Groupe de recherche et d’échanges technologiques RESEARCH REPORT RESEARCH Conflict over Access to Land & Water Resources within Sub-Saharan Dry Lands Underlying factors, conflict dynamics and settlement processes ____________________________________________________ GRET-FAO LEAD Final Report Pierre-Yves Le Meur Peter Hochet Martin Shem Oussouby Touré September 2006 Groupe de recherche et d’échanges technologiques 211-213 rue La Fayette 75010 Paris, France Tél. : 33 (0)1 40 05 61 61 - Fax : 33 (0)1 40 05 61 10 [email protected] - http://www.gret.org Content CONTENT..................................................................................................................................... 3 PART I. PROBLEMATISING LAND CONFLICT AND LAND GOVERNANCE ........................................... 6 I. THE CONTEXT AND OVERALL OBJECTIVE............................................................................. 7 1. Presentation................................................................................................................ 7 2. Identifying the issues.................................................................................................. 7 II. METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................. 9 1. Approach.................................................................................................................... 9 2. Organisation ............................................................................................................. 12 III. PROBLEMATISING THE LAND & NATURAL RESOURCES GOVERNANCE ................................ 13 1. The natural resources governance as a complex matter of wealth, ecology, power and meaning .................................................................................................. 13 2. The natural resources governance as an arena of actors and institutions................. 14 3. The natural resources governance between peace, conflict and justice ................... 15 IV. THREE KEY ISSUES............................................................................................................. 17 1. Conflict and non-conflict ......................................................................................... 17 2. Linking knowledge, policy and prevention.............................................................. 19 3. Mapping space or history? Identifying configurations and mechanisms? ............... 20 PART II. FACTORS UNDERLYING CONFLICTS OVER LAND AND WATER RESOURCES WITHIN AFRICAN DRY-LANDS........................................................................................................ 23 I. FACTORS UNDERLYING CONFLICTS OVER ACCESS TO LANDED RESOURCES ........................ 25 1. Land tenure change and conflicts through history: three viewpoints....................... 25 2. Three sets of factors of change and their consequences........................................... 26 3. Potentially conflictive areas and actors.................................................................... 28 II. IDENTIFIED AREAS: FROM TENSIONS TO CONFLICT OUTBREAK ........................................... 29 1. The Senegal Valley .................................................................................................. 29 2. The Niger Delta........................................................................................................ 30 3. The contact area between agriculture and pastoralism............................................. 32 4. National politics and local land tenure conflicts ...................................................... 34 5. The densely populated cotton area........................................................................... 35 6. The commercial area of Niger.................................................................................. 36 7. Economic system and development narratives as roots of conflicts between administration and farmers in Sudan........................................................................ 38 8. Politics and policies of entitlements in the Jubba Valley, Somalia.......................... 40 3 9. The Kenyan highlands and wetlands........................................................................ 41 10. The Tanzanian game-reserves and protected parks.................................................. 42 11. Environmental change and struggle over access in Mozambique............................ 44 12. Politics of land rights: land tenure and elections in Zimbabwe ............................... 45 13. Conflicts over meaning in Botswana ....................................................................... 47 14. Land dispossession and wars of liberation in Namibia (1905 and 1966)................. 48 III. PROVISIONAL CONCLUSION ON CONFLICT, SCALE, HISTORY............................................... 51 PART III. THE DYNAMICS OF CONFLICT: FOUR IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS............................................ 54 I. CASE STUDY 1: THE SENEGAL/MAURITANIA CONFLICT OVER BOUNDARIES...................... 55 1. The case studied: The Senegal/Mauritania conflict of 1989.................................... 55 2. Regional factors and trends...................................................................................... 55 3. Social organisation and social tensions over access to irrigation systems............... 56 4. National Land Tenure Acts and users’ groups: the spark ........................................ 58 II. CASE STUDY 2: THE COMOE CONFLICT OVER IDENTITIES.................................................. 61 1. The case studied: the 1986 Fulla/Karaboro Conflict in Sidéradougou, Burkina Faso .......................................................................................................................... 61 2. Regional factors and trends...................................................................................... 61 3. Disputes and co-operation between Fulla, Karaboro, Tiefo, Mossi, Dyula and State local agents...................................................................................................... 62 4. The conflict and its settlement: key actors and relations ......................................... 63 III. CASE STUDY 3: INSTITUTIONAL PLURALISM AND OPPORTUNISTIC BEHAVIOURS IN NIGER .. 67 1. The case studied: conflicts and land tenure reform in the department of Zinder, Niger......................................................................................................................... 67 2. Historical trends ....................................................................................................... 67 3. Various kinds of conflict.......................................................................................... 69 4. Legal pluralism, hierarchy, and negotiation............................................................. 71 IV. CASE STUDY 4: THE LINK BETWEEN NATIONAL TENSIONS AND LOCAL CONFLICTS IN BURKINA FASO ................................................................................................................. 73 1. The case studied: Struggles over wetlands and ethnic politics ................................ 73 2. Regional trends and factors...................................................................................... 73 3. Local-level politics and symbolic competition ........................................................ 74 4. The setting-up of social tensions.............................................................................. 74 5. Normative conflicts and institutional resetting ........................................................ 76 V. CONCLUSION: CONFLICT RESOLUTION OR MANAGEMENT?................................................. 78 1. Results synthesis ...................................................................................................... 78 2. Conflict management and policy ............................................................................. 79 PART IV. GENERALISING, MAPPING, POLICY-MAKING: ELEMENTS OF REFLECTION AND PROPOSALS ....................................................................................................................... 80 4 I. CONFLICT DYNAMICS ANALYSIS: SYNTHESIS..................................................................... 81 1. The approach............................................................................................................ 81 2. Underlying factors.................................................................................................... 82 II. GENERALISING: LINKING MICRO-STUDIES AND MACRO-ANALYSES .................................... 83 1. Quantification attempts: establishing and spatialising statistical correlations ......... 83 2. Linking underlying factors and conflict outbreak: lessons learnt from the case studies and general proposals................................................................................... 84 III. MAPPING (SPACE, HISTORY) OR IDENTIFYING (MECHANISMS, SITUATIONS)? ..................... 86 IV. POLICY-MAKING ............................................................................................................... 87 1. Linking knowledge and decision-making ................................................................ 88 2. A few policy proposals............................................................................................. 89 V. BACK TO MAPS AND CONFLICTS: PROSPECTS FOR THE NEXT PHASE.................................... 90 1. Mapping as a cognitive