WORKSHOP - LOCAL DEVELOPMENT AND DECENTRALIZED
MANAGEMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
GENERAL REPORT - COTONOU (Benin) 10 - 16 December 2000

APPENDIX 1 :

AN INVENTORY
(West Africa)

SUMMARIZED VERSION

1. CRISES AND CHANGES IN THE RURAL ENVIRONMENT
1. Over the last twenty or thirty years, a set of ecological, agronomical, economic, sociological, political, and institutional factors have profoundly changed the ways of life and the economic livelihoods of rural African societies. These factors have also modified their land tenure systems, that is the conditions of their access to productive natural resources and their control over these resources.

2. Nowadays, food emergencies, animal epidemics, and ecological crises form a backdrop to the lives of rural populations in West Africa. These elements must be taken into account in all local development policies.

   The weight of ecology
   

3. The rural populations of West Africa are exposed to numerous ecological hazards, linked to the climatic and edaphic conditions: unstable and unpredictable rainfaull, soil erosion phenomena, water shortages, a decline in soil fertility, and stagnation, or even a drop, in crop yields.

4. The impact of all of the ecological factors is unquestionable. However, they are shrouded in uncertainty (because of the questionable nature of the baseline data available, inadequate knowledge, and the weight of a number of pseudo-certainties or generalizations).

5. Moreover, ecological changes do not appear to trigger directly the crises in the life systems of rural African populations: rather, it is the political, economic, and institutional changes that become apparent through ecological effects.

   Socio-économic changes and policies
   

6. The ecological factors have repercussions that are all the more serious in that they have been accompanied or even triggered by social and economic upheavals that have made their consequences even more acute. These factors have aggravated the economic stratification and the social inequalities of rural groups and modified the conditions of their access to natural resources and their use.

7. Among these factors, demographic growth must be mentioned in particular, along with the expansion of crop production areas, the rapid process of monetization of the rural economy, the monopolization of considerable natural resources by a small elite, the progressive disintegration of communal land tenure systems; and at the political and legal levels, government policies that are not very favourable to agriculture, the overall scarcity of State financial resources, the impact of structural adjustment policies, the widespread opting out by the State, and a legal and legislative framework asserting the pre-eminence of the State in property matters (which, by advocating the centralized administrative control of lands, has considerably weakened local, collective space management models).

8. Therefore, the current situation is the manifestation of an ecological crisis, but it is just as much the expression of a social upheaval that is expressed in a rearrangement of political, economic, and family relationships. In combination with external factors, this has contributed to deterioration in the situation of the economies in African countries.

   Meaning of the crisis
   

9. During the past thirty years, Africa has undergone a profound and enduring economic crisis. Growth and production have stagnated, poverty has increased, standards of living have declined, and basic services have deteriorated. Africa has become more and more marginal in the global economy following the decline in trade and investments.

10. But the most important factor of change is linked to the fact that the production activities of rural African populations have been affected not only by the logic of marketing and economic growth, but also by new social, economic, and political conditions that determine the acquisition and use of productive resources by peasant farmers.

11. The land-use policies and land reforms are progressively depriving rural populations of their land rights and their rights to renewable natural resources. Moreover, these policies have failed to provide effective forms of environmental protection and stewardship.
2. SYMPTOMS OF THE RURAL CRISIS
12. The main symptoms of the crisis seem to be the following:
    1. A process of widespread impoverishment in the rural environment (poverty that is linked essentially to a lack of access to and control over productive natural resources);

    2. A review or adaptation of all local production and survival strategies;

    3. The emergence of new, extremely serious forms of conflicts over land between different users of the space and/or between different ways of using the same space.

    A spiral of poverty
    

13. A growing proportion of the rural population in West African countries finds itself caught in a spiral of impoverishment, while the land, and especially fertile land, is becoming an increasingly rare commodity, the object of commercial transactions, of accumulation, and of individual commercial speculation.

14. The process of pauperization is inevitable and difficult to reverse. It has made rural populations very vulnerable to crises of all sorts, in particular to those related to food security, to the instability of the networks for marketing of products, and to the effects of malnutrition (especially on those social categories 'at risk').

15. The traditional networks of solidarity and collective mutual assistance have begun to lose their impact, ceding ground before other mechanisms that are based on a different and commercial logic. The policies implemented have not been especially favourable to the poor, despite official pronouncements.

    Adaptation and survival strategies
    

16. The range of crises and shocks undergone by rural economies has also had the effect of triggering active reponses from local communities and of developing new adaptation and survival strategies. The primary goal of most of these strategies is to preserve a secure way of life and to minimize risks. The rural exodus towards urban centres is a particularly important strategy, but it has ambivalent effects on local economies.

    Land conflicts
    

17. The current seriousness of the land conflicts can be explained by the increasing poverty and social inequalities in rural environments, the degradation and decline in resources, and the spread of cultivated farm crops to the detriment of forests and grazing lands, and the variable productivity of resources. The struggle for access to natural resources, in particular, land, grazing lands, and water, has become a crucial survival issue.

18. The seriousness of the current conflicts, whose causes are numerous, can be explained by the contradiction existing between customary and modern land tenure systems. Furthermore, the scale of the conflicts is all the more significant and the consequences are all the more dramatic in that the role and the status of the community leaders have undergone a profound change.
3. A NEW FRAMEWORK: DEMOCRATIC DECENTRALIZATION
19. During the last decades, in a global environment in which democracy, decentralization, and the local powers have become the three forms of institutional management in politics, the countries of West Africa have made a clear move in the direction of decentralized democracy.

20. The 'decentralization' concept or project, which is understood to varying degrees, raises much enthusiasm among populations and seems to answer several of their aspirations. For example, decentralization makes it possible to go beyond the limits of centralized planning and management, to ensure greater fairness in resource allocation, to promote a greater representation of the different political groups, or to promote the exchange of more information between the government and populations. Its success can be explained by the fact that it can give local communities a higher degree of autonomy and expand their capacity for negotiation.

    Dangers and pitfalls of decentralization
    

21. However, the positive aspects of decentralization cannot mask potential dangers and its darker side. After the initial enthusiasm, it has become evident that democratic decentralization is a long-range institutional development project that is fraught with obstacles and is constantly threatened by setbacks. Politicians and technocrats, on the one hand, and local elected representatives, on the other hand, do not seem to share the same opinions about the very nature of democratic decentralization.

22. Although democratization may materialize with powers being transferred to the grass roots level, it may increase polarization between social groups, stir up violent conflicts, and favour the hijacking of the local political process by local interest groups. Any form of decentralization risks turning merely into a shift from the centre towards the periphery with the creation of a multiplicity of regional centres which can continue to operate on the basis of the centralizing principles. Moreover, with regard to the supply of quality public services, its comparative advantages have yet to be shown.

23. The challenge to democracy in Africa is enormous, all the more so as there is no real democratic tradition. However, it is indeed democracy that will end up by producing a democratic culture (and not the reverse).
4. DECENTRALIZED MANAGEMENT OF LOCAL RESOURCES
24. The decentralization of natural resource management constitutes a particularly interesting aspect of sectoral decentralization. The current legislations in the different countries are undergoing a review process that is radical to varying degrees and concrete experiments are being implemented at the local level. The modern administrations are being moved towards establishing a new relationship with the customary authorities.

    Decentralized resource management
    

25. The lessons learnt from past experience in natural resource management show that the main constraint encountered is the inability to create social, economic, and institutional conditions that would allow technical solutions to be applied. In other words, if the appropriate institutional foundations are missing, the implementation of technical measures cannot result in efficient, sustainable natural resource management.

26. The current approaches to natural resource management contain many positive aspects (rural markets for wood, village land management, participatory eco-development, etc.). In particular, they set up systems for implementing and managing more sustainable activities, and at the same time are based on local socio-cultural values and take into account local know-how. More and more, a model for decentralized natural resource management is considered not only as an effective way of preserving the environment, but also as a very effective way of promoting a particular political vision of local power and democracy. The results of the ventures into decentralized management of natural resources make a significant contribution to the debate on democratic decentralization.

    Limitations of decentralized resource management
    

27. But the pitfalls of decentralization are particularly pronounced when it comes to natural resource management and control, probably because of the weight of historical traditions and the new commercial stakes bound up with land issues. The approach has not received adequate political and social backing to make it a reality and has not taken into account the variety and the complexity of production systems.

28. On account of the political transitions and the weakness of the power of the State, being able to pinpoint where the real power is situated in land issues today is becoming increasingly uncertain; this power is unstable and fragmented. The bureaucratic structures continue to reassert their 'guardianship' over any form of decentralized natural resource management and the bureaucratic apparatus of the State remains omnipresent and omnipotent.

    Modern legislations and customary institutions
    

29. The West African states have not adopted a uniform policy towards customary institutions. The relationship between the administration and customary institutions is ambivalent, even in countries which have adopted a relatively open political vision. One of the problems stems from the fact that the customary land tenure systems are generally considered 'inadequate' and technically 'under-equipped'. All of the states of West Africa tend to assume that modern laws, once invoked or granted, automatically supersede customary law.

    Land insecurity
    

30. In the context of partial, ambivalent, or suspended decentralization and of the dramatic effects of the ecological and economic crises, the situation of the rural African populations is characterized by great land insecurity. This insecurity can be found at the level of policies and institutional frameworks, and also in attitudes and behaviour. It is so diffuse that in many countries, land insecurity can rightly be considered as one of the primary causes of natural resource degradation, and consequently, of rural poverty. This insecurity stems from a lack of clarity with respect to the actors, to the roles that these actors should play, to their respective interactions, and to their rights and the areas of their responsibilities.

    Economically disadvantaged groups
    

31. The social repercussions of a policy of democratization, which is accompanied by a trend towards the privatization of land ownership, are serious. Indeed, the economically disadvantaged or marginal social categories can easily be left aside, their status can be weakened, and their land rights neglected.

32. The new land rights that emerge from current financial transactions tend to be more and more privatized, permanent, and exclusive. This is always to the advantage of the richest and most powerful actors at the political level, and at the expense of pastoral nomads, women, and 'social youngsters' (young people), and in general, the members of the weaker social groups.

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