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Since the 1970s, the Kebili region in Southern Tunisia has undergone important landscape transformations due to the rapid expansion of date palm plantations based on illicit boreholes tapping the underlying deep aquifers. These private initiatives, called “extensions”, have developed on collective unfarmed areas outside historical oases. These landscape transformations have taken place in heterogeneous and complex trajectories and have raised sustainability concerns of groundwater resources. To address this concern, local actors need to build a joint vision of on-going landscape transformations. The objective of the present study is: (I) to analyse the trajectories of the landscape change, (II) to give an overview of the socio-economic and the environmental drivers, and (III) to better understand local actors’ perception of on-going changes taking place in the oasis extensions. The study builds on spatial analysis, on surveys and participatory workshops with actors of the Kebili region. The rapid development of oases extensions was triggered by economic factors that led to the development of innovative techniques to access water, land, and energy. Extensions were first created on lands in proximity of ancient oases before spreading to other areas. These extensions can be described as spontaneous, where farmers exploit new lands outside ancient oases. With the support of local councils in charge of land management, other extensions were initiated on lands located far from ancient oases. While the rapid development of these extensions led to improved date palm production, it was also the source of increased groundwater consumption. Actors have identified the overexploitation of groundwater resources as the main threat to the sustainability of the Kebili region, but there has been no discussion on how to respond to this concern. The current study highlights the need for a contextualized analysis of the heterogeneous trajectories of date palm extensions in order to inform sustainable natural resource management frameworks.
