(Ecofin Agency) - Rural land in Mali remains a real source of conflicts and rivalries, the Journal du Mali reveals.

Truly, most land-related conflicts that Malian authorities presently have to deal with involve agricultural lands which are scarce surely but no less coveted. These indeed often lead to raging disputes, grotesque even at times.

During the launching of the national reforestation campaign last August 6, Mali’s minister of environment and sanitation revealed that “in the Tienfala forest, at least 50 titles to land had been issued by State agents” while the Minister of State Domains, Land Affairs and Heritage, Mohamed Aly Bathily, three months earlier said that “a land title covering the Laminbambala village (Sikasso region) has been delivered to a firm. The same was done for the nearest village which is 3 km from it,” the minister continued emphasizing that the villagers had been given “6 months to move out 10 km away, far from the tarred road, without compensation or whatsoever”.

The main reason behind the complex nature of land management in Mali is “the scarcity of the resource paired with speculations of private entrepreneurs. In farming areas, farmers seek to increase their yields every year. To this end, they expand the lands they used and clear new lands. However, due to the previously mentioned land scarcity, disputes, sometimes deadly, arise. Land ownership to a large extent, in rural and suburban areas, is still dominated by customary rights holders with only a few administrative documents holders. As a result, land owners are powerless against speculators who take over rural lands in favour of investors from the city,” the website stated.

Souha Touré