CAPRi Workshop on Collective Action, Property Rights, and Conflict in Natural Resources Management

1 Perennial and violent family, ethnic, tribal, national and regional conflicts are land-related, particularly the struggle for access to and control over land and its natural resources. Preventing and managing landrelated conflicts requires securing land rights for all beyond property rights. The paper takes the view that access to and control over land-based resources for the majority will need the adoption of a ‘continuum of land rights’ approach that recognizing the variety of land access mechanisms and practices which are legitimate and enforceable. Further the approach takes into account the range of land rights are managed and administered by a web of interests with various power arrangements and governance structures. This paper takes the land governance perspective to land conflicts, particularly the governance of natural resources. We adopt the definition of the FAO/UN-Habitat publication (2009) which refers to the rules, processes and structures through which decisions are made about access to and use of land, the manner in which the decisions are implemented and enforced, and most importantly, the way that competing interests in land are managed. Using the land governance approach, the paper focuses on power and the political economy of property rights as well as land access, use and transfer. In doing so and looking specifically on conflicts over natural resources, the paper uses empirical evidence from a range of Sub-Sahara African countries to address questions such as: who has access, who does not? Whose rights are secure, whose are not? Who participates in decision making? How are conflicting interests resolved? How are agreements enforced? Who gets to use the land and who gets the revenue streams from its use? A particular attention is paid the gender dimension of conflict, again from a power and access perspective. The paper ultimately proposes that understanding and managing power relationship is critical for land conflicts preventions and resolution.