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

3. Involved institutions and actors

Land tenure and environmental protection are thus in Benin by far not only domains of state organisations, rather they are moulded by the playing together of highly differing institutions right from the micro-level of the village up to the macro-level of the state and also by international structures (donors).

Autochthonous institutions

Norms and values like resource preservation for future generations, the sacred character of vital resources, the group orientation as well as the inalienability of resources have brought forth very clearly institutionalised regulations for the access to and transfer of resources as well as authority systems for the steering and enforcing of regulations.

Their strengths are a high adaptability to highly differing natural conditions, a high preference for the future, clarity and a comprehensibility at the local level, a principle openess towards group outsiders and strong instruments of sanction. The limits under present conditions are lacking opportunities for sanctions where group solidarity breaks down, and thus also the loss of legal security, a recognisable sluggishness and inflexibility in the face of rapidly changing macro conditions (land market, immigration) and its lacking recognition in the conflict with State law (court cases).

Legislature

In Benin the National Assembly is the legislative organ with a law commission (Commission des Lois) and the Economic and Social Council (Conseil Econmique et Social). It is the task of the council to bring requests and misgivings in reference to the utilization of resources into programs and planning as well as to make suggestions for amendments to laws covering environmental aspects.

Ministries and other Government organisations

In 1992 the tasks of most of the Ministries and the division of competences between them was newly regulated by decree.

The still young Ministry of Environment is responsible for formulating and putting into effect state environmental policy. One main point of its activities will be the growing significance of urban environmental problems. The question of land is rather more of subordinate significance for its work. It is not yet possible to estimate how far it can push through a cross-sectoral competence compared to established Ministries.

The Ministry of Rural Development still has, even after the establishing of the Ministry of Environment, a central function for resource management. Three central departments influence decisively the legal conditions of resource utilization, two further departments the technical conditions for resource preservation:

• The forest police and the protection of forests and national parks are subordinate to the Administration for Forests and Natural Resources. Using the forestry law, it can lock out tracts of land worthy of protection through decrees, make reafforestation programs, make sanctions of forest utilization and thus control resource utilization. Weaknesses were doubtlessly thus far the one-sided forest-protection mentality - which hampered participatory approaches of local resource management- and the inability to give the law validity thanks to a lack of personnel as well as because of its unreliability.

• The Administration for Rural Promotion and Legislation in Rural Areas has had a department at its disposal for land tenure questions and rural legislation since 1993. Its task is, amongst others, to identify the land tenure hindrances to agricultural production, to urge on the preparation of a 'Code Rural' and to coordinate the work with other Ministries in relation to land legislation. The means of the department are limited, and the areas to be tackled not yet clearly defined. The collaboration with the pilot projects of the PGRN in particular with its programme 'land tenure activities', is thus far not driven forward.

• The Administration of Animal Husbandry is also responsible for questions of the legal regulation of transhumance.

• The Agricultural Administration is responsible for cropping and plant protection.

• The Administration of Agricultural Research.

The restructuring of the CARDER in the course of the structural adjustment programs is not yet complete. Parts like agricultural marketing and extension are to be privatised. Modified extension approaches might decidedly help to determine the conditions for sustainable resource management in the future.

The Ministry of Interior, Security and Territorial Admininistration. The central department for territorial administration and local administrative bodies (Direction de l'Administration Territoriale et des Collectivités Locales) is presently intensively preparing the legal and administrative basis for a decentralising of the territorial administration. The preparatory work and the resolutions are based on the convened assembly of general estate (Etats Généraux) for the territorial administration, supported by the work of the French development co-operation (MISAT 1993). The Ministry has worked out a first legal draft for decentralisation (see 4.8.).

A national commission for public lands affairs (Commission National des Affaires Domaniales) is also affiliated to the Ministry which deals with land tenure problems and is meant to coordinate between the Ministries. It was not possible to obtain clear statements about the current main thrust of the work.

The Ministry of Finance is, next to its core task, also responsible for public lands questions and the taxing of landed property. Within its area of competence are tax incentives for sustainable resource management and the establishment of secure land titles. The Administration for Public Lands awards land registry titles.

In the Ministry of Justice and Legislation, the department for legislation is responsible for the preparation of laws and nationwide regulations, their publicizing and spread. In the face of very limited financial means, the publicizing of new regulations at provincial and particularly district level is completely inadequate.

Plans for a uniform land legislation already led in 1976 to the formation of a National Enquete-Commission for Land Tenure (Commission Nationale d'Enquête Foncière). Its aim was 'to draw up a picture of opinion and understanding of the citizens over land tenure questions, over land utilization and acquisition of land' (Karsenty 1993). The results are to form the basis of a new comprehensive land law. They were presented in 1990, but as a result of political change, the work of the commission was no further taken into consideration. A new data base is supposedly going to be collected through the land tenure activities of the PGRN.

For the factor land alone, the legislative and administrative responsibilities are spread out over a variety of Ministries. Even for insiders a clear classification is hardly possible. In addition to that, the management of water resources is a task of the Ministry of Energy, Mining an Water as well as the Ministry for Public health.

Between the Ministries of Rural Development, Finance, Interior and Justice there is a need for coordinating and delimitation where parallel work or overlapping occur. But also to what degree a 'lean' planning of a future land and resource law can create greater clarity and comprehensibility in subordinated administration and for the affected actors.

Territorial Administration

In its core it contains the subordinate authorities of the Ministry of the Interior, that is, the provinces (préfectures) and districts (sous-préfectures) which also unite the regional and local branches of other Ministries, for example the tax offices and the public lands administration (service domaniale).

The biggest influence on land tenure and resource utilization comes without doubt from the governors (préfet) and district commissioners (sous-préfet) which through local decrees and regulations for example influence the regulations for utilization of water points between farmers and livestock owners just as they influence the proceedings in conflict arbitration and expropriation of land in the public interest. A further authority is the State police (Gendarmerie). The territorial administration's power and the leeway for decision making at the district level are large:

• National laws such as those pertaining to transhumance and land ownership are scarcely known at a local level.

• The state of knowledge about legislation is out of date, and amendments are inadequately made known.

• Laws are incomplete; district commissioners sign land sale contracts even though this would not be valid in a final court of appeal.

The work of the local forest administration is contentious: staff funding is insufficient to efficiently protect forests, guards are poorly paid and are susceptible to corruption. The exploitation of the forest is being accelerated by the complicity of those who are there to protect it.

Committees for resource management and arbitration of conflicts

The number of local committees for resource management and arbitration of conflicts between different parties has been incomprehensible, all their tasks differing. One must differentiate between committees implemented by decree 'from above' and those which are the result of self-help, partially initiated by foreign aid.

The effectiveness of these decreed committees in Savalou and Banikoara is rated as slight. Information about the way these committees are put together and their functions is not adequately disseminated amongst local populations. The criteria for their composition are not clear; they are inflexible and take action only hesitantly and are also corruptible.

 Non-Governmental Organizations

The present development of NGOs in Benin can be described as explosion-like, in particular in the area of environment. 63% of the NGOs (n=58) researched in a Dutch study were registered after 1989 (van Ham 1993). They differentiate strongly in the degree of organisation, professionalism and militancy in environmental questions. Many are engaged exclusively in the protection of nature and resources; in some cases there is a fluid cross-over with local consulting (van Ham 1993).

Local development associations (Associations de Développement) working at the district level are founded in the Marxist era. Above and beyond a new-standing political orientation they possess a potential for environment-related work in two areas: sensibilisation and information at the basis and the nurturing of micro-projects and programs like the promotion of village institutions, for example the management of wells.

It is known about two NGOs that they explicitly represent the interests of the landless or of women's groups who have to cultivate under unclear and contested land tenure conditions or who require assistance in court:

The 'Association pour le Développement des Initiatives Villageoises' (ASSODIV), which offers legal advice in land disputes as well as giving local village extension workers para-legal training. The goal in addition is the working out and presentation of legal initiatives with reference to rural areas based on their grassroots work with involved people.

The 'Centre d'Information, de Recherche et d'Action pour la Promotion des Initiatives Paysannes' (CIRAPIP) in Cotonou has made proof of secure land title a prerequisite for the carrying out of small projects and measures for the preservation of natural resources.

Bilateral and international donor organisations

With democratisation and the grown influence of the World Bank and IMF through programs for structural adjustment, numerous new projects and program initiatives are allied especially in the area of resource protection. A key role is presently played by the "Projet de Gestion des Ressources Naturelles" (PGRN) (Banque Mondiale 1992). (see C.2.2.1.)