African governments giving land away quickly, recognizing land rights slowly

Seed Daily via SPX: While African governments are moving gradually towards protecting the land rights of rural people and indigenous communities, they are moving quickly to give away community forests and other lands for development. These conflicting choices are the focus of two new reports and a regional dialogue on forests, governance, and climate change.

"Governments across West and Central Africa are now in a bind and divided, with some ministries choosing to hand over natural resources to agribusiness and mining, and others seeking to protect the rights of their citizens and respect recent commitments," said Andy White, Coordinator of Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI).

"Which view will win out? There is a true need for speed in safeguarding these communities before all available land is handed out for the sake of 'quick-fix' development and exploitation."

"What communities on the ground in Cameroon see is no different from what is unfolding in other neighboring countries," said Samuel Nguiffo, Secretary General of the Center for Environment and Development (CED), Cameroon. "The slow pace of good intentions-the efforts to protect communities of subsistence farmers who have no wealth except for the land that they cultivate-has been overtaken by greed and power. Real economic development brings wealth to all, not just the elite."

RRI released two reports scrutinizing land transactions in West and Central Africa as well as the legal reforms that would protect the communities whose land is targeted by these transactions....