Spatial steppe land dynamics: The example of the Upper Western Plains (Algeria)
The High Plains of Algeria are a fragile and open bio-geographical milieu. Over the centuries, nomadic pastoralism was the only means of economic subsistence. Colonialism fractured this way of life by limiting migrations of tribes with their flocks, thus rupturing the traditional spatial relationship between the steppes and the Tell. With its independence, Algeria recovered the right to exercise powers previously held by the colonial authorities, but with the firm intention of developing steppe lands and integrating them into the national territory. As of the 1960s, the country’s still primarily nomadic population adopted a settled lifestyle, in response to the ‘’boons of modernity’’. In the 1980s, Algerian authorities instituted an agricultural development policy which led to the nomadic herding role of the steppes being replaced by a form of agro-pastoralism. The new agricultural development practices, together with a marked population increase, have led to a major restructuring of settled areas.