Browsing by Author "Alinon, Koffi"

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Effectiveness of Bylaws in the Management of Natural Resources: The West African Experience
(2008) Alinon, Koffi; Kalinganire, Antoine
"The role of various stakeholders in the management of natural resources is not clear in the West African countries. This paper discusses the historical changes in power delegation from central origins to peripheral institutions. The analysis covers the rise of bylaws across the Western African countries and links the multiplicity of bylaws to the amplification of the decentralization movement. "On the basis of a literature review and their own practitioners' experiences, the authors demonstrate the pertinence of bylaws as a tool for better management of natural resources. In the West African Francophone context, bylaws could stand both for regulations enacted by decentralized authorities or local conventions binding village community groups. Where formal bylaws suffer from limited enforcement, local people continue, through their traditional representatives, to engage in the negotiation of local conventions for the management of natural resources. "According to the authors, there is a need to recognize local conventions, which offer an opportunity for decentralization to be more rooted in local situations. Through such conventions, traditional institutions prove their ability to reshape with decentralization even if decentralization reforms and national forestry laws have ignored them across West Africa."
The End of the Coercive Protected Area Policy in Northern Togo: Can a Local Management Scheme be an Alternative in Sustaining Common Wild Resources?
(2002) Alinon, Koffi
"Up until the 1970s, land tenure proposals were based on a model promoting exclusive individual title to land, which would be recognized under modern law. From this stemmed confusion regarding the legal status of the great majority of resources in Togo which did nothing to promote investment in sound land husbandry. This brings us back to the need to identify the interplay of different actors in the control natural resources (state, communities, individuals, and private sector...) "A community-based approach recognizes and reinforces the stakeholders role of people living in, on and around vulnerable natural resources, both for these people's sake and for that future generations, for people living in the immediate area but also in the rest of the country and the rest of the world. Yet there are real concerns about the way, resources (both vegetable and faunic) are exploited in the re-occupied areas of northern reserves of Togo. The reasons are sociological (reaction against what appeared governmental or public goods) and economical (poverty and demography interactions). "The purpose of this paper is to argue that the current configuration of the re-occupied protected areas in the northern Togo falls into the community-based natural resources management (CBNRM) scope. On this basis, there is a real need to understand what has been observed as a negative behaviour of populations in the zone vis-à-vis the floristic and wildlife resources. An alternative management system could then be thought and suggested to decision-makers and stakeholders in order to sustain those resources."