Emerging land markets, legal pluralism and land tenure security: a few thoughts based on current trends observed in western Burkina Faso

Document begins: Emerging land markets, legal pluralism and land tenure security: a few thoughts based on current trends observed in western Burkina Faso Draft summary notes based on presentation at the Conference "Land in Africa", London, 8/11/04 Paul Mathieu, Land Tenure Service, FAO* 1. A summary of trends observed and key issues In the cotton-producing provinces of West Burkina Faso, exchanging land for money, which was once unthinkable, is now becoming common practice. Although customary land management principles do not condone this, some indigenous heads of families permanently cede family or lineage land for payment in cash. Those who acquire the land may be other local farmers, migrants or indigenous people, or urban-based investors. Increasingly, there are "new actors" involved originating from outside the local communities who have earned their money through non-agricultural activities, and who intend to farm using hired labor and mechanized equipment. As these new practices expand, traditional land-access agreements contracted twenty or thirty years ago between local farmers and migrant families are now being contested by those who granted the land (or their children): land granted to migrants on a long term basis (sometimes with rights of transmission to their descendants, under certain conditions) are now ...