Tropicultura (Jan 2018)
Transferts de droits fonciers coutumiers au prisme de l'histoire rurale et du post conflit (Côte d'Ivoire forestière)
Abstract
Securing Customary Land Rights Transfers in the Light of Rural History and Post-conflict (Côte d'Ivoire). Customary land rights transfers between natives and migrants in the forest region are a central issue of the land question in Côte d'Ivoire. Access to land is a highly politicized resource since the colonial period, even more in the troubled context of post-conflict. The reactivation of the 1998 Rural Land Law and the systematic titling of land transfers are the pillars of the agricultural and social reconstruction policies of the Ivorian authorities. This contribution discusses this approach by shifting the land issue from the legal and normative terrain to its actual historical and sociological context : the resilience of normative and institutional pluralism in access to land resources, and the prevalence of indigenous norms of "tutorat" in customary transfers. The "neo-customary" land regime seems to be reinforced by the vicissitudes of the conflict and the post-conflict situations, since the legal pluralism is even partially recognized in the new Constitution. In this context, this contribution emphasizes the importance of ensuring the local social recognition of rights arising from customary transfers, in advance of any systematic legal formalization of rights.
