More specifically, NLC of Benin aims to:
- promote transparent, equitable, and sustainable land management based on dialogue and existing rules;
- promote inclusive decision-making among stakeholders involved in land governance
- promote responsible and mutually beneficial land use by various actors while ensuring the preservation of land resources
- promote the sharing of experiences among land stakeholders based on their specific roles and expertise;
- highlight best practices and identify constraints
- ensure the monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the national legal and institutional land framework;
- promote and collaborate on the implementation of the VGGTs;
- collaborate on the monitoring and evaluation of the application of the Voluntary Guidelines
- Monitor, report, and address issues related to land and pastoralism in order to prevent conflicts and meet the needs of all stakeholders.
LAND RIGHTS IN BENIN
NLC Benin has been established in a context of important pressions on land and natural resources due massive large-scale land acquisitions leading to dispossession of family farmers who represent 80% of agriculture, pastoralists and other community groups leaving on and from the land. Part of the pressures are due to climate constraints. With 62% of land degraded, access to secure and productive land is a major issue. Growing investments make land conflict-prone with the escalation of competition between farmers and grazers, as well as between and within communities.
Despite reforms, including the adoption of the Land and State Property Code (CFD) in 2013 and its revision in 2017, around 70% of agricultural land is still subject to customary regimes, whilst the local institutions intended to implement land reform in practice remain ineffective; all of which makes the application of the laws currently in force problematic.
This legal duality gives rise to conflicts over jurisdiction and land tenure insecurity, which particularly affect smallholder farmers, agro-pastoralists, young people, women and rural communities.
At the policy and institutional levels, the NLC has emerged in a context of the establishment of the National Agency for Land and Property, the national land registry project, the slow implementation of local governments’ authority to issue Certificates of Customary Land Tenure, and efforts to regulate pastoralism.
