Uneasy bedfellows? Modern law and traditional landholding principles in Niger

As populations rise in the Sahel and arable land degrades, is conflict inevitable? Why are reforms of tenure law, decentralisation and the creation of new land institutions failing to reduce disputes over access to and ownership of land? Could innovative forms of arbitration bring together stakeholders to settle lasting disputes and develop sustainable forms of natural resource management?

A paper from Université Abdou Moumouni presents a case study from the Boboye region in south-western Niger which is typical of a situation found throughout the country: insecure land tenure related to population density and competition between different ethnic groups for access to natural resources. The report argues that the relationship between ‘modern’ law and local practices need not necessarily remain one of conflict, and that existing forms of arbitration often intensify disputes. It also suggests that land conflicts cannot be mediated successfully without the election of genuinely democratic local authorities.

In Boboye, rising populations of people and livestock are putting pressure on natural resources, leading to bitter competition between farmers and pastoralists. Successive droughts and government encouragement have led many pastoralists to establish villages in agro-pastoral areas. Fertility is declining as land can no longer be left uncultivated. Transhumance (moving livestock from one grazing ground to another depending on the season) corridors are disappearing as traditional relationships between farmers and pastoralists turn nasty. Indigenous cultivators are fearful of losing the land they inherited from their ancestors while incomers are backed by the state and believe in the principle that land belongs to those who work it.

Evidence is produced that:

• the creation of new rules has placed the most disadvantaged social groups in a vulnerable position because they are not represented in land-use institutions
• rural stakeholders do not receive enough information and training to understand the workings of newly-established institutions
• informal structures set up by NGOs are not bodies which locals approach to settle disputes and these usually decline when projects end
• while traditional and ‘modern’ tenure systems can co-exist, they are brought into conflict when state-appointed members of committees are unaware of the content and usage of legal texts
• dysfunction in Boboye stems not only from the existence of several different arbitration bodies, but the lack of linkages between them
• lack of the political will to make decentralisation a reality strengthens the powers of administrative and customary authorities.

What needs to be done to create a climate favourable to conflict management and to give systems of control and authority legitimacy in the eyes of local people? The paper calls for:

• the creation and support of bodies dealing with tenure which have genuine autonomy and decision-making powers at the levels of village, commune, canton and arrondissement (sub-division for local government administrative purposes)
• enhancing the status of grassroots customary authorities who are currently being sidelined by the power of canton functionaries
• intense public information campaigns to explain how bodies work and interact and to publicise and explain the results of arbitration and conciliation carried out by the various local authorities
• a rural legal information service, supported by radio and by traditional town-criers.

Source(s):
‘Arbitration and resolving tenure conflict in Boboye, Niger’ in The dynamics of resource tenure in West Africa, Camilla Toulmin, Philippe Lavigne Delville and Samba Traoré (eds.), James Currey/IIED, by Boureima Alpha Gado, 2002

Funded by: DFID, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Paris

id21 Research Highlight: 6 February 2003

Further Information:
Boureima Alpha Gado
Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines
Université Abdou Moumouni
B.P 11040 Niamey, Niger

Tel: +227 73 36 90 / +227 74 11 00
Fax: +227 73 39 43 / +227 73 38 62
Contact the contributor: balphagado@yahoo.fr

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

'Regulating access to land and water in Africa: implications for local governance'

'Legal empowerment: A rights-based strategy for improving governance and alleviating poverty'

'Reversing land dispossession in Southern Africa'

Managing Natural Resources - Africa and the Middle East (MNR-AME) People, Land and Water (PLaW)

More research from the Drylands programme

'Gender, Land, and Livelihoods in East Africa: Through Farmers' Eyes' from IDRC