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This article addresses the question of whether the aménagement/gestion de terroir approach, as it is currently being promoted by government, and. development organisations in the French-speaking countries of Sahelian West Africa, is compatible with the realties that agro-pastoralists in those countries face day-to-day. It is particularly concerned with three characteristics of life in the Sahel that have important implications for how agrarian populations manage resources, and whether the terroir approach, which, aims ostensibly to increase the effectiveness of local-level natural resource management, addresses or fails to address these characteristics. First, the Sahel is characterised by considerable agro-ecological diversity and socio-economic differentiation. Second, Sahelan populations are often very mobile as a result, of their efforts to deal with changing opportunities and constraints that affect their pursuit of a …