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Ownership, control and access: land tenure and land degradation in Northern Togo

Traditional land tenure systems in Togo have been undermined but not destroyed by the introduction of private property and ‘modern’ tenure reform. However, confusion over land tenure issues has proved to be an obstacle to efforts to promote efficient resource management and to combat desertification.

The savannah region in the north of Togo has poor and degraded soils. Population density, over 250 people per square kilometre, is high, whilst a third of the land area is occupied by wildlife reserves. Land tenure systems are complicated, with a combination of traditional land rights, private property and state-owned property. Much of the latter is used, legally or otherwise, by farming and pastoral communities. Traditional systems recognise the right of first occupancy, the ‘right to clear’ and access rights conferred by gift, whilst water and fishing resources are regulated by a joint management system. Under the 1974 agrarian reform, uncultivated land reverted to state ownership, but communities retained their traditional use rights as long as they did not conflict with state objectives.

Research by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) suggests that the control land users can exercise over their local resources is closely related to their incentive to conserve and manage those resources in a sustainable way. The land tenure situation in northern Togo is examined in the light of this assertion, and found to be highly ambiguous. Laws which were drafted to bring about rural development have been reinterpreted and distorted to suit the various interest groups on the ground. Despite the Togolese government being among the first to sign the Convention on Desertification, the requirement contained within it to provide security of land tenure for local populations has not been met in practice.

Further research findings include:

The planned agricultural development zones envisaged in legislation during the 1970s were never put into effect, whilst the area of cultivated farmland has expanded considerably, including areas of government-controlled land and wildlife reserves.
Many farmers and herders use state-administered land with little regard for sustainability, knowing that they have no security of tenure over the resources.
Farmers in the region have accepted those areas of the reforms which were to their liking, whilst rejecting other less convenient aspects.
Whereas the reforms of 1974 failed to clarify issues of access and ownership, customary land tenure systems have proved effective in relation to the management and use of land.

The following are needed for improving security of tenure:

genuine decentralisation of responsibility for natural resource management
ensuring women’s access to land through the granting of long-term usage rights
surveying and registering land rights, to provide a planning and development tool for local authorities and greater security of tenure to small farmers
monitoring and evaluation of progress on tenure issues, including the establishment of indicators to facilitate comparative analyses and assess changes over time
public awareness raising on desertification and resource management, building the capacity of local communities to manage their resources in a sustainable way
recognition of the centrality of poverty reduction in efforts to combat desertification.

Source(s):
‘Improving tenure security in northern Togo: a means to address desertification’, IIED Drylands Issue Paper #92 by Alinon Koffi Olulumazo, March 2000 Full document.

Funded by: IIED

id21 Research Highlight: 14 November 2002

Further Information:
Alinon Koffi Olulumazo
Laboratoire d’Etudes Rurales / IRD
911 avenue Agropolis, B.P. 64501
F-34394 Montpellier Cedex 5
France

Fax: +33 4 67 63 87 78
Contact the contributor: koffi.alinon@mpl.ird.fr

or
B.P. 80677 Lome
Togo

Fax: +228 225 13 59
Contact the contributor: kof30al@yahoo.com

IRD, France

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