Luigi Arnaldi di Balme. An Africanist anthropologist, trained at Geneva IUED, Luigi specializes in local principles of land tenure and natural resource management. His work experience encompasses infrastructure, management of pastoral areas, and conservation projects. In recent years, his interests include mining related issues, both industrial and artisanal. Luigi spent fifteen years working inWest Africa, most of which in Burkina Faso. A former Research Director at Laboratoire Citoyennetés (Ouagadougou), he was research fellow at the IRD (UMR GRED) during the same period. He has conducted studies for international cooperation agencies, research institutes and private firms in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Senegal, Chad, Niger and Djibouti.