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AEGIS European Conference on African Studies
11 - 14 July 2007
African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
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Decentralised natural resource management and “customary” tenure systems in the Inner Niger Delta, Mali
| Panel |
26. Decentralising power and natural resource control: responses and perspectives
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| Paper ID | 78 |
| Author(s) |
Cotula, Lorenzo
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| Paper |
No paper submitted
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| Abstract | Decentralisation processes are underway in several African countries. In some cases, local government bodies are transferred responsibility for natural resource management. In these cases, they must come to terms with pre-existing institutions that manage land and other resources on the basis of local (“customary” but continuously evolving) resource tenure systems. In recent decades, demographic growth, urbanisation, monetarisation of the economy, livelihood diversification, greater integration in the global economy, socio-cultural change and other factors have fostered change in “customary” tenure systems. A solid understanding of these issues and a clear vision on to how to tackle them are key to developing appropriate policies on decentralisation and on natural resource management in Africa.
This paper explores change in “customary” systems for managing grazing and agricultural lands in the Inner Niger Delta, Mali, within the context of the implementation of decentralisation laws in rural areas. It finds that customary rules and institutions have been profoundly affected by a century of change in the ecological, socio-economic and politico-institutional context. The authority and legitimacy of many chiefs have been eroded, resource access relations have become monetarised, and natural resource disputes have increased in both quantity and intensity. State legislation and increased use of courts have fostered the emergence of hybrids of both customary and statutory norms. The establishment of the rural communes endowed with (still unclear) natural resource management responsibilities has added complexity to this situation, resulting in relations between chiefs and communes that range from conflict to cooperation through to capture.
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