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3.5.3 Conflict-Solving Levels
The local
level was and is the central site for settling land tenure conflicts in agrarian
societies, i.e. rural areas. Autochthonous land tenure in which land, family and inheritance laws are treated as one unit remains the guideline for
decision making (e.g. "Adat law" in Indonesia). |
Local level:
The key role of conflict arbitration |
Pressing
environmental problems, the implementation of the UNCED process and market economy reforms illustrate the importance of a decentralized system
for conflict resolution. The systems keep the issues
public and those involved present and guarantee that the problems remain near the people.
The interactions between opposing crop, pasture and forestry
user interests can only be determined as a first step in this way, and then comprehensive
resource use models can be drafted. |
Resource
protection causes a renaissance |
|
|
| The rural land code in Niger The Niger’s most recent land reform effort
is the new Rural Code, which recognizes and empowers customary land tenure practices and
institutions. The Code’s objective is to establish a national-level legal and
institutional framework for increasing local participation in resource management. It
recognizes customary ownership rights and incorporates local tenure and land management
systems.
Considering customary tenure systems as a proper base for development,
the Rural Code allows remarkable flexibility in dealing with land tenure matters without
shifting away from the security of tenure that these systems offer.
(Herrera, Riddell and Toselli 1997) |
|
|
This middle level for conflict
arbitration has only been established in a few countries. These authorities have often
been unjustly neglected (sometimes intentionally) by the government. An urgent need exists
for strengthening these to enable them to settle conflicts over resources like pastures
and forests and for deffusing arguments between pastoralists and crop farmers. |
Regional
level: an urgent need for expansion |
A uniform legal body of the
national states founded on Euro-American norms, areas of law and various stages of appeal
can intentionally provoke conflicts of autochthonous law. However, it can also offer new
forms of coexistence. |
National
level: the Euro-American "model" |
The governmental administration of
justice has primarily been applied in urban and suburban areas, for example, in disputes
over the registration of private property. Trials are
time-intensive and expensive since the process constantly has to be actively pushed and
bribes are not uncommon. Here, indigenous, old-established owners often clash with
external innovative farmers or speculators from the city (cf. 3.2.2). |
Instruments of
the new elite |
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