 I'll sit in front of this, as you can see, typical agroforestry parkland from West Africa and talk about our research which, as Steve mentioned, was actually just about to appear online in world development in the next issue, volume 66, which will come out at the end of this month but it's been available since the end of last year. This research is based on work essentially done by a PhD candidate called Karen Rousseau, a French PhD registered at the University of Montpellier, on a jointly financed, jointly supervised PhD project by C4 and SIRAD that was started just over two years ago. So Karen's actually in her third year of doing her PhD and has been a pleasure to work with her in West Africa and I hope we'll be able to continue working with her. So West Africa, in terms of the distinguishing features of the context within which this research was taken, West Africa is very different from many other parts of Africa by virtue of what I call its distinguishing feature of having landscapes of exchange, quite different from the settler colonies that distinguish many other parts of East and Southern Africa. The colonization was also based very much on looking at ways to enter into many of the trading patterns in that region with varying degrees of success and our research is specifically focused on the sheer nut value train. Now you may know the sheer nut vitillaria paradoxa is a tree that occurs in many of the parklands across about 4,000 square kilometers in the West African region and stretching almost as far as Uganda and East Africa. It is one of the dominant trees that is kept by farmers. It's not planted, it's protected by farmers in their fields and represents a major source of both fats used by households for cooking but also a very significant source of income, particularly for women. So this research is very much built in terms of its theoretical foundations on the global value chain approach that's been developed by Garefi, Peter Gibbon, Stefano Ponto with regard to many other agricultural commodities but with a number of distinctions which I'll go on to explain. The research specifically looked at one particular value chain which is the predominant value chain associated with the significant growth in trade that has occurred in West Africa in the last 15 years and this has been associated with its use as what is called a cocoa butter equivalent. The chocolate industry worldwide, a multi-billion dollar industry, has been particularly since an EC directive allowed to substitute the use of cocoa butter with these cocoa butter equivalents and the best equivalent is in fact the sheer butter and this is what has driven the enormous growth in demand and we've seen based on the paper we've done and analysis of data between 2000 and 2005 there was a three-fold increase in the demand and between 2005 and 2012 a 12-fold increase in the demand to meet the cocoa butter equivalent demand globally for the chocolate industry and I just want to make a distinction vis-a-vis the much smaller this represents only 10% of the trade of the direct sourcing so it's a very different value chain associated with the cosmetics industry and for those female members of the audience you may have heard of the Body Shop or Oxytani who are the two British or Anglo-American and French companies that produce many products used by women in the cosmetics industry but this is a relatively small and quite different value chain this value chain that we did the research on is the predominant trade which is looking at the trade in unprocessed nuts and we used both the global value chain approach but also transaction cost theory as a way of trying to understand whether globalization has had any impact in terms of long-established patterns of trading by women in the West African region through local periodic markets but also regional markets with the West African literal where the largest demand occurs for particularly cosmetic products so we looked and in terms of the sample size a sample of almost 200 traders in western Burkina Faso scattered across 13 provinces in that part of the country which is one of the most significant areas where the parklands occur and where trade has existed based on archival evidence that goes back at least 200 years and we suspect probably much longer back in time in terms of the links to the expansion of Islam in terms of the key findings that I just really want to highlight we found that globalization has had little impact on the structure and organization of the upstream share value chain it is still largely organized as it was during the colonial period by a small oligarchy of wholesalers based in Bobo de Olasso which is the regional capital and the second largest city in the country after the capital Wagedubu it's based on a complex pyramidal networking system of purchasing share nuts which link the women collectors of the share nuts and then who sell in the local periodic markets through a series of small medium bulkers up and traders who then sell on eventually to the wholesalers and they in turn are now linked since early 2000s with three transnational corporations one a Swedish Danish corporation called Orhus Olja Kalsjum another a Malaysian company called IOA Lordus Kroklen which is part of a parent company based in Malaysia called IOA Corporation and the third with the very lovely name three Fs, Fats, Foods and Fertilizers which is actually an Indian transnational corporation and these are the three companies which have set themselves up in Bobo de Olasso since between the period 2000 and 2005 what our research has highlighted however is they have not been able to change in any way the structure of that sourcing of the share nuts it's exactly the same patterns which have been maintained unless the same families that existed since early 1900 when the colonial trading firms were first set up to trade in this commodity so globalization has not really had a major impact the impacts that we found from our research have largely been in terms of the growth in the volume of share nut that has been traded the prices which have been gained and it's growing importance as a source of income particularly for both women producers at the end of the value chain upstream but also all the actors who are part of this and some of the preliminary research we've done suggests that there's a quite equitable distribution of the benefits along the value chain perhaps counter-intuitively and surprisingly so we argue in the paper that in fact we should recognize more clearly the role that these wholesalers even if they may be distinguished by an oligarchy actually pay in actually continuing to support distribution of benefits along the value chain and the critical role they play now what is the relevance of this research vis-a-vis global value chain research more broadly clearly the share nut value chain in West Africa bucks the normal trends which are associated with most agricultural commodities which have been distinguished over the last 20, 30 years by increasingly trends towards buyer driven markets where we've seen specialization, the introduction of standards social and environmental standards, increased volumes shorter time frames associated with many of the trade in these products and we've seen associated with this in many commodities the vertical integration, the best example probably is the international trade in bananas where we see the companies who are involved in this are involved from simply growing the bananas all the way through the shipping to the sale at their retail outlets in other parts of the world this has not occurred in the case of the share value chain and we explore in the paper many of the reasons why we think this is the case why is the share nut value chain so distinct and we identify a number of reasons one is we're saying it's clearly not a plantation crop unlike cotton, oil palm, bananas, rubber, many other commodities which are associated with land use, land cover change very often clearing forests these are traditional customary agroforest departments that do not involve any change in the existing land use patterns or not significant changes and we think there's potential here to explore and do further research in terms of some of the climate change benefits that might be associated with these customary land use patterns secondarily, there is no evidence anywhere throughout West Africa after a hundred years of scientific attempts to regenerate and plant the share nut of any share nut plantations it is not a plantation crop during British colonial rule in Northern Ghana there were attempts since the 1920s to regenerate this tree unsuccessfully there are current new efforts to do so in parts of West Africa the other aspect which distinguishes the share nut are the complex access rights to the share trees which are quite distinct from the access rights to the land on which the trees grow and this has had a major importance in terms of structuring and the stability and resilience and continuity associated with the share nut value chain however, we've also done some research we've just submitted a manuscript to the Journal of Agrarian Change which is actually looking at how new patterns of trade associated with global trade and internal migration patterns in Bukkina Faso are actually changing the customary arrangements vis-a-vis access to the trees so that is something where the global trade seems to be having an impact in addition, what we found with the share nut as with many other agricultural commodities in Sub-Saharan Africa there is the classic atomicity there are very small transactions small quantities that are being traded very often over large distances very often involving access along difficult infrastructure roads that are in poor condition and we also have the problem associated with as I think you've heard from Lu Versho the major significance of inter-annual climatic variability which also influences the variability of the fruiting patterns of the shear trees in the parklands all of these mitigate against any attempt to get vertical integration and because of the additional transaction costs associated and one of the reasons that explain we think why there has been the continuity in this pyramidal sourcing pattern it's actually the most efficient cost-effective way of sharing the burden of the costs across this complex network of different actors working to ensure that you can get from the women collectors and producers in the local periodic markets to the wholesalers in Bobby Villalasso and this is one of the reasons why we think this continuity has occurred in terms of the future research plans that we have we just submitted, led by Sirad a proposal that's called Globalizations in a Nut Shell opportunities and challenges for women shear producers and shear parklands in West Africa which we are hopeful will be financed to enable us to continue doing some additional work focusing on three main themes that have come out of this research one is we recognize as per the great anthropologist I think he's deceased now Michel Rolf Truyo who used to be based at both University of Chicago but also I think John Hopkins who did some fascinating work on the role that history and historians play in silencing the past and also on looking at anthropology in an age of globalization and he was the scholar that I have read who recognized that globalization is just one of a number of different factors that actually influence decision making by resource users that are always mediated in a local context he also recognized globalization as a fragmented and incomplete process and I think our research suggests this is the case why is that so? our research has also highlighted that the context within which our findings that have now been published suggests this continuity may now in fact be also subject to additional change one is the fact that the European Union falling on from its earlier directive to allow the use of cocoa butter equivalents in chocolate manufacture has just adopted a new regulation since November last year regarding the labeling of vegetable oils which now requires greater precision in understanding which vegetable oils are used in which products this as with other agricultural commodity chains as I've suggested may result in the emergence of new standards that may result in the usual trend towards a bio-driven market time will tell whether that is actually going to be the case the other factor is that many of the agroforestry parklands within which these trees occur are increasingly subject to growing pressures to convert them to intensify the production of agricultural crops and or meet the growing demands for local energy particularly firewood and charcoal and we think these different trends may pose additional threats in terms of the future of these parklands and the future sustainability as a source of livelihoods so I think Steve's just giving me a reminder I'll stop there and you might have some questions thanks very much thank you Andrew we have questions from colleagues Will Hello, thanks Andrew very interesting story I have a it's an interesting comparison to look at your case to for instance Brazil nut in the Bolivian Amazon where you have a similar case Brazil nut which is for which the demand has really increased over the last 20 years or so where you can sort of I'm not sure if you can talk about an influence of globalization except that demand has increased tremendously I think a lot of the conditions were the same but it has really sort of the whole value change has changed dramatically basically initially because when demand increased sort of the oligarchic intermediaries they invested tremendously and then following that you had a big wave of land reform and forestry reform which really sort of dramatically changed on who controls the production and the trade of the whole product which that sort of a comment of two cases that are very different but then my question is what really influences why globalization does not cause the changes I guess it's because the whole production of the product because Brazil nut can also not be easily produced as is in the case of Shia Butter and changes do occur if you have all these sort of I guess tenure and governance reforms related to the value change well I think it's an interesting point our ultimate ambition that we've talked about particularly with Pablo in terms of the flagship 5 plans ambitions and also with Bimbika Esther and others is that we would ultimately like to try and mobilize additional funding to do a global comparative study of up to six non-timber forest products which have now particularly in the last 20 years entered into global trade but you know the gap between our ambitions in terms of funding and actually securing the funding sometimes as we all know means we have to modify our ambitions I think one of the distinguishing features in the Shia nut value chain is that the fact that the three transnational corporations have established themselves in the region has been linked to their ambitions to try and get greater vertical integration their polemics about wanting to see greater benefits accruing to the women producers but it actually hasn't happened nevertheless they still play a critical role in terms of being the source of financing for these oligarchic wholesalers and then the distribution of that pre-financing that occurs across the whole of the pyramidal networking for the sourcing Shia nut so they still play an important role and I think in terms of the academic literature questioning the assumed benefits of participation in global markets being necessarily better than participation in local or regional markets I'm still ambivalent in terms of the sense that I think the Shia nut value chain clearly shows there are both advantages to participating in the global market but the distinguishing feature in the data we have from Ghana and Bukina is that roughly 50% of the total production is to meet subsistence needs as a cooking fat but also a little bit in cosmetics and only 50% is actually entering in global trade so it's still harnessing the opportunities that both local, regional and global markets are affording what might be changing which is some early anecdotal evidence we have is the growing influence of oil palm coming from I'll give you one guess which country this is coming from come on no Indonesia an oil palm is increasingly appearing on the African market and for example I know several women associations that are now substituting the use of Shia to mix with Shia butter in the local production manufacturer of soaps so the influence of cheap oil palm as an alternative vegetable oil may also have an influence so we'll see and clearly I try to make the distinction between the value chain we focused on which is the unprocessed nuts as distinct from the cosmetic value chain which is now distinguished more and more by direct sourcing and more a typical agricultural commodity chain but this represents a relatively small proportion of the total trade so they can coexist and this is again where the complexities come in one last factor that we would like to do more research on is that within the last decade a new multi-stakeholder platform called the Global Shia Alliance has emerged particularly with support that's come from USAID in West Africa which I think provides an exciting new opportunity to actually try and assess and look at the role of collective action particularly may play in terms of the role that women's associations and women's producer groups could continue to play to have influence in terms of how this value chain as it evolves and changes in the future may be structured but that's still research to be undertaken Teddy Thank you under it's interesting story what I would like to know is what is the role of this Shibata cultivation in the livelihood income portfolio because if we take example in Java for example some of farmers when they want to involve in the globalization for example in certifications they know there are some potential incentive for them to do that so is there any chance for them to improve the incentive for example the economic benefits from joining global markets in the Shibata case At the moment Teddy as I try to explain one of the distinguishing features of this unprocessed sheer knot is that there are no existing systems of certification in place however the global sheer alliance has now actually submitted a voluntary first draft of a set of standards vis-à-vis sheer knots and it has not yet been adopted across the industry or across the board so we'll wait to see but I would express a cautionary note the results of C4's research particularly vis-à-vis certification with regard to other commodities whether it's timber, whether it's bioenergy feedstocks suggests that the introduction of new global certification schemes may actually mitigate against the interests of small and medium enterprises because the technical and transaction costs associated with compliance are too high and it's only benefiting larger transnational corporations so I think we need to be careful in assuming that certification necessarily will bring greater benefits except perhaps to the three transnational corporations but that's again research that remains to be looked at in terms of the importance the published literature an American scholar published work a few years ago from Mali that estimated that 55% of revenues retained by women in that country come from the sale of sheer knots our own research in western Bukina Faso found that 94% of all households are involved in collecting sheer knots for their own use and or sale of which 60% are selling so it's involving a large number of there isn't a village in Bukina Faso where you will not find someone who's collecting those things you know should we have one more question thanks Andrew for interesting speech I would like to ask perhaps in the the value chains of Sina there is a kind of local institution or producer organization to strengthen their involvement or their benefit in the value chains and also a way to accommodate or to decrease the cost of certification at this axis because it's very important to have kind of group, kind of institution and organization for what them and a bit in the case of furniture in Cipara actually the I think it's one thing that important to notice that a woman is more fragile to the global shock of market if there is a decrease of furniture demand at the global level woman is more fragile than man but not the case in the Sina no I think Harry I would concur with your last remark I think this is a classic gendered value chain and again the historical evidence is unequivocal for at least 215 years women have been the collectors, the processors and the sellers of sheer knot and it's really only since 2000 that we started to see a restructuring of the local and regional trade and the growing involvement of middle men it's colloquialism but it's very appropriate in this case as the market has grown and the global demand for this particular niche market in terms of your first question I think for the value chain associated with the unprocessed knots there's very little evidence that there has been any effective collective organization amongst women producers however in contrast there has been a lot of effort placed on supporting the emergence of women associations, women producer groups in both Bokinifaso, in Ghana but also in neighboring Benin in other countries in West Africa but associated with the cosmetics industry and the pharmaceutical uses but as I said this is still a much smaller market and here again you've got very clear lines based on the colonial histories the French companies are working in the former French territories and the Anglo-American companies are working in the former British territories it's almost like the map of Africa has been redrawn again in terms of these divisions but time will tell whether these associations may emerge with the unprocessed knot trade but at the moment no for the interesting discussion thank you