Abstract
Land grabbing from small farm holders of Nguti is the major cause of environmental degradation and forest right violation. This article posits how the rural communities of Nguti are experiencing a range of political skirmishes resulting from large scale land acquisition which is threatening local land-use practices and access to land. The paper divulges that oil palm enterprises have encouraged the proliferation of small grab farm holders. This has forced members to engage in illegal sale of large portions of forest land leading to environmental degradation and distortion in their livelihood activities. A three-component integration method of questionnaire administration, GPS recordings and interview/ field observation were used for data collection. The data was analysed using the Microsoft excel spread sheet and the maps realized through the QGIS software. Results from findings adhere to the fact that 61% of land acquisition by the minor farm holders comes from local chiefs, 26% bought land from the indigenes while 13% obtained it from elites and family. Land conflicts occur between the small farm holders and the local community because they have intruded in land without authorisation from the traditional council leading to boundary conflicts. Some 10% of the small farm holders have acquired land influentially as a violation of the indigenous land rights. The activity has caused environmental squalor in the form of habitat loss as forests and plants are at risk of extinction. There is water resource depletion as the streams used by the villagers for portable water have completely withered. Inappropriate water management, fertilizers and pesticides run-off from fields to adjacent rivers and lakes and contaminate groundwater sources. This article acclaims that there is a need to sensitise the communities, especially the youths, on illicit land sales and incessant monitoring of the Nguti area against environmental degradation.
Highlights
Large-scale land acquisition by foreign interests is a major driver of agrarian change in the productive regions of Africa as well as a threat to environmental degradation (United Nations, 2013)
Allowing land to become a vehicle for wealthy corporations and individuals to become richer while pushing vulnerable rural people into poverty and hunger is unjust, unwise and unethical (Julian, 2014). Such is the case with the Nguti area from small farm land grabbers
This paper found out that land grabbing in Nguti was instigated by agro-industrial establishments and the construction of the Kumba-Mamfe that facilitated movements
Summary
Large-scale land acquisition by foreign interests is a major driver of agrarian change in the productive regions of Africa as well as a threat to environmental degradation (United Nations, 2013). Rural communities across Cameroon in general and the South West Region in particular are experiencing severe land grabbing from small farm holders (Ngwa, 1997) This form of land deals, which is not based on free and prior informed consent of the Nguti land users, is accompanied by disregard of social economic and environmental impact (Friis Cecilie and Reenberg Annette, 2010). The Nguti Subdivision is experiencing a range of political conflicts resulting from Large-scale land acquisition, in which commercial interests are threatening local land-use practices and access to land This has made the local population lose even farm land used for subsistence agriculture which has increased the level of poverty in such areas (Nguti Council, 2016).
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