Ivory Coast: field work to defuse conflict around the (…)

Article posted on-line November 14, 2019

The ladies of the Awawla cooperative of Gnakoragui supported by Asapsu, companion of CCFD-Terre Solidaire, on their plot of rice © Clémentine Méténier / CCFD-Terre Solidaire

A sport to defuse conflicts round land

Obrouayo is among the villages of the area of Soubré in Côte d'Ivoire the place the affiliation intervenes ASAPSU, supported by CCFD-Terre Solidaire. On this village, no cadastre exists. The affiliation repeatedly organizes intercommunity conferences to stimulate dialogue round land points and defuse potential conflicts. It depends particularly on TerriStories (1), a sport arrange by CIRAD (Middle for Worldwide Cooperation in Agricultural Analysis for Improvement) in Montpellier.

In accordance with the coordinator of Asapsu in Soubré, Désiré Youan Bi, this sport permits the “Inhabitants to enter a social position totally different from theirs; this offsets them they usually suppose in any other case of the answer to a village problematic. We’re right here simply to information them in battle administration, no more ».

CIRAD's TerriStories sport, by way of neighborhood conferences, addresses land points and defuses potential conflicts. Standing, Désiré Youan Bi, of Asapsu, companion of CCFD-Terre Solidaire

CIRAD's TerriStories sport, by way of neighborhood conferences, addresses land points and defuses potential conflicts. Standing, Desired Youan Bi, of Asapsu, companion of CCFD-Terre Solidaire © Clémentine Méténier / CCFD-Terre Solidaire

Migrants who exploit the land are excluded from the appropriate of possession

Within the conventional Ivorian conception, the distribution of land is predicated on customary legislation with a precept: one doesn’t refuse somebody's land for meals, however it stays the property of the ancestors. Through the years, customary transactions have multiplied between indigenous and migrant populations (2) answerable for exploiting the land, in a benevolent relationship referred to as “tutoring”.

For almost fifty years, 1000’s of Burkinabe, Malians and Ivorians from the North, inspired by the Ivorian state, have come to work in agriculture.
“Once I arrived in 1985, I used to be given land to develop cocoa,” says Harmless, consultant of Beninese within the village of Gnakoragui, 27 km from Obrouayo. “I didn’t signal a contract with my guardian, belief reigned, we grew to become brothers and I used to be there for him if wanted. “ Right here, round 1,700 inhabitants of Malian, Burkinabè, Beninese, Guinean and Ivorian origin have been dwelling collectively for many years.
In trade for the appropriate of use, the farmer has an obligation of gratitude in direction of his guardian which is translated, along with the donation of part of his harvests by that of a hen and 5,000 or 10,000 CFA francs (6 euros or 15.2 euros) per yr.

Within the 1990s, the state inspired agrarian colonization. “We set orally pure boundaries of our plots: a palm, a cocoa bigger than the others … Harmless continues, a touch of bitterness in his voice. However for the reason that legislation requires us to demarcate our parcels to acquire a written land certificates, some farmers encroach on parcels or landowners overlook the preliminary contract to scale back the land portion. “

In a tense political context, a legislation was handed in 1998 to safe land, that’s to say “Remodel customary rights (rights, customized) into property rights to supply a transparent authorized framework for the decision of rural land disputes (3) “. It’s essential to delimit the parcels to acquire a land certificates – for the operators – and a land title – for the homeowners. However this legislation fully excludes migrants from the appropriate to personal land whereas, for instance, they exploit about 90% of the land of Nawa, the nation's largest cocoa area.

Girls not wish to be excluded from property rights

Girls, too, are principally excluded from the appropriate of possession even when, in precept, the legislation of 1998 devotes equal entry to all heirs, women and men. However in reality, they can’t management or inherit land, they will exploit a plot, however offered that the lads of the household permit them. But in some villages, behaviors are beginning to evolve : “In time, it was inconceivable to depart a land to his daughter; however mentalities change, at the least in my village, says Charles Sagbahi-Kle, the village chief of Gnakoragui. However this isn’t the case within the subsequent one. “

In 2015, about 40 girls from Gnakoragui determine to arrange an agricultural cooperative to domesticate collectively a chunk of rice, with the help of Asapsu. “I personal and develop cocoa. It is vitally uncommon that a lady exploits perennial crops, Viviane, spokesperson for the group, delivers herself. The affiliation helps us to regroup to debate our practices, talk about our issues. ” Désiré provides in the course of the month-to-month go to of the rice discipline: “And most significantly, we wish to give them the braveness to speak to males and declare land entry to land to take part, as a lot as their husband, within the family earnings. ”

Co-build new land administration guidelines

Twenty-one years and three amendments later, the 1998 legislation will not be “Not but reached the ears of all of the inhabitants”, sighs Need who specifies that “The state had given ten years – till 2013 – for all lands to be enumerated (4). “. Of the 23 million hectares of land in rural land, solely four % of land was formally registered by the state in 2017. The rationale for this delay? “The legislation didn’t keep in mind the forms of social group of the populations, nor the difficulties of their each day life associated notably to the unhealthy harvests of cocoa. (5), says Désiré. Step one in our eyes is to assist the totally different communities to enact collective land administration guidelines that they’ll share in a village constitution. ”

Dr. Claudine Lath, director of the NGO Asapsu on the headquarters in Abidjan

Dr. Claudine Lath, director of the NGO Asapsu on the Abidjan headquarters © Clémentine Méténier / CCFD-Terre Solidaire

If everybody agrees that securing the land is unavoidable, the monetary brake is essential : surveying charges, journey to the sub-prefecture to signal certificates whose worth varies, as a result of there isn’t any official price schedule for administration charges. In accordance with a cocoa producer, the method of buying a title can attain as much as 60,000 CFA francs per hectarewhereas the typical per capita earnings is 77,000 CFA francs (118 euros). “The center of our motion on land is to coach the inhabitants to forestall the breakdown of social cohesion”, particulars Claudine Lath, the director of the Asapsu affiliation, based mostly in Abidjan.

Highschool college students skilled in land points

Land consciousness begins at an early age. For the previous three years, six land golf equipment have been created in faculties and excessive colleges in Soubré.. On his break time, Sylvain Tanoh, professor of history-geo, invitations younger volunteers to “Prepare on land points”, by sensitizing them to the questions of the way forward for girls within the land inheritance, the cohabitation with the foreigners on the identical floor. “Our youngsters mustn’t draw a line on customary legislation; they have to take it into consideration and make it evolve. The way forward for peace in our nation is at stake. ”

Take heed to the RFI program The puzzle of land law in Africa with the interviews of our companions in Ivory Coast Land Alert and Asapsu