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Abstract:
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"A trend that seems to elude sustained investigation since the post-independence era in most African countries has been the gradual weakening of the traditional common property rights in various ecosystems but particularly in areas experiencing enormous population pressure on land. This paper examines the role of rapid population growth and its associated population pressure on land in the modification of common property rights in Nigeria. Using case studies from both the forest and savanna ecosystems, the paper demonstrates how increasing population pressure on land has over the years, gradually and steadily, altered common property rights, and encouraged individual possession and ownership. With data and specific examples drawn from the Igbo-speaking areas from eastern and midwestern Nigeria, and the kano-close settled areas, the paper observes an increasing trend toward individualized ownership because of the persisting poor economic conditions in the country since the 1970s which tend to promote commercialization, encourage excessive land fragmentation and low agricultural productivity as well as the ability to swell the proportion of the landless in the 1990s. The paper outlines the socio-economic problems of the emerging process, and suggests among others, a government assisted program of land management in ecosystems under stress if these problems are to be addressed."
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