Michael Kirk (1996):
The Role of Land Tenure and Property Rights in Sustainable Resource Use: The Case of Benin

1. Objectives and justification of the study

The objective of this study is, using the example of Benin, to work out the forms of traditional autochthonous land tenure and State land legislation as well as to evaluate the existing land tenure systems as basic conditions for sustainable resource management.

On this basis, the need for external contributions for the introduction of reform processes aimed at environmental goals must be established, and practicable starting points for a process oriented and participatory cooperation in the framework of institutional development in environment must be worked out.

The current discussion about the combating of desertification in the Sahel has shown that the degradation of semi-arid zones can be traced back to a complex cluster of reasons, and accordingly, initiatives of development cooperation must be put into action on very diverse levels. Next to increasing population pressure, climatic factors, economic, political and administrative conditions, traditional and State land tenure play a particularly important role in the area of land use. While the predominant land tenure system has a variety of repercussions upon the effectiveness of measures for resource preservation, on the other hand thus far extensive practicable initiatives are lacking for making an environmentally oriented reform of the existing land tenure system the object of development cooperation

The land tenure situation in the country to be studied here, Benin, is seen in this regard as typical for many other African countries: endangered customary common property rights with long-term usufructuary rights of families in the North including conflicts between agriculturalists and livestock keepers in the face of restricted grazing lands and transhumance routes; individual private ownership, varied forms of tenancy, the beginnings of landlessness and a 'grey' land market for agriculturally favourable locations in regions with high population pressure in the South.

At least two complex of problems stand in the way of sustainable resource utilization at present: the devaluation of common land tenure and local authorities for their enforcement without the centralist State having wanted or being able to set up similarly efficient institutions locally. Legal uncertainty and restrictions on access to resources which have been put out of action have encouraged land utilization practises which endanger soil fertility up to the point of degradation. Individual private ownership also offers no guaranty of resource preserving utilization when this is only recognised and protected by the State under extremely restrictive conditions or when in addition unclear, arbitrary regulations of tenancy lead to legal uncertainty and prevent a willingness to invest in sustainable methods of cultivation such as agroforestry systems.