What are the key causalities in the linkages between environmental resource scarcity, the non-violent assertion of rights to the environment and the (non) avoidance of violence itself? Focusing on the natural resource land, the author studies three different cases of conflict over land at the local level in Diamar‚, Baba Deli and Kubadje, in the extreme north of Cameroon, from 2001 to 2004, using different sociological, geographical and anthropological methods.

What are the key causalities in the linkages between environmental resource scarcity, the non-violent assertion of rights to the environment and the (non) avoidance of violence itself? Focusing on the natural resource land, the author studies three different cases of conflict over land at the local level in Diamar‚, Baba Deli and Kubadje, in the extreme north of Cameroon, from 2001 to 2004, using different sociological, geographical and anthropological methods.

The papers included in this volume were earlier presented at a conference on the settlement of land claims in Africa, which was held in Amsterdam in September 2003. The papers are written primarily from an anthropological perspective.

Land in Cameroon is under growing pressure for many reasons — powerful commercial interests, changing climate conditions and shifting demographic flows including mass migration and increasing population density. The rights of rural communities and indigenous people to access and use land for farming and grazing have been eroded — primarily due to failure to recognise customary land tenure rights, land use conflicts and lack of effective local governance. The country’s land legislation is indeed outdated and not compatible with customary law and local realities.

Land tenure issues are becoming increasingly important worldwide. Problems such as high population pressure, increases in resource degradation, food shortages, transformations of political systems and regional and supra-regional resource conflicts have brought the land issue to the public's attention.

This Topic Guide covers: the trends in and drivers of large-scale land acquisition, and the associated costs, risks and benefits; the provision of and access to more accurate data on large-scale land acquisitions, and key international and regional initiatives to provide guidelines to enhance security of tenure and promote good quality investment; land reform issues such as land tenure regularisation and land administration systems; and land issues in the context of fragile states, and conflict and post-conflict situations.