Context and backgroundWith many physical and human potentials, the Bamun country in the western highlands of Cameroon, which is an agricultural area excellence is today experiencing serious socio-economic and spatial transformations. The coffee crises, growth in cash crop production and demographic pressure within the former agricultural spaces has favored the movement of producers towards pioneer fronts. The availability of land capital in these new agricultural spaces attracts migrants from other horizons.

The political dysfunction that had come to characterize an imploding Zimbabwean economy is beyond dispute. This paper explores how a government that had become weakened in the face of a formidable opposition in urban areas turned to use land as a reward for supporters and as a means of luring new members to join the ruling party. It argues that land patronage has been used as a means for legitimating fledgling state rule while undermining the tenure security of the poor.

Land is critical to the lives, livelihoods, and food security of millions of people across the world. But a series of unprecedented pressures on global farmland are now accelerating and converging. This land squeeze is driving a surge in land inequality, rural poverty, and food insecurity – and risking a tipping point for smallholder agriculture.

Dans les zones rurales, où l’agriculture est la principale source de subsistance, la terre est bien plus qu’une simple ressource économique ; elle est essentielle à l’identité et à la culture des communautés. L’insécurité foncière, souvent causée par des conflits, des politiques foncières mal définies ou des systèmes de propriété inadéquats, peut mener à des déplacements de populations et à une utilisation inefficace des terres.

Executive Summary
 

Tenure security is a critical foundation for human development, for
prosperity, and the health and sustainability of our planet. Tenure security
and good land governance protects the rights of land users and facilitates a
long-term relationship with land that enables sustainable land use and
sustained investment in land. It promotes peace, stability and inclusive
growth; it protects the poor and empowers women and marginalized groups
such as indigenous peoples and local communities; it helps protect nature