Village properties, state negotiations: Decentralization and territorialization of Senegal's forests

In the last two decades, legal reforms and development projects in Senegal have purported to transfer authority over thousands of hectares of forests, pastures, and fisheries from state agencies to local elected councils, customary chiefs, and user committees. Yet in addition to transferring official powers, these efforts have introduced new spatial categories and legal techniques such as local conventions and village protected sites. These tools alter the terrain on which state agencies, politicians, commercial interests, and customary leaders – not to mention the numerous groups whose livelihoods depend on these resources – seek to access and control natural resources. By tracing the evolution of one of Senegal’s first community forestry initiatives over a 17-year history, this article argues that decentralization has fixed forests in place and privatized common-property, while also disrupting the presumption of separate domains of “state” and “community”. Rather than creating territories governed by communities, the creation of village forests drew together customary authorities, local politicians, and forestry technicians in relations of mutual dependence and informal collaboration. One effect of decentralization has been the incorporation of new resources and property relations into networks of informalized and privatized state power.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S., Development Sociology

Level thesis:degree_level

Master of Science

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Development Sociology

Grantor

Cornell University

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Robinson, Ewan Scott

Committee member dc:contributor.committeemember

• Leonard, Lori

• land politics
• territorialization
• Decentralization
• State Formation
• Sociology
• Geography
• community-based natural resource management
• community forestry

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7298/X4TM78BC

Dc Identifier Other

ProQuest Submission ID: 10292
ProQuest Publication ID: 10816718

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ecommons.cornell.edu:1813/59392