The End of the Coercive Protected Area Policy in Northern Togo: Can a Local Management Scheme be an Alternative in Sustaining Common Wild Resources?

Abstract

"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."