existing climate change and variability intended to avoid disruptions of systems at their current locations (Kates, Travis et al. 2012). However, vulnerabilities and risks may require transformational adaptation rather than adjustments. Existing structures, institutions, attitudes and behaviors need to be critically evaluated in light of the risks that climate change poses or should pose in the future. There has been a growing interest in the scholarly community for integrating political and ecological processes in the theorization of transformative adaptation in socio-ecological systems. However, recent selected review on adaptation to climate change has demonstrated that only 3% of journal articles viewed adaptation as a process of transformation change (Bassett and Fogelman 2013). Most of the literature (70%) takes an "adjustment adaptation" approach, which views climate impacts as the main source of vulnerability. In contrast to this perspective in which individual decision makers adapt to natural hazards through a "satisficing" process, transformative adaptation relates to a social process in which political-economic dynamics and social relations determine individuals "adaptive capability" (Watts 1983). It emphasizes the importance of understanding the causal structures of vulnerability in different political-economic and environmental contexts as the basis of adaptation. Very few papers viewed adaptation as a transformational process that addresses the structural causes of vulnerability in different political-economic and environmental contexts, and the social processes through which evolving political-economic dynamics and social relations can increase individual adaptive capabilities. The proposed session will advance understanding of transformation adaptation by highlighting the structural causes of vulnerability and transformational solutions. Our goal is to bring together various experts from the sustainability and climate change science including resilience and vulnerability thinkers and practitioners. The objective is to analyse different perspectives and experiences on transformational adaptation among coupled environmental and human systems. We aim to generate common and cutting edges reflexions on the politics, the praxis and the ethics of transformational adaptation. We also encourage presenters to analyse linkages, synergies and trade-offs between different research practices/communities toward a transformational adaptation of coupled environmental and human systems. Case studies of adaptation processes will focus on rural livelihoods that rely on forests and trees. They will examine the different types of adaptation to climate change that are addressed by adaptation plans and initiatives. The objective is to analyse different experiences of transformational adaptation of social-ecological systems under different lenses of analysis. We aim also to generate common and cutting edges reflexions on the politics, the praxis and the ethics of transformational adaptation. Does science itself requires a transformational changes and a radical paradigm shifting? (Texte integral

Transformational adaptation is defined as a change that is adopted on a large scale, one that transforms places, institutions and regions and shifts systems (Kates et al. 2011). However, little is known yet about the pre-conditions and factors that set the stage for transformational adaptation among socio-ecological systems. In most regions of West Africa, livelihoods depend on goods and services from savannah ecosystems, in interplay with agricultural and livestock production systems. Economic, ecological, social and political changes represent challenges for the governance of the commons. Adaptive co-management appears as an emergent and promising strategy in complex and multi scale, overlapping, governance mechanisms among socio-ecological systems. In Burkina Faso, under state control, forest policies have been introduced since the 1980s' that give more rights to communities to access and collectively manage previously protected areas through local Forest Management Groups (FMG). This is seen and celebrated as a significant shift in the environmental governance in Burkina Faso. The province of Ziro (Centre-West region) is one of the first regions where the co management of forest resources has been implemented. In this region professional groups of local actors gathered in Forest Management Groups (FMG) can exploit and sell firewood according to a forest management scheme. In two villages involved in this devolution process, we conducted vulnerability assessment surveys and focus group discussions. This paper analyses how vulnerability and adaptive capacity of people, belonging to different social groups, using common resources, evolve under the implementation of a co management system. It also analyses how these established new norms shape people's collective action and adaptive capacity. We discuss the new system's pertinence to both incremental and transformational adaptation. The results show that in communities where more formal rights are granted through the forest co-management norms, disadvantaged groups encounter more challenges in accessing and using forest products than in communities where access is still regulated through customary regimes. The exclusive rights to manage forest product through the creation of professional woodcutter's organizations, raises the question of who defines institutional transformation for whom, and who benefit from it. If forest policies ignore the heterogeneous context of communities, as well as existing power relationships, co-management initiatives and actions aiming at granting more rights to people can produce pervert outcomes by decreasing the adaptive capacity of disadvantaged groups and their collective action to move on to a transformational adaptation. Our results show that co-management applied without reinforced rights and leadership of the most vulnerable, including a radical change in behavioural and institutional patterns, tends to maintain existing power relationships, renders powerless groups vulnerable and inhibits institutional adaptive transformation. (Texte integral)

The Soudano-Sahelian environment has been shaped by human practices responding to changes in urban demands, public policies and climatic variability. In a context of exposure to multiples changes and stressors, people have developed coping and adapting livelihoods strategies based on the diversity of ecosystems in their territories or the surroundings (permanent agricultural fields under parklands, temporary fields, fallows, savannas and grassland). This paper aims at analyzing to what extent tree ecosystems act as safety nets for people to meet their needs in Burkina Faso. We analyzed vulnerability through surveys at farm and individual levels and we assessed the woody resource in villages' territories. We selected villages with different levels of woody resources availability and different levels of right and access to these resources. Initial results show that people's coping or adapting strategies rely barely on woody resources and that households and individuals with different access to resources use almost similar strategies. Although most local people claim that deforestation is affecting livelihoods, it seems that most livelihoods are adapting to the loss of woody resources by developing strategies that rely on the diversity of ecological assets in landscapes as well as other human and social assets.

CIFOR Working Paper; Los ecosistemas proporcionan servicios importantes que pueden ayudar a las personas a adaptarse a la variabilidad y cambio climáticos. Reconociendo este papel de los ecosistemas, varias organizaciones internacionales y no gubernamentales han promovido un enfoque para la adaptación basado en los ecosistemas. En este artículo se revisa la literatura científica referente a la adaptación basada en los ecosistemas (ABE) con bosques y árboles, y se resaltan cinco casos en que los bosques y los árboles pueden apoyar a la adaptación: (1) bosques y árboles que proveen bienes a las comunidades locales que enfrentan amenazas climáticas, (2) árboles en los campos agrícolas que regulan el agua, el suelo y el microclima para una producción más resiliente, (3) cuencas hidrográficas boscosas que regulan el agua y protegen los suelos reduciendo los impactos climáticos, (4) bosques que protegen zonas costeras de amenazas relacionadas con el clima, y (5) bosques urbanos y árboles que regulan la temperatura y el agua para ciudades más resilientes. La literatura proporciona pruebas de que la ABE con bosques y árboles puede reducir la vulnerabilidad social a los riesgos climáticos, sin embargo, todavía quedan las incertidumbres y brechas de conocimiento, sobre todo para regular los servicios de las cuencas hidrográficas y las zonas costeras. Se han realizado pocos estudios sobre la ABE específicamente, pero se puede utilizar la abundante literatura que existe sobre los servicios ecosistémicos para llenar los vacíos de conocimiento. Muchos estudios evalúan los múltiples beneficios de los ecosistemas para la adaptación humana y el bienestar, pero también reconocen compensaciones entre los servicios ecosistémicos. Se requiere una mejor comprensión de la eficiencia, los costos y beneficios, y las compensaciones de la ABE con bosques y árboles. Los proyectos piloto en ejecución pueden servir como sitios de aprendizaje y la información existente puede ser sistematizada y abordada de nuevo con un enfoque de adaptación al cambio climático.

CIFOR Working Paper; Les écosystèmes fournissent d'importants services qui peuvent aider les populations à s'adapter à la variabilité et au changement climatiques. Reconnaissant ce rôle des écosystèmes, plusieurs organisations internationales et non gouvernementales ont encouragé une approche de l'adaptation basée sur les écosystèmes (ABE). Dans cet article, nous examinons la littérature scientifique portant sur le rôle des arbres et des forêts dans l'ABE et présentons cinq cas de figure dans lesquels ils peuvent soutenir l'adaptation : (1) les forêts et les arbres qui fournissent des biens aux communautés locales confrontées à des menaces climatiques ; (2) les arbres qui régulent l'eau, les sols et le microclimat dans les champs agricoles pour une production plus résiliente ; (3) les bassins versants forestiers qui régulent l'eau et protègent les sols afin de réduire les effets du climat ; (4) les forêts qui protègent les régions côtières contre les menaces liées au climat ; et (5) les forêts et les arbres urbains qui régulent la température et l'eau pour rendre les villes résilientes. La littérature montre que l'ABE à l'aide des forêts et des arbres peut réduire la vulnérabilité sociale aux risques climatiques ; toutefois, des incertitudes et des déficits de connaissances demeurent, concernant en particulier les services de régulation dans les bassins versants et les régions côtières. Peu d'études ont spécifiquement été entreprises sur l'ABE, mais l'abondante littérature relative aux services écosystémiques peut servir à combler les lacunes dansles connaissances. De nombreuses études évaluent les multiples bénéfices des écosystèmes pour l'adaptation ou le bien-être des populations, tout en reconnaissant qu'il faille élaborer des compromis entre les services écosystémiques fournis. Une meilleure compréhension de l'efficience, des coûts, des bénéfices et des compromis de l'adaptation fondée sur les écosystèmes des forêts et des arbres est nécessaire. Les projets pilotes en cours de mise en oeuvre pourraient servir de sites d'apprentissage et les informations existantes pourraient être systématisées et révisées à travers le prisme de l'adaptation au changement climatique.

Diese Arbeit stellt eine diagnostische Untersuchung des traditionellen Schafhaltungssystems der Ireklaouen in der Provinz Ifrane im Mittleren Atlas Marokkos dar. Hauptziel dieser Studie war, mittels qualitativer (MARP Workshops) und quantitativer Kriterien (Produktivität der Herde) die verschiedenen agro-pastoralen Schafhaltungssysteme zu identifizieren und die Produktivität der Timahdit Schafe innerhalb jedes Subsystems zu bestimmen und zu vergleichen. Die Schafhaltungsformen wurden mittels eines partizipativen Ansatzes (Méthode Accélérée de Recherche Participative (MARP) im Rahmen von elf Workshops mit insgesamt 104 Tierhaltern in vier Siedlungen und Dörfern und auf sechs wöchentlichen Märkten (Azrou) identifiziert und beschrieben. Traditionelle Rechte wurden diskutiert, Ressourcenkarten, Futterkalender und Kalender zur saisonalen Mobilität erstellt.Die Ergebnisse der MARP-Untersuchungen und die Ermittlung der Herdenproduktivität zeigten, dass zum einen das auf kollektiven Weiden sesshafte System durch niedrige tierische Leistungen, Ressourcenzerstörung und schwierige Lebensbedingungen für die Hirten und ihre Familien gekennzeichnet ist. Seine Akzeptanz innerhalb der pastoralen Gemeinschaft ist gering, die Vulnerabilität der Haushalte, die es praktizieren, hoch. Zum anderen zeigten die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit, dass sich die auf traditioneller Transhumanz beruhende Schafhaltung durch höhere Geburtsgewichte, höhere Gewichte mit einem Jahr, höhere Überlebensraten sowie niedrige Ablammintervalle auszeichnet und damit eine höhere Produktivität erzielt. Neue institutionelle Rahmenbedingungen sollten in enger partizipativer Zusammenarbeit mit allen beteiligten Akteuren erarbeitet werden. Eine gerechte, auf traditionellen Regelungen basierende Neuorganisierung der Nutzer, innerhalb derer die marginalisierten Tierhalter ihre Nutzungsrechte gesichert sehen, könnte einen Beitrag dazu leisten, dass die Schafhalter in größerem Maßstab wieder zur traditionell angepassten, saisonalen Transhumanz zurückkehren. Diese Neuorganisierung könnte die Aufgaben der traditionellen, nicht mehr aktiven Jmâa bezüglich der nachhaltigen Weidenutzung in einer den aktuellen sozioökonomischen und ökologischen Bedingungen angepassten Form wieder aufnehmen. Die höhere Produktivität bei der transhumanten Schafhaltung basiert hauptsächlich auf den kollektiven Weiden als Futtergrundlage. Daher ist die Nachhaltigkeit dieser Schafhaltung mit der angepassten Nutzung der Weiden eng verbunden. Hier könnte die oben genannte Neuorganisierung der Nutzer einen bedeutenden Beitrag leisten. Die Begrenzung der Tierzahl und der Nutzungszeit die Wiedereinführung des Agdal und die Beschränkung der Auftragsschafhaltung sind für die Nachhaltigkeit der transhumanten Schafhaltung unabdingbar. Bei den in Ackerbaugebieten sesshaften und den transhumanten Herden könnte die Produktivität durch eine bessere Integration der Ackerbauprodukte in die Fütterung, eine Optimierung der Nährstoffergänzung sowie eine Konzentration der Ablammungen auf den Winter oder Herbst (Bekri) erreicht werden. Die unter-schiedliche, aber komplementäre Spezialisierung (Masttiererzeugung, Bockmast) des transhumanten und des ackerbaulichen Schafhaltungssytems würde die unterschiedlich verfügbaren Futterressourcen und Infrastrukturen dieser beiden Schafhaltungsformen besser berücksichtigen., This work presents a diagnostic study of the Ireklaouen traditional husbandry system carried out in the Ifrane Province (Ireklaouen s tribe) in Morocco s Middle Atlas. The principal objective of this study is to identify the different husbandry subsystems inside the agro-sylvo-pastoral system and to determine the productivity of the Timahdit sheep in the different subsystems, using qualitative (MARP workshops) and quantitative criteria (herd productivity). Such diagnostics are highly relevant as they allow the identification of sustainable and adaptive strategies for the subsystems in their specific contexts under multiple drivers of change.The results of the MARP workshops and the analysis of herd productivity showed that the highland sedentary system (HS3) is characterized by low animal performances, resource degradation and declining livelihood conditions for the herders. Its acceptance and reputation within the pastoral community is low, the vulnerability of the households which practice this form is high. In contrast to it, the results of the transhumant system which is based on traditional mobility of herds, is characterized by higher birth weights, higher weights at one year of age, higher survival rates as well as low lambing interval. Consequently, the productivity of the Timahdit sheep held in this system was higher. The reorganization of the herders in Ireklaouen in a new form of Jmâa could contribute to reestablish the traditional transhumance and to prevent the permanent stay on the collective areas in Hebri. The integration of marginalized herders and the guarantee of equitable access to collective pastures and water may give substantial arguments for sheep owners to return to the traditionally adapted seasonal transhumance. This reorganization could take over the tasks of the traditional, not any longer active Jmâa concerning. To ensure the success of this reorganization, current socioeconomic and ecological conditions in the Ireklaouen area must be integrated in this process. Based on long term considerations, transhumant herders can only maintain the reached productivity level by a sustainable use of collective pastures. The reorganization of the users specified above could make an important contribution by delimiting the stocking rate and by reintroducing seasonal protection measures, like a new form of Agdal, in Hebri, Ain Karma and El Koudiat pastures. In lowland sedentary and in transhumant systems, the productivity could be in-creased by a better integration of the cereal by-products in the feeding strategies, an optimization of the supplementation as well as a concentration of the lambing on the autumn (Bekri) for the transhumant and on winter (Wasti) for the lowland sedentary systems. Different, however complementary specialization between the transhumant (lamb raring) and the low sedentary herders (lamb fattening) would lead to a more sustainable and efficient use of the differently available fodder re-sources and infrastructure.