Essay 28: Global Spaces for Co-Existence, Governance, and Sustainability: Intersections of Climate Change, Herder–Farmer Conflicts, and Human Security from the Regional Context of ECOWAS

Rapidly transforming and safeguarding planetary system spaces to enable (non-)humans to freely and peacefully co-exist in the face of growing interconnected global risks is at the heart of good governance and sustainability agendas of the United Nations (Accelerator for Systemic Risk Assessment, 2024 ; Otto et al., 2020 ; Sachs et al., 2024 ) and regional organisations such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). From all indications, some nation-states in the ECOWAS, like Ghana and Nigeria, are democratically experimenting with constitutional governance regimes to aid regional integration, trade, and peaceful co-existence. However, recent non-democratic disruptions by youthful military groups in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Niger, and Mali culminated in the formation of a separate Alliance of Sahel States to threaten ECOWAS’ integration agenda (International Crisis Group, 2024 ). Now, there is mounting urgency among regional bodies, not only in the ECOWAS but also around the globe, to innovate, co-design, and effectively implement good governance schemes and frameworks to enhance the quality of positive inter-country cooperation. Many of the regional bodies realise that the significant concept of regionalism, if institutionally coordinated well, can light service spaces for diverse people to critically rethink, manage, and govern transboundary ecosystems, financial and political institutions to drive sustainable growth, economic transition, and health delivery (Amaya & De Lombaerde, 2021 ; Mansfield & Milner, 1999 ). In ECOWAS, one of the undervalued practices which this essay highlights and situates the relevance of regionalism in a changing polycomplex world is a cross-border movement of herdsmen (popularised as Fulanis ) and their livestock, especially cattle, here referred to as transnational pastoralism.