Rural Sahelian West Africa is too often identified with environmental and economic disaster. Livelihoods have suffered many major droughts and economic slumps in the last few decades. But what precisely is the relationship between land degradation, drought and food supply, and survival strategies employed by rural people? New research by the London School of Economics and University College London challenges traditional assumptions concerning the relationship between environmental degradation and livelihood strategies focusing on south-west Niger. The research argues for a deeper understanding of the complexity of the links between social relations and land erosion in future policy formulation.