Samuel Mawutor - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Samuel Mawutor

Charles and Pioupare Françoise (Plate-forme de plaidoyer genre, changements climatiques et tenure... more Charles and Pioupare Françoise (Plate-forme de plaidoyer genre, changements climatiques et tenures foncières et forestières or TENFOREST-Burkina Faso), Maixent Fortunin Agnimbat Emeka and Dieuvel Steve Ata (Forum pour la Gouvernance et les Droits de l'Homme or FGDH-Congo), Felicien Kabamba and Serge Ngwato (Conseil pour la défense environnementale par la légalité et la traçabilité or CODELT-DRC) and Rita Uwaka (Environmental Rights Action or ERA-Nigeria). All ACRN members have endorsed this initiative from the starting point. But we are even more grateful to those who took some of their precious time to review the Index, comment on the report and share it in their respective countries. Those include: Samuel Nguiffo and Robinson Djeukam (Cameroon), Protet Ondo Essono (Gabon), Kyeretwie Opoku (Ghana) and Silas Siakor (Liberia). Finally, we thank our honorary African, Liz Alden Wily, who has helped us with the idea of the Index from the beginning and has been a firm supporter of the principle that African land issues should be in Africans' hands and dealt with from local perspectives. Saskia Ozinga, always our supporter, has also encouraged us. ii The state of Community Land Rights in Africa Preface Rural communities all over Africa are deeply concerned. Millions of people do not know whether or not their land rights are secure, especially their rights to their off-farm forests and rangelands. For decades, rural communities have been told that their customary rights do not count as property rights and are therefore not protected. Their lands may be taken at will. Communities are particularly alarmed by the current surge in large-scale land allocations. Will their lands be next? What can they do to prevent their land from being taken? Will their governments support them, or will they say they no land rights because they have no documents to prove ownership? At the same time, rural communities all over Africa are seeing more interest in their plight. They no longer feel so isolated. Many can access the internet, even in remote areas. They read about sister countries on the continent where rural populations have more legal land security than themselves. They want to get engaged in changing the situation in their own countries. The African Community Rights Network (ACRN) comprises around 40 NGOs working on these concerns. They, and the communities they work with, want to know more. They want to be empowered by knowledge. They want facts and figures about other countries to enable them to lobby their policy and decision-makers. They do not want to be fobbed off by claims that the current situation is good for business, and that they should not complain as jobs will result if they surrender their lands to commercial interests. Nor do they want to wait and do nothing for themselves while their governments claim they have matters under control. The African Community Land Transparency Index (ACLTI) has been developed with these needs in mind. First, it institutes a system through which accurate information on the status of the majority of rural land rights across the continent can be collected. The facts and findings will be updated every three years. These will be disseminated widely, including to rural communities. Second, the initiative will help build connections throughout Africa on community land rights through applying the Index and through this will strengthen pan-African commitment to resolved a common shared problemthe weak status of customary/community land rights. Why an Index, and how is it different? This initiative entails several innovations. First, ACLTI is an Africa-owned initiative with its roots in rural communities. ACRN comprises NGOs active on the ground and at the national level in their respective countries. The idea for the Index has evolved through meetings of these NGOs over a period of four years, through their shared analysis of concerns, and through grounded commitment to assist rural communities to better secure their land rights. This is not a donor-driven project. It comes from Africans working in Africa on African concerns with their rural communities. The second innovation is that the Index initiative is geared to involve affected communities from the outset. Much information has been collected on land matters by academics, INGOs and others, but often the local context is weak and the views of those affected are not considered. ACLTI offers a more grounded approach. It involves local organizations with strong connections in rural communities, collecting information on the ground, and sharing with those same communities the findings of more technically complex assessments of the legal status of their rights. A third innovation is that the Index adopts a comparative approach across countries. Realities and This report has been written for ease of reading, and without academic apparatus such as footnotes or references. At the same time, we have made every effort to ensure that it does not leave you feeling disappointed or doubtful. All the information it contains has been carefully checked. However, that does not mean that it is devoid of mistakes or misinterpretations. Therefore your input will be much appreciated, not only because of your ability to initiate and boost reforms, but also because you can help ACRN and its NGO members to increase their knowledge of issues regarding land rights, and about this initiative. Welcome to the first report of the African Community Land Index. We are embarking on an adventure.

Forest Policy and Economics