Changes in the rural environment: Land dynamics

At the regional level, cultivated areas grew from 8.4 to 11.8% of all land between 1961 and 2002. There is still considerable potential cropland since only 36% of this land is actually cultivated.

Average land pressure [1] is moderate (1.4 people/ha in recent years compared to 1 in the 1960s) and remains lower than the average for developing countries, which stands at around 2.3 people/ha. Land for grazing remains stable, although in certain Sahel regions, transhumance corridors and staging points have disappeared or have been turned into farmland.

However, considerable land problems remain. This is the case, for example, in rural areas close to the urbanised coast of the Gulf of Guinea. Long natural fallow periods, which were the basis of soil fertility management, are shorter and cultivated plots are increasingly exploited. This leads to soil deterioration resulting in lower productive capacity, and therefore a reduction in yields. Farmers are obliged to use more inputs and in some cases they temporarily or permanently abandon certain plots.

The way in which land resources are perceived is evolving. As a production factor in a market economy, land is acquiring greater value. Irrigated plots, rich or well-drained soil, and proximity to major consumption centres and input suppliers are some of the factors of an agricultural land market that is rapidly developing. Private investment by non-agricultural urban operators is a new trend that is likely to develop in the future. On the other hand, a move towards the decapitalisation of the land of the poorest social classes is expected.

In this context, the land reforms launched in the mid-1980s are pushing the limits of tradition and modern law to strike a balance between the promotion of a capitalistic form of agriculture and that of equity. Progress is slow and dialogue is difficult.

There is considerable potential for conflict linked to these rural changes, whether due to the agricultural colonisation of the lowlands traditionally used for grazing, transhumance through areas of cropland or the management of water resources. In many cases, these problems are regional. Once situated in the Sahelian countries, the centre of gravity for West African livestock farming is now imperceptibly shifting towards the north of the coastal countries. This slow migration of herds is accompanied by that of cattle-rearing populations. Land disputes that were once confined to individual groups are now also causing inter-community disagreements.

The 107 million hectares of forest [2] in West Africa are clearly not exempt from these changes in rural areas. It is estimated that between 1990 and 2005, forest cover diminished at a rate of 1.2 million hectares per year, which is far higher than the average for the continent. This reduction was seen in the fragmentation of cover, especially in the humid zone: a shift from closed forest to open forest and then to woodland. According to FAO estimations, over 10% of closed forests were transformed into open forests between 1980 and 2000 and between 3 and 7% of fragmented forests became woodland during the same period.

These changes are essentially linked to the conversion of forests to agriculture that is still largely extensive (cacao, coffee, etc.), forestry (wood energy and log exports [3]), mining activities, the development of infrastructure and fires.

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