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

4.2. Regionally differentiated problem analysis

The three regional case studies demonstrate fundamentally similarities in relation to property rights and resource management:

• the diminishing ability of local institutions to influence group members' resource utilization,

• growing conflicts between the various parties,

• a lack of potential to be able to deal with such conflicts only with solution models which were relatively successful in the past,

• a decision vacuum and legal uncertainty since the State authorities offer no or an unsatisfactory ability to deal with conflicts.

But they also still force a judgement which is regionally and culturally specific even within a 'small' country (according to geographic and economic terms).

4.2.1. Diminishing ability of autochthonous institutions to preserve resources in the North

In the region around Banikoara, land used for farming around villages has rapidly enlarged in the last decades. Apart from natural population growth (4.46% in 1992) and immigration, this can be traced to two interrelated factors: the spread of cotton cultivation and animal traction. This has had immediate repercussions on the various forms of access to land and the pattern of resource utilization.

At present there are no reserves of land around villages with the result that fallow areas, the basic instrument for the restoration of soil fertility in extensive farming systems, are decreasing rapidly. Apart from fertilization for cotton, no intensification of cultivation practices through the introduction of organic materials, for example, has been established so far.

In view of local land scarcity, the competition is growing between autochthonous groups, and in particular between them and the immigrant population over land distribution. Even old-established founding families, who have sufficient land available to be able to allow for fallow periods avoid this practise for fear of the greed of immigrants and also cohabitants in the village who are looking for land.

Thus, scarcity in resources goes along with an increasing specification of the conditions of access to them and their rights of utilization. The continuous allocation of plots, with the attendant rights to investment like tree planting or well construction through owner families, has become nearly meaningless. Loaning land has become dominant, i. e., without a meaningful service in return, however with the express ban on the undertaking of such investment in resource management as the planting of trees.

Reduced fallow and the ban on planting of perennial crops has a direct effect on the degree of ground coverage and makes the soil susceptible to wind and water erosion. Thus land tenure practice works as one element in a more extensive network of cause and effect. Of course, just how far the process of increasing 'Sahelisation' (stronger Harmattan, higher temperatures in the dry season, uncertain but also heavy rainfall), which is acknowledged by the local population and the agricultural administration, can be proven, and will increase the described danger cannot be answered here. It is uncontested that the dependency of cotton cultivation based on animal traction additionally reduces the incentive, even for land owners, to plant trees since they stand in the way of mechanised soil preparation and weeding (Kirk 1984).

At the village level, land tenure disputes over plot borders have become the rule. With that arises the increased requirement for negotiations through a recognised mediator, should the case not be directly brought to the level of local administration, i.e. the mayor or even the district commissioner and the Gendarmerie. As a result of the political changes after 1989 there is often a vacuum in qualified staff: village chiefs or délégues installed by the former Kérékou Administration are either removed from or deprived of power and new ones still have to fight for their positions and reputation. Traditional chiefs could profit from this period of transition and have increased their power, or at least they can now openly demonstrate completely their power which they never really lost.

It is however a matter of discretion for the Administration, whether or not to recognise these authorities and their decisions. It is known that no legal framework exists. District commissioners influence the making-up of arbitration committees by decree. On the one hand, this room to deal allows them to be able to realise locally adapted solutions, on the other there exists the danger of misuse of power in the face of a lack of legal foundation and control.

Thus far there exists an outlet with the 'ferme' system, -that of fields and simple huts far outside the village-, which helps to prevent an increase in land shortage. People looking for land, especially the young generation, cultivate land up to 40 km away from their home villages.

The immediate effects are rather an unplanned arbitrary laying out of fields in the region, in particular on grazing land and the cutting down of disturbing tree stumps even way outside a settlement. The regulations for access to 'fermes' are already comparable to those in the vicinity of villages. There is no land in the region which is not within the sphere of influence of a village so that land tracts are just given the usual limitations for utilization.

Increasing requests for farm land and the 'ferme' system do not only have a direct effect on agriculturalists, rather above all on livestock owners as further actors in local resource utilization:

• Grazing lands which are understood to be openly accessible in the course of transhumance by herders get turned into fields and animal keepers then become petitioners.

• Blockade of natural water points through peasants as in view of cost or the interdiction of sinking wells on 'fermes' these are preferentially set up near river-beds and water holes by the herders.

• A continuous worsening of social and economic relations arises between agriculturalists and animal keepers. This core problem in the rural areas of the Sahel affects more and more the countries of destination of transhumant herds on the West African coast.

This presents itself in a variety of everyday conflict situations between both groups: thus far freely available pasture land has been taken by agriculturalists for themselves for feeding draught animals. In view of growing numbers of draught animals and animals belonging to transhumant herders in the last decades aggravates the competition for crop residues. Reciprocal exchange arrangements (crop residues against manure) get revoked, since the peasants themselves use or can sell sorghum, mais and groundnut straw (Kirk 1988). Peasant complain about browsing damage on the fields and violent attacks by herders, animal keepers complain about the hampering of trails through fields where rights of trespassing had previously agreed upon in common, or the cutting out of water sources.

Committees for arbitrating in these disputes and in compensation regulating exist on paper if need should arise, or according to the statement of the local Administration: Committees 'from above' are in the inglorious tradition of other set-ups which decreed self-help trough the State in the past. Their functions and members are rarely known to the peasants. Members of the committees themselves are all too inadequately informed about their own functions, about the procedure for summoning the board and so on. They are as good as inactive one year after their foundation, accordingly, conflicts are referred to the State authorities in Banikoara and dealt with there. Animal keepers see themselves as inadequately represented on the committees since settled Peulh, for example, now represent interests others than transhumant herders.

In summing up, agriculturalists are assuring more and more precise their rights in landed property at the expense of immigrants and transhumants. Sustainable resource management gets lost from view. New incentives for this are expected from the State through a new agricultural policy (promotion of cash crops other than cotton). The looming restriction of natural resources can at first be encountered with evasive action (fermes); a compelling emergency situation which could initiate self-help in resource management does not exist yet. There is thus far no prerequisite for locally initiated processes for the protection of soil and pasture quality, trees and wells as well as the balancing of interests between all parties

4.2.2. Commercialising and individualising of property relations in Central Benin

The length of fallow periods around the town of Savalou has reduced sensitively in the recent past. The main causes apart from population growth are:

• the immigration of people seeking land out of the Zou-South region,

• the reallocation of farm land for construction in villages near towns,

• former state farms and land which is bought up by outsiders and used for other purposes than extensive agriculture.

Added to that are the behavioural patterns and ways of reaction of the local population towards the already risen demand for land: the growing fear of leaving land to lie fallow in view of the greed of groups looking after land. It is impossible, considering traditional norms and social obligations, to refuse outsiders land for their living if it is obviously not used for cultivation. Accordingly, a pseudo-fallow period is growing in significance in that manioc is left for 2-3 years in the fields thus suggesting farming activities. The regeneration of soil fertility becomes slowed in the extensive system in that scarcely any organic material is given back to the soil, leguminousae play a subordinate role and mineral fertilizer is hardly used.

In view of the hierarchical social structure of the Mahi (a Fon group) with the early building of urban centres around the royal seat, the 'ferme' system (doxo) already has a long history in the region over a number of generations. It forms the core of the present-day villages in town proximity and nowadays limits the pressure on village farm land. The increase in tracts of land because of the lesser significance of cotton and animal traction is less dramatic than in the North. Every spread, however, reduces the amount of available grazing land in this region of destination for transhumants. The competition amongst various resource users is growing accordingly.

Because of this, land tenure institutions undergo a rapid change with an immediate effect of the type of resource utilization. The transition from land loans to renting (including share-cropping) is on the door step, for the symbolic reciprocal services have taken in the meantime a considerable share of the harvest (several sacks). There is a strict ban on tree planting. Together with very frequent uncontrolled bushfires in the region, they have a negative effect on soil conditions, shadowing of plants and increase wind and water erosion.

The influence of the rapidly growing town of Savalou on the villages in a circle of about 20 km can be detected immediately. Next to towns like Savé and Dassa in the Zou District, Savalou is not an isolated case. The ever changing commercial, labour and social relationships between village and town have a direct effect on land tenure practices and resource utilization. A significant triggering off of this is the early zoning (lotissement) of areas of Savalou with rural character through which land acquired a commercial value and became a commodity.

In neighbouring villages, family heads are establishing private ownership of land step by step: through purchase from neighbours and also through enclosure of their own plots with trees, not only in land under cultivation, but also on fallow land. The number of conflicts over field limits is rapidly increasing accordingly. Purchase and sale of land above all to town dwellers has become common practise.

That the land tenure situation finds itself in a state of radical change can be seen in the conspicuous discrepancy in the way the commercialisation of the soil is publicly treated. In contrast to the south there is an enormous discrepancy between published land tenure norms and everyday practice. In all the villages visited, land is sold but it is not talked about. It is known to all concerned that the disposal of land is the worst violation of traditional norms. The authority of the king as the most senior trustee and guarantor of common inheritance is also affected by this.

The role of the authorities in the Fon groups for changing land tenure practices and resource utilization is ambivalent:

• They accelerate the emergence of a land market if they take the role of forerunners in the sale of land.

• Holy forests survived even in the Marxist period through their influence.

• They are gaining a growing significance in the arbitration of conflicts and in decision findings. In Savalou the State first steps in when it has been made certain that a land dispute has gone through all 'traditional' channels of appeal including the king and his advisers. The subsidiary principle is used much more here than in the researched area in the North.

The utilization of sold land is not uniform. Sometimes it is for the continuation of cultivation practices (in the case of sales between autochthonous groups) and other times it is for new forms of utilization such as tree nurseries and animal breeding on a large scale.

The sharpest of land use disputes also arise here between agriculturalists and transhumant livestock owners. The facts of the matter are comparable to those in the North. Browsing and tranpling damage, pollution of water points and clashes about water utilization. The extent of the conflicts has increased in recent years. The Peulh are armed, are characterised as extremely aggressive, peasants work with animal traps and poisons. Assault and manslaughter are complained of, in many cases the disputes overexceed the competence and responsibility of the authorities so that the rights to restricted resources busy the Administration and jurisdiction of Savalou more and more. Verdicts are handed down almost without exception not in favour of the livestock owners which rises social tensions. Assessment of damage and its compensation offer numerous opportunities for corruption and benefitting.

Land tenure and resource utilization find themselves in a phase of radical change in the region of Savalou: the predominant land use system and the autochthonous rights of access and allocation no longer guaranty the maintenance of soil fertility. Land loan in its current form has a negative effect on the willingness to invest in sustainable resource management. Resource management between the various actors is becoming ever more difficult (field limits, transhumant herders). To that are added the problems of utilization and restitution of former State farms which demand for the State as an active party.

There exists at present a legal vacuum concerning these former large farms. Neighbouring villages and former owners cultivate the land without secured legal status. The State considers the land, the borders of which were realigned in the Marxist era, to be its property and the neighbouring residents demand restitution of their claims. The authorities do not stop the families since thus far nothing has been decided about further official utilization. Mechanized tilling and monoculture have worsened soil fertility so that soil improving investments are urgently needed, but do not happen because of the unclear distribution of property.

The 'Centre de Promotion Rurale de Savalou', which has been set up by the World Bank and an Italian NGO on the former State farm, is a training centre for unemployed school leavers who are trained in a one-year course in farming practices and appropriate mechanisation which care for natural resources (Banque Mondiale 1992:25). It is a pilot project, the multiplicator effect of which cannot yet be estimated in the villages.

4.2.3. 'Asian conditions' in the South

The tense land tenure situation in the South, which is characterised by inequitable land distribution, legal insecurity particularly tenancy, landlessness and absentee landlords (Degla 1994, Floquet/Mongbo 1992, Hounkpodoté 1991, Neef 1993), has a direct effect on soil degradation and overuse of the natural resource stock.

Private ownership of land, as historically an extremely successful concept in the northern countries, can alone create, according to long-running opinion, sufficient incentives and security in order to invest in resources and to secure their stocks. For in contrast to common property, the yields from its use flow directly and unlimitedly to the owner (Bromley 1989:867). The reality in South Benin which is characterised by a well established land market and the individualising of land rights, does not confirm this optimistic evaluation.

Land purchase is dealt with according to half-official rules, only rarely within the framework of the law for registration of land. A part of the sales contracts are always contested by members of the former owner families. For in the past they were just orally concluded in the presence of witnesses who were already dead so that the appeals can be instigated without much risk (Hounkpodoté 1991). Since then contracts have always be drawn up in writing. If it is not, however, confirmed by the State administration (elected village chief, mayor or district commissioner), they will be questioned. Even if an administrator at the local level (village, municipality) co-signs the contract, it is not certain that this confirmation will be recognised as proof of ownership in a court case.

Private ownership cannot fulfil the described functions in South Benin since ownership rights are not exclusive. Rather they are inadequately defined. Next to the clear legislation there is a large grey area in which putative owners cannot effectively be protected in doubtful cases from the competing claims of non-owners by the State as an authority and legal channel of appeal (Bromley 1989, Hartje 1993). For the owner there remains a latent insecurity about being able to realise in the future his investments and sacrifice of utility from today.

Especially effected by this legal insecurity are non-locals who are only superficially acquainted with the history and the property relations of a plot of land. They must reckon with appeals or at some point realise, because of a lack of a land register, that the land has been sold to several applicants at once, or that it was secretly sold without the knowledge of the family which is now putting up fight.

In view of the spectacular scarcity of land, the number of disputes over field limits and the borders of real estates is large, including the attempts to change boundary stones and other markings. Fallow periods are reducing (seldom more than 2 years). Even in families rich in land fallow periods are hardly practiced because of the thirst for land. All together, unresolved property questions hinder an intensive and lasting cultivation of land and scarcely contribute to the preservation of soil fertility. Population pressure, scarcity of land and material poverty make even the collection of regrowing shrubs on fallow land interesting (raw material for the "acadja" system of lagoon fishing). Accordingly, the owners exercise rights to such regrowing biomass, comparable to crop residues for the feeding of draught animals in the North.

If 'Asian conditions' are acknowledged, it is a reference above all to the process of differentiation of usufructuary rights and the advance of landlessness as well as the reduction of arable land tracts per family which will require intensive, partially horticultural models in the future. The loan of land will be practiced for the present in order to support poor and landless relatives. Often they are granted tracts of land meant to lie fallow. Not only are the yields slight, but also the willingness to invest in the land in view of the uncertain leasing conditions, for the owner can recall the land any time. The ban on planting perennial crops is also valid; the period of the loan is only for a few cropping periods and long-term planning is rarely pursued.

The situation of mortgaging land is comparable. The right to use the land is in the hands of the money lender. Since he often cannot predict when the creditor is going to pay back the money, his willingness to invest is slight.

As with private ownership, the property rights for cash tenancy are only inadequately defined: the duration of the lease is rarely established in advance; withdrawal is possible at any time; oral contracts are get contested if no written proof is available. It is preferred to offer land for lease which is either of poorer quality or is no longer any good. Even if the tenant is prepared to invest under these conditions, his possibilities are limited, since he prohibited from planting trees and bushes (leguminousae).

The pros and cons of share-cropping have been busying economists, sociologists, development planners and politicians for generations: in Benin the duration of the lease is frequently not fixed. A uniform key of repartition of the yields has not yet been established through daily practice, hidden side-arrangements are the rule. Even when rights of utilization are clearly defined, the willingness to invest in resource maintenance is limited since only a fraction of the work effort and capital investment would return to the tenant.

The direct environmental effects which cause the changes in land tenure institutions cannot be viewed in isolation from the indirect effects which result from tense social relations as a result of inequitable access to resources and distribution of resources. The socio-economic differentiation at the village level has increased. In contrast to the North, land ownership is a starkly distinguishing feature. The conflict of interests between families with land and those seeking it is growing accordingly. The will to continue with communal management of village resources is reducing. One should rather ask the question whether, in view of the numerous transactions of land, migration and immigration, a feeling for a village 'terroir' still exists to which man feels obligated.