Coupe de bois et revendications sociales au Mali - Ird

Abstract
In Mali, particularly in the outskirts of Bamako, several modes of access to rural lands -and the natural
resources they bear- have been progressively superimposed. First, the customary land-tenure system
still prevails at the village level, in particular with regard to arable lands, even if saturation may be
observed in some zones. Second, the municipalities (communes), which result from a recent
decentralization process and may be composed of 10-30 villages, have also emerged as an important
actor. They have tried to become a broker between the state and local people in matters of natural
resources management, but they still lack an officially devolved communal property. Third, urban
actors may also negotiate title deeds with customary authorities in outlying villages. Finally,
paralleling the decentralization process, a transfer of responsibilities in woody resource management
has, from 1998 onwards, led to agreements between the forest administration and village associations
of woodcutters, in connection with woodlands that had been the subject of negotiations and sometimes
of a basic forest planning.
Those agreements are open to question, as the negotiation has usually been as quick (and disconnected
from the customary authorities) as the control on the harvesting activities has been weak.
These agreements are nevertheless a way of levering social and territorial claims of villagers, at three
levels: first, they may use it as a way of building the legitimacy of the so-called autochthonous
towards the migrant (turnovers in woodcutters’ associations, exclusion from village territories).
Second, woodcutting may be used to assert inter-village territorial boundaries; finally, the use of a
harvesting right on the village territory may be considered for the customary authorities as a powerful
lever to secure their claims of a better recognition of their prerogatives, towards central and
decentralized powers.
Key Words : Mali, rural land-tenure system, woody resources, decentralization, rural wood market,
tenure claims, community natural resource management
Colloque international “Les frontières de la question foncière – At the frontier of land issues”, Montpellier, 2006
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