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Marlène. Elias - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Exploring local knowledge and preferences for Shea (Vitellaria paradoxa) ethnovarieties in Southwest Burkina Faso through a gender and ethnic lens
Forests Trees and Livelihoods, 2016Co-Authors: Mawa Karambiri, Marlène. Elias, Barbara Vinceti, Alessandra GrosseAbstract:AbstractIn Africa’s ‘Shea belt’, the Shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa) plays a central role in rural livelihoods and ecosystems. Yet, it faces many threats. The aim of this study is to examine local people’s classification systems and preferences for Shea ethnovarieties in Burkina Faso to support domestication efforts that respect local priorities. Work was carried out among the Bobo, Sambla, Mosse and FulBe ethnic groups in two villages in south-west Burkina Faso. Participatory characterization and ranking matrices were used with 10 groups segregated by gender and ethnicity to understand if knowledge and preferences for Shea ethnovarieties vary between gender and ethnic groups. Results show a general agreement across groups about top-cited ethnovariety names, characteristics and key criteria defining the classification system. Participants identified a total of 25 Shea ethnovarieties according to 11 primary fruit and nut variants. The number of ethnovarieties cited varied slightly across groups, with great...
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gender knowledge sharing and management of Shea vitellaria paradoxa parklands in central west burkina faso
Journal of Rural Studies, 2015Co-Authors: Marlène. EliasAbstract:Abstract Research on agroforestry largely continues to ignore the significance of gender relations in shaping natural resource management processes. To contribute towards filling this gap, this study focuses on gender dynamics in Burkina Faso's centre-west region to examine how gendered knowledge and preferences affect the management and conservation of Shea parklands. In-depth interviews and free-listing exercises with Gurunsi and Moose women and men from Leo, Lan and Prata reveal that despite a strongly gendered division of labour, women and men hold overlapping areas of knowledge about Shea uses, yields and Shea nut characteristics. Further, men and women farmers detailed the same management practices and factors guiding the selection and conservation of Shea trees in cultivated fields. Similar fidelity levels (FLs) calculated from women's and men's responses show that top-cited uses, preferences and practices correspond across gender groups. This congruence is partly due to participants' personal experiences with the species, but also to knowledge sharing between the spouses that guides decision-making. Findings illustrate that the widely held assumption that men decide in matters of tree management overlooks the important contributions women may make to the process. The Shea case suggests that intra-household knowledge sharing and collaboration may hold greater significance for achieving resilient resource management strategies than has been described in previous works on African agroforestry.
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influence of agroforestry practices on the structure and spatiality of Shea trees vitellaria paradoxa c f gaertn in central west burkina faso
Agroforestry Systems, 2013Co-Authors: Marlène. EliasAbstract:This article examines the role of humans in shaping a Shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa C.F. Gaertn.) population in Prata, central-west Burkina Faso. Four management regimes or land uses were considered: fields cultivated by indigenous Gurunsi farmers, fields cultivated by migrant Moose farmers, fallows, and bush lands. The structure of the Shea population differed between Gurunsi and Moose fields and between these fields and fallow and bush lands. The size class distribution of V. paradoxa in fallows and bush lands was skewed towards the lower classes and the slope of the distributions was negative and significant, indicating the occurrence of recruitment. In comparison, Gurunsi fields carried young and mature trees with 95 % of individuals in the 15.5–90 cm range, whereas Moose fields carried no specimen with dbh <16.5 cm. The slope of the size class distribution was slightly negative for Gurunsi fields and slightly positive for Moose fields, but non significant in both cases. Vitellaria paradoxa densities did not significantly differ between Gurunsi (35 stems/ha) and Moose (26 stems/ha) fields, but were higher in fallows (172 stems/ha) and in the bush (161 stems/ha) than in cultivated fields. Nearest neighbour distances were progressively greater from uncultivated fields to Gurunsi and finally Moose fields, whereas Shea trees were increasingly aggregated from Moose to Gurunsi fields to fallows and bush lands. In Prata, Shea tree management is thus associated with ethnicity and/or with a host/migrant status that confers different farm sizes and levels of tenure security to farming households. Gurunsi and Moose farmers cited productivity, spacing and shading effects as the main factors influencing their decision to conserve specific Shea trees in their fields. Results signal favorable prospects for V. paradoxa regeneration in Prata’s fallows and bush lands and to a lesser extent in Gurunsi fields.
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African Shea Butter: A Feminized Subsidy from Nature
Africa: The Journal of the International African Institute, 2007Co-Authors: Marlène. Elias, Judith Ann. Carney, Judith CarneyAbstract:The Shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa) is indigenous to Africa's Sudano-Sahelian region and crucial to savanna ecosystems and peoples. African women have long collected, marketed and transformed Shea nuts into a multipurpose butter. The growing global trade in Shea butter destined for the Western food and cosmetics industries thus represents an opportunity to bolster impoverished female incomes. However, such international sales are also prompting changes in the west African Shea landscape. This article examines the role of Shea as a female heritage in Burkina Faso, West Africa's largest Shea exporter. It focuses on the knowledge systems informing the management, conservation and processing of Shea. It also considers the effects of global Shea commercialization on the maintenance of traditional agroforestry practices, tenure rights, and butter-making techniques. In so doing, the article illuminates the cultural and botanical heritage of Shea as well as the significance of this species in biodiversity protection, African natural heritages and female knowledge systems.
Kazuhiko Takeuchi - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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material flow analysis of Shea butter production systems implications for sustainability in semi arid ghana
2018Co-Authors: Godfred Seidu Jasaw, Osamu Saito, Kazuhiko TakeuchiAbstract:Shea (Vitellaria paradoxa) from Savannah landscapes is a popular source of vegetable oil for household and industrial consumption. The fruits are usually collected by women and processed into Shea kernels and/or handcrafted Shea butter for household consumption and sale in national and international markets. The volume of processed Shea butter exported from Ghana has almost doubled from under 20,000 metric tons in 2009 to approximately 40,000 metric tons in 2013. The processing methods and technologies used at the microlevel are characterized by high consumption of water, fuelwood, and labor per unit output of crude Shea butter. The level of input consumption and the operations performed by local processors have implications for the sustainability of the production process. Based on field interviews with experts and traders as well as on-site input inventory and measurements of consumption levels, this study analyzed the material demands and opportunities for improving production efficiency, marketing, and the livelihoods of the actors in urban and rural areas along the Shea supply chain. The analysis goes beyond the Shea value chain and applies material flow analysis to a discussion of simple efficiency scenarios for the most resource-consuming stages in the Shea processing chain. Practical options for achieving sustainability through reduced material consumption and maintaining the supply capacity of natural capital are also discussed.
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ecosystem services trade offs from high fuelwood use for traditional Shea butter processing in semi arid ghana
Ecosystem services, 2017Co-Authors: Godfred Seidu Jasaw, Osamu Saito, Alexandros Gasparatos, Kikuko Shoyama, Yaw Agyeman Boafo, Kazuhiko TakeuchiAbstract:Traditional production of Shea (Vitellaria paradoxa) butter uses large amounts of fuelwood. This study examines the effects of Shea production on the environment by identifying the ecosystem service trade-offs due to the high fuelwood consumption. Fuelwood species inventories for different land use types and on-site plot-based standing biomass measured. We estimate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and changes in carbon stocks for different Shea products in rural and urban settings. Results suggest that, processing of Shea can cause a significant change of carbon stocks in the four study villages and result in the loss of carbon sequestration ecosystem services. For GHG emissions, rural Shea butter processors emit 3.14–3.31 kg CO2 eq/kg Shea butter, while urban processors emit slightly less (2.29–2.54 kg CO2 eq/kg Shea butter). We identify trade-offs with several other provisioning (woodland products), regulating (erosion control) and cultural ecosystem services (religious and spiritual values). Such findings can initiate discussions about the hidden environmental and socioeconomic costs of current Shea production practices. Potential strategies to enhance the sustainability of Shea production include the adoption of improved stoves, sustainable fuelwood harvesting practices, parkland management, alternative fuels, and product pricing premiums to fund the adoption of cleaner Shea processing technologies.
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Shea vitellaria paradoxa butter production and resource use by urban and rural processors in northern ghana
Sustainability, 2015Co-Authors: Godfred Seidu Jasaw, Osamu Saito, Kazuhiko TakeuchiAbstract:This article explores the use of field experimentation in presenting an account of input inventory, material quantities, and the process flow for Shea butter production in Ghana. The Shea fruit is a non-timber forest product (NTFP) that is indigenous to ecosystems in semi-arid regions of Africa. Current methods and equipment for processing Shea kernel into butter impose a dilemma of excessive harvesting of fuel wood for heating and the use of large quantities of water. Thus, the nature of input requirement and production process presents implications for conflict over natural resource use and for sustainability as more processing takes place. Material flow analysis was applied to the data generated from the processing experiments. The outcome was discussed in focus group discussion sessions and individual interviews as a way of data triangulation to validate study parameters. Results from this experiment showed that the quantity of water used in urban processing sites was higher than that used in rural sites. On the other hand, fuel wood use and labor expended were found to be higher in rural sites per unit processing cycle. The nature of the processing equipment, accessibility to input resources, and target market for Shea butter were key determinants of the varying resource quantities used in the production process.
Andrew D Wardell - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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socio economic differentiation and Shea globalization in western burkina faso integrating gender politics and agrarian change
The Journal of Peasant Studies, 2019Co-Authors: Karen Rousseau, Denis Gautier, Andrew D WardellAbstract:In this paper, we examine the way a local manifestation of the globalization process, the boom in the Shea trade in western Burkina Faso, has fueled socio-economic differentiation in Shea activity as part of a wider differentiation process. We refer to the gender politics and agrarian change literatures to inform both within- and across-household mechanisms of differentiation. We analyze both the mechanisms of change and the resulting inequalities. Our results reveal the interplay between multiple drivers of change, and nuance the analysis of the winners and losers of globalization of Shea activity.
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coping with the upheavals of globalization in the Shea value chain the maintenance and relevance of upstream Shea nut supply chain organization in western burkina faso
World Development, 2015Co-Authors: Karen Rousseau, Denis Gautier, Andrew D WardellAbstract:Summary. — Market globalization has had only a weak impact on the regional Shea nut supply chain in western Burkina Faso despite the boom in the Shea trade and the arrival of leading foreign firms. We show that despite the fact that wholesalers have kept the Shea chain locked in an oligarchic organization for the last 50 years, they still play an important role in the smooth functioning of the chain and in profit sharing down the chain to the rural poor. We suggest that development actors should consider Shea traders and their role in the coordination of the chain more carefully. 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-SA license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/).
Godfred Seidu Jasaw - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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material flow analysis of Shea butter production systems implications for sustainability in semi arid ghana
2018Co-Authors: Godfred Seidu Jasaw, Osamu Saito, Kazuhiko TakeuchiAbstract:Shea (Vitellaria paradoxa) from Savannah landscapes is a popular source of vegetable oil for household and industrial consumption. The fruits are usually collected by women and processed into Shea kernels and/or handcrafted Shea butter for household consumption and sale in national and international markets. The volume of processed Shea butter exported from Ghana has almost doubled from under 20,000 metric tons in 2009 to approximately 40,000 metric tons in 2013. The processing methods and technologies used at the microlevel are characterized by high consumption of water, fuelwood, and labor per unit output of crude Shea butter. The level of input consumption and the operations performed by local processors have implications for the sustainability of the production process. Based on field interviews with experts and traders as well as on-site input inventory and measurements of consumption levels, this study analyzed the material demands and opportunities for improving production efficiency, marketing, and the livelihoods of the actors in urban and rural areas along the Shea supply chain. The analysis goes beyond the Shea value chain and applies material flow analysis to a discussion of simple efficiency scenarios for the most resource-consuming stages in the Shea processing chain. Practical options for achieving sustainability through reduced material consumption and maintaining the supply capacity of natural capital are also discussed.
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ecosystem services trade offs from high fuelwood use for traditional Shea butter processing in semi arid ghana
Ecosystem services, 2017Co-Authors: Godfred Seidu Jasaw, Osamu Saito, Alexandros Gasparatos, Kikuko Shoyama, Yaw Agyeman Boafo, Kazuhiko TakeuchiAbstract:Traditional production of Shea (Vitellaria paradoxa) butter uses large amounts of fuelwood. This study examines the effects of Shea production on the environment by identifying the ecosystem service trade-offs due to the high fuelwood consumption. Fuelwood species inventories for different land use types and on-site plot-based standing biomass measured. We estimate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and changes in carbon stocks for different Shea products in rural and urban settings. Results suggest that, processing of Shea can cause a significant change of carbon stocks in the four study villages and result in the loss of carbon sequestration ecosystem services. For GHG emissions, rural Shea butter processors emit 3.14–3.31 kg CO2 eq/kg Shea butter, while urban processors emit slightly less (2.29–2.54 kg CO2 eq/kg Shea butter). We identify trade-offs with several other provisioning (woodland products), regulating (erosion control) and cultural ecosystem services (religious and spiritual values). Such findings can initiate discussions about the hidden environmental and socioeconomic costs of current Shea production practices. Potential strategies to enhance the sustainability of Shea production include the adoption of improved stoves, sustainable fuelwood harvesting practices, parkland management, alternative fuels, and product pricing premiums to fund the adoption of cleaner Shea processing technologies.
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Shea vitellaria paradoxa butter production and resource use by urban and rural processors in northern ghana
Sustainability, 2015Co-Authors: Godfred Seidu Jasaw, Osamu Saito, Kazuhiko TakeuchiAbstract:This article explores the use of field experimentation in presenting an account of input inventory, material quantities, and the process flow for Shea butter production in Ghana. The Shea fruit is a non-timber forest product (NTFP) that is indigenous to ecosystems in semi-arid regions of Africa. Current methods and equipment for processing Shea kernel into butter impose a dilemma of excessive harvesting of fuel wood for heating and the use of large quantities of water. Thus, the nature of input requirement and production process presents implications for conflict over natural resource use and for sustainability as more processing takes place. Material flow analysis was applied to the data generated from the processing experiments. The outcome was discussed in focus group discussion sessions and individual interviews as a way of data triangulation to validate study parameters. Results from this experiment showed that the quantity of water used in urban processing sites was higher than that used in rural sites. On the other hand, fuel wood use and labor expended were found to be higher in rural sites per unit processing cycle. The nature of the processing equipment, accessibility to input resources, and target market for Shea butter were key determinants of the varying resource quantities used in the production process.
Jean-marc Bouvet - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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A Shea BUTTER RICH IN TOCOPHEROLS (VITAMIN E) AT THE DOGON PLATEAU AND SENO BANKASS IN MALI (WEST AFRICA)
Journal of Phytology, 2018Co-Authors: Bokary Allaye Kelly, Fabrice Davrieux, Jean-marc BouvetAbstract:Vitellaria paradoxa, a forest tree species plays an important role for rural populations in Mali. The kernel is rich in fat, fatty acids and tocopherols and the butter extrated from the kernel is used in many African kitchens, in pharmacology, cosmetics, local traditional medicine and as Chocolate Butter Equivalent (CBE) in chocolate industry. A consortium funded by the Europena Union has worked on several aspects of Shea tree including chemical characterisation of Shea butter. In Mali, one of the project partners, five sites were selected, fruits were collected from selected Shea trees and sent to Montpellier for chemical analyses assessing among other variables the tocopherol content of the Shea butter using liquid chromatography (HPLC). Results of this study shown that Shea butter from the Dogon Plateau and the Seno Bankass is richer in tocopherols (Vitamin E) compared to other study sites. Sites were found significantly different for tocopherols content all together as well as for each type of tocopherol. The richness of Shea butter from the Dogon Plateau and the Seno Bankass in tocopherols confers to it an important nutritional value for the good healf of rural populations of this zone, Shea butter being the main source of fat for cooking in this area.
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biological bar code for determining the geographical origin of fruits using 28s rdna fingerprinting of fungal communities by pcr dgge an application to Shea tree fruits
Quality Assurance and Safety of Crops & Foods, 2011Co-Authors: Jean-marc Bouvet, Aly Farag El Sheikha, Didier MontetAbstract:Objectives Shea tree is a multi-purpose tree daily used by rural African communities. Economic importance of Shea tree fruits has been rising and achieving a great success in African, American and European markets. Shea butter is used mainly in chocolate industry, cosmetic or pharmacological products. Traceability is now one of the great concerns of the customers and the lawyers. In view of the difficulties of installing these documentary systems in developing country particularly the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, the new strategies of traceability emerge. Methods Molecular technique using 28S rDNA profiles generated by polymerase chain reaction denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis was used to detect the variation in fungal community structures of Shea tree fruit from Senegal, Mali and Cameroon. Results 28S rDNA profiles were analysed by multivariate analysis, distinct microbial communities were detected. Band profiles of Shea tree fruit fungi from different countries were specific for each location and could be used as a bar code to discriminate the origin of fruits. Conclusion We propose the polymerase chain reaction denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis method as the fingerprinting of Shea tree fruits using 28S rDNA of fungi that provides the fruits with a unique bar code and make it possible to trace back the Shea tree fruit to their original locations. (Resume d'auteur)
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near infrared spectroscopy for high throughput characterization of Shea tree vitellaria paradoxa nut fat profiles
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2010Co-Authors: Fabrice Davrieux, Bokary Allaye Kelly, Francois Allal, Georges Piombo, John B Okulo, Massamba Thiam, Ousmane Diallo, Jean-marc BouvetAbstract:The Shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa) is a major tree species in African agroforestry systems. Butter extracted from its nuts offers an opportunity for sustainable development in Sudanian countries and an attractive potential for the food and cosmetics industries. The purpose of this study was to develop near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) calibrations to characterize Shea nut fat profiles. Powders prepared from nuts collected from 624 trees in five African countries (Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Uganda) were analyzed for moisture content, fat content using solvent extraction, and fatty acid profiles using gas chromatography. Results confirmed the differences between East and West African Shea nut fat composition: eastern nuts had significantly higher fat and oleic acid contents. Near infrared reflectance spectra were recorded for each sample. Ten percent of the samples were randomly selected for validation and the remaining samples used for calibration. For each constituent, calibration equations w...
