Hoi Yee Fu

Ms. Fu is studying the resource driven relationship of two distinct ethnic groups in central Nigeria. The Fulani pastoralists and Nupe agriculturalists have maintained a symbiotic relationship even as competitiveness for scare resources has driven similar relationships in Western Africa into collapse and sometimes violence. Ms. Fu believes the Fulani/Nupe approach to resource management may provide important information about the potential of indigenous practices and institutions in environmental management and resource conflict resolution. She has already conducted significant field work in Nigeria, focusing her research on indigenous practices in such domains as land system, irrigation, dispute resolution and ongoing linkages between the two groups.