Community-based Rights Research Articles

Impact of Insecure Land Tenure on Sustainable Housing Development: A Case Study of Urban Housing Lands in the Republic of Benin, West Africa

This study focuses on land tenure in an urban environment. Specifically, it intends to elucidate the influence of land tenure security on access to housing in urban communities. The conurbation of Grand Nokoué, which is an agglomeration of five cities in the Republic of Benin, West Africa, captures attention due to its particular features as a developing city. Based on the literature, this study outlined three major factors of insecure land tenure, namely, lack of recognition by authorities, lack of protection from eviction or expulsion, and informal community-based rights. In addition, we examined four characteristics of relevant housing issues, namely, the development of shantytowns, the multiplicity of precarious housing, the loss of housing for the development of public projects, and exposure to house demolition under judicial decision, to formulate our hypotheses. The results of field observation and semi-structured interviews supported the hypotheses and demonstrated that legal access to land, the protection of the population from anarchic eviction, and informal community-based rights may positively influence the development of sustainable urban housing.

Community-based management of the Mediterranean coastal fisheries: Historical reminiscence or the root for new fisheries governance?

Historical management experiences of Mediterranean community-based fisheries were particularly effective in fostering both social cohesion and sustainable utilizationof coastal resources. This figure contrasts with the current status of Mediterranean fisheries, where about 90% of stocks are overexploited. The key question then is: can past experiences guide our current approach to reshaping governance in the Mediterranean fisheries? In our effort to answer this question, we analyzed the main attributes of selected fishing governance systems in the Early and Mid-Modern period and their evolution through time. We focussed on the Spanish Cofradías, the French Prud’homies and the Venetian Fraglie (Italy). They were characterized by the establishment of territorial user rights system of management and governed technical aspects of the fisheries, market access, and restrictions. Fishers and their communities, through their corporations/organizations, were directly involved in legislating and enforcing management policies and regulations/rules. This approach to fisheries management differs from the one introduced by the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), established in the late 1970s, which was mainly top-down. Despite the systematic efforts to reduce fishing capacity and pressure on marine resources and to impose severe technical and restrictive measures, Mediterranean fisheries are still in bad conditions. To cope with this situation the EU recently reformed the CFP establishing, among other things, a new paradigm that seeks to foster the harmonization of the decision-making process in the context of the so-called “regionalization” of fisheries management. However, this policy does not clearly establish a proper community-based approach and restricts participation to national fishers’ associations in the context of the Advisory Council of the Mediterranean Sea. Without effectively linking local and regional fisheries management structures by engaging fishers and re-establishing a sense of community through providing community-based rights for fishing, this new effort will likely not succeed in achieving Mediterranean fisheries sustainability.

J. Peter Brosius, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, and Charles Zerner, eds. Communities and Conservation: Histories and Politics of Community-Based Natural Resource Management. Lanham, Md.: Alta Mira Press, 2005 (512 pages)

Since the 1990s, a transnational network of activists and organizations has played a critical role in new perspectives on rural development and land rights. The individuals and groups that constitute this network are linked by the issues of environmental conservation, social justice, and indigenous peoples' advocacy. This network forms a loose-knit set of overlapping alliances, which have pushed for substantial changes in how international agencies and state governments conceptualize and operationalize plans for development, especially in the developing world. This network challenges many long-held notions, including those of cultural citizenship, individual and group rights, and the state's role in social and environmental projects. Before the 1990s, dominant assumptions about the inevitability of state-led modernity meant that scholars and organizations generally accepted the role of the state as a force of assimilation and social betterment. Now, however, with a concomitant rise in indigenous identity politics and new urban-rural linkages for social justice, many academics and activists have pointed to the negative effects of state policy. In turn, a rising number of actors now champion moves for state decentralization, and the creation and expansion of community-based management. During this time of rapid change, scholars and activists have played critical roles in shaping new international configurations and have contributed to the rise of community-based rights.

Facing Our Destiny: Rights and Canadian Distinctiveness

AbstractThe Canadian Constitution contains several distinctive rights not found in the United States Constitution. Indeed, the collective and community-based rights Canadians take for granted are inimical to American liberal traditions. Negative rights or interpretive provisions, such as thenon obstanteclause, are unique to Canada among Western democracies. The author argues that these rights derive from the country's historical concerns with religious and linguistic communities—especially in Quebec—and that they in turn condition how politics must be conducted in Canada.