Trees, tenure and conflict: Rubber in colonial Benin

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Fenske, James
• 署名单位: University of Oxford
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-3878
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jdeveco.2013.05.001
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 226-238
• 关键词: africa; property rights; Land tenure; Land disputes; Tree crops

摘要

Tree crops have changed land tenure in Africa. Farmers have acquired permanent, alienable rights, but have also faced disputes with competing claimants and the state. Para rubber had many similar effects in the Benin region of colonial Nigeria. Farmers initially obtained land by traditional methods. Mature farms could be sold, let out, and used to raise credit. Disputes over rubber involved smallholders, communities of rival users, and migrants. The impact of tree crop commercialization in Benin differed from other cases due to local context, including pre-colonial institutions, the late spread of rubber, and the relative unimportance of migrant planters. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.