GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Land is central in human existence and development and it is an economic tool. In most developing countries, land is linked with people’s culture, identity and dignity.[1] Cameroon’s formal land law classifies land as private, public or national. Private land can be owned by individuals and corporate entities, groups or the state. In order to be deemed private, the land must be titled and registered. Public land (highways, parks waterways) is land held by the state for the benefit of the people of Cameroon. All other land is classified as national land, which includes most unoccupied land, land held by communities under customary law, informal settlement and grazing land. The state can allocate used rights to national land to individuals or groups or convert such land into a state’s private or public property according land law 74-1, 74-2 of 1974.[2] This claim is often expressed in the folklore of these countries. Humans have used land and its resources to meet their material social, cultural and spiritual needs. According to Molombe, humankind since creation have relied on land to sustain his ever changing whims and caprices. Land tenure system influence the use to which land is put for economic and social development. Yet land use determines whether a resource could be conserved or not, and the level of conservation attainable for natural resources. Land tenure is a tool for conservation and it involves sets of rules and regulations used to control and manage natural resources: soils, water, wild living resources and the environment. Land tenure system are dynamics.[3] They response to socio- economic and political changes put in place for resource utilization. Tenure systems are however not monospecific: they vary from one rural community to another but pivoted by three broad systems of communal, individual and family ownership. Land use is the term employed to embrace all the ways in which land is used to provide man with his needs. According to Meyer, land use and land tenure are distinct yet closely linked characteristics of the earth’s surface.[4] Land use is defined as any form of activity that the land is put to, such as building construction, forest and agriculture.[5] While land tenure according to Payne can be defined as the mode by which land is held or owned, or the set of relationships amongst people concerning land and its product. Land tenure also reflects the changes in land ownership or occupancy mode of an area in the face of urban growth. Generally, land tenure Dynamics carried from communal land ownership to more individualized modes of land ownership.[6] Land use also reflects the dynamic processes between the earth‟s biophysical characteristics and human activities, while major parts of the global economy are getting increasingly independent from land based resources; our global society becomes more of knowledge, technology and information driven. The growing personal and expanding transport networks provides new spatial opportunities for living work production and recreation. As a result, land use changes are occurring at much higher rates. The evolutions of land tenure systems and land use changes have therefore been on the same side of the equation of urbanization Communal land ownership characterized by an extensive exploitation of the land resource dominated the preindustrial society (prior to the 18th Century); while the emergence of the private (individualized) mode of land tenure since the 18th Century characterized by land commoditization has permitted an intensive use of the earth’s terrestrial surface. The process of urbanization (associated with land pressure) has therefore mounted great pressure on existing tenure systems.

Land tenure and land use dynamics in Bali-Nyonga have been accompanied by some challenges to the relevant stakeholders. The emergence of non-formal tenure systems for instance has led to squatter settlements on risky zones, irregular and uncontrolled land subdivisions and the loss of urbanization resources due to the local government amongst others. This has in turn led to haphazard land use development which also threatens environmental sustainability. In the context of the growing global interests for sustainable development and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), there can be no sustainable urbanization without a sustainable land use management.[7]

Land in Cameroon is governed by three Ordinances passed in 1974, followed by three subsequent decrees in 1976. These Ordinances converted all lands except state and private titled lands into national land as per Sections 14 and 15 of Ordinance No 74-1 of 6th July 1974.Section 1(1) of Decree No. 76/165/76 makes the land certificate the only evidence of ownership. The 1974 and 1976 land reforms have had little impact on land ownership in the country as less than 20% of land is titled.[8] Consequently, most lands today that are untitled are national land held under customary tenancy without security. Ironically, customary communities though without land titles continue to claim ownership of national land on the basis of customary ties and acquisition through first settlement or conquest. This legal illiteracy of the communities in landownership makes them vulnerable to some unscrupulous investors who with the complicity of some elites have acquired and taken control of what was hitherto considered communal land. In terms of management, national land is jointly governed by the state and customary communities through the Land Consultative Board (LCB). The board is chaired by the local administrative officer and customary communities of Bali are represented by the chief and his two notables. The LCB demonstrates a significant shift of the value of land from a deity to a commodity, and the control over land from communities to administrative authorities, some of whom have undermined community interest for their selfish economic interests. Some investors have exploited the weaknesses including the naivety of some local communities, to acquire land with the complicity if some state officials, elites and chiefs.

Land tenure potentially impacts sustainable land use by improving incentives for production and increasing soil and water conservation investments. Thus, changes in access to farm holdings and the ability to exclude others from receiving benefits accruing from land result in resource use changes. This, in turn, affects the demand for labor and capital, productivity, and consequently, income and sustainability.  Land use policies are generally considered to have significant impacts on investments, but this might not be a universal formula applicable to all contexts. For instance in Cameroon, no empirical evidence has proven that land titling enhances credit markets, land markets, and investments.[9] A secure land tenure system provides countries with a framework to eliminate poverty by ensuring land tenure and ensuring stability on the land market. Since economic development is among the common goals of many developing countries, such as Cameroon, one might argue that Cameroon’s current policy of introducing an urban cadastral system is advancing the level of economic development.[10][11] Many land use planning programs were introduced in Cameroon, but with varying degrees of success. Each of these (pilot) projects included cadastral device implementation trials, but these were not complementary to earlier projects. This has resulted in overlaps, redundancies, and ineffective and incoherent cadastral structures in Bali Nyonga.  The persistent absence of a project progress assessment during each process was among the most remarkable characteristics of these projects. In other words, the strengths and limitations of the previous projects are not analyzed regularly, and the methods used in initial projects are not being organized. On the other hand, the government should create standards and metrics that can perform these tasks, but such standards are not being implemented.

Cameroon’s formal law classifies land as private, public or national. Private land can be owned by individuals and corporate entities, groups or the state. In order to be deemed private, the land must be titled and registered. Public land (e.g., highways, parks, waterways) is land held by the state for the benefit of the people of Cameroon. All other land is classified as national land, which includes most unoccupied land, land held by communities under customary law, informal settlements and grazing land. The state can allocate use rights to national land to individuals or groups or convert such land into the state’s private or public property. The formal law recognizes some tenure types in Cameroon: ownership, usufruct rights and leaseholds.[12]

For ownership tenure type, Landowners have rights to exclusive possession and use of their land, the right to mortgage the land, and the right to transfer the land. All ownership rights in land must be registered. Most land privately-owned, registered land is in urban areas. Large commercial farms are also usually registered. For usufruct, the state can grant usufruct rights to occupants of national land.[13] Communities that have not registered their land are generally considered to have usufruct rights. Leaseholds on the other hand can be granted by private parties or the state under terms agreed to by the parties. In urban and peri-urban areas, leasing is common. In some agricultural areas with limited land, rental arrangements are common.[14] Sharecropping, an arrangement in which the tenant pays the landowner a percentage of the production, is a common form of tenancy, particularly in the south. In one study in Southwest Province, 49% of cocoa farmers engaged sharecroppers. There is also profit or license (i.e., the right to take products from the land).[15] The formal law provides that customary communities have the right to hunt on and take products from unoccupied national land until such time as the state assigns the land to a particular use.

Under customary law, households generally have individualized rights to agricultural plots, and these are considered to be―ownership. The head of household in Bali Nyonga has rights to lease, loan and bequeath the land. In some areas, landholders are permitted to sell land held under customary law; in other areas, land sales are restricted to transactions within the family or lineage.[16] These tenure types were practicable in Bali-Nyonga but modified in some cases where the natives of Bali were forbidden to sale land to a stranger (non-Bali indigenes).

Statement of the problem

The physical environment of Bali Sub-division and its environs that knew little or no stress prior to the 1980s has witnessed a progressive change on the land use patterns due it’s tenure system. Rapid population increase and the relative number of people present is more than the available economic resources to cater for their needs and desires which are also growing rapidly. Land is used for agriculture, settlement and other nonfarm activities such as trade and other businesses, characterised with deforestation, bush fires and the unavoidable soil erosion and land degradation associated with poor farming methods. There have also been intertribal conflicts between Bali and some neighbouring villages over land issues.  The main economic activity within this area is agriculture; farmers and graziers have cleared off large portions of the forest with the use of fire for agricultural and grazing purposes. For instance, there has been encroachment into protected forest area, tremendous degradation of rangelands for subsistence farming leading to farmer-grazier conflicts which is common in Bali and on the highlands. There is high demand for land to meet the dire residential needs, commercial needs, social amenities and socio-economic infrastructures. This has exerted pressure on the lean resources and created a variety of complex land tenure and land use dilemmas and if not controlled, can degenerate into environmental crisis. These anthropogenic activities enhance development but there is a high cost on the sustainability of the resources. There also exists a ban on the sale of land to non-Bali Nyonga native which has implications on the land uses in Bali retarding the development of this

Again, each land owner or occupant in this Bali-Nyonga dictates the use to which his/her plot is put into (incompatible landlordism), determined by their whims (profit-oriented motives) rather than by purposeful land use planning regulations or nearby compatible land uses. This gloomy outlook has been mirrored by land use conflicts characterising the urbanisation process in Bali-Nyonga.

Bali-Nyonga has grown to embrace varied land uses; regrettably, a village so full of life is constrained by natural and artificial constraints to land supply pushing dwellers to operate non-formal tenure systems. Land use expansions have therefore threatened environmental sustainability in Bali-Nyonga as evidenced by deforestation and the spatial extension of unsuitable land uses on marginal zones.

 Moreover, corrupt practices by the workers in the different land administration offices and the individual land developers have also downplayed the efficiency of land regulations. This is manifested in the granting of building permits on protected areas (risk zones), the sidetracking of urbanization resources and land conflicts amongst others. Besides, the system of land administration currently on-going in Bali-Nyonga needs to fully employ the data base on land tenure and land use Dynamics on which to continually revise and base new planning options for a sustainable land use planning and management.

By this, the central question that has provoked this research is, of what significance was land tenure to the Bali-Nyonga community? From this central puzzle are derived the following subsidiary questions;

• How did the historical and geographical scope of Bali-Nyonga people influence land uses?
• What is land use for in Bali-Nyonga?
• Why are the lands uses changing in Bali?
• What are the implications of land tenure on land use dynamics

Objectives of the Study

The general objective of this study is to examine IMPLICATIONS OF LAND TENURE ON LAND USE DYNAMICS IN BALI-NYONGA CAMEROON.

  In a specific manner the study sets out to;

1. Examine the geo-historical setting of Bali-Nyonga people.
2. Investigate the changes in land use in Bali-Nyonga from 1974-2016.
3. Investigate the problem brought about by land tenure on land use in Bali-Nyonga.
4. Appraise the implications of land tenure on land use dynamics on development in Bali from 1974- 2016.

[1]  P. Delille et al, “Negotiating Access to Landing West Africa: A synthesis of Findings from Research on Derived Rights to Land” (Land: IIED/GRET).

[2] Private and Public Land Property, GOC Land Law 74-1 1974; GOC Land Law 74-2 1974, Njiti and Sharpe 1994.

[3]  J. M. Teshome Chala, “Analysis of Politics in the Land  Tenure System: Experience of successive Ethiopian Regimes since 1930,” African Journal of Political Science and International Relations 10(2016): 111-118.

[4] Andrew Neba, Modern Geography by the Republic of Cameroon (Neba Publisher, Bamenda, 1999),

[5] N.B. Nyamndi, Bali-Chamba of Cameroon: A Political History (Paris: Edition CAPE, 1988), 2-8.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Land and property Law 1974.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Ako A. J., G. Shimada, Eyong and Fantong, “Access to Portable Water and Sanition in Cameroon within the context of the Millinium Development Goals,” Water Science Technology 61, no.5(2010): 1317-39.

[10] Ibid.

[11]

[12]

[13]  Cornelius Lambi, Dynamic Landscape around Akum and Santa (Bamenda Highlands, 1991).

[14] Acho-Chic, “Human Interference and Environmental Instability: Addressing the Environmental Consequences of Rapid Urban Growth in Bamenda,Cameroon,” Environment and Urbanization 10(1998):161-174.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid