250 years of land acquisitions in Ghana

THINKING beyond the canopy

“Still trying to kill two big birds with one stone?”

250 years of land acquisitions in GhanaD. Andrew Wardell and George Schoneveld

UNIKIS, CIFOR Side Event – 8 June 2014


Colonial context

A belated encounter with

‘empire forestry’ in the NTs

Land acquisition for groundnuts

- Gonja Development Company

Land administration in Ghana

post 1962

Land acquisition for biofuels

Land acquisitions compared

Outline


• Danish plantation experiments (1788-1850)

• Early resistance to land and forest legislation

• Forests Ordinance No. 13, Cap. 157, 1927

• Appropriation of land to establish

• 214 forest reserves (15.000 km2) by 1939

– Securing micro-climates for cocoa production

– Increasing timber production

– Meeting local needs for forest products

• Only 160 km2 (1%) of forest reserves in NTs

• Pan-territorial forest policy adopted in 1949

Precedents in Gold Coast and Ashanti


Paying for ‘hegemony on a

shoestring’

Export crops – shea,

livestock and silk cotton

Labour reserve

Parsimony and lack of vision

Systematic

underdevelopment

Northern Territories of the Gold Coast Colony


Perceptions of African profligacy


‘Empire forestry’ in a colonial backwater

• False starts (1922-1937)

• Indirect rule - ’Native Authority Forestry’

• 66 forest reserves established (1943-1957)

• An unlikely alliance?

– Protection of headwaters of Volta River system (Akosombo Dam)

– Involuntary resettlement of up to 70,000 people (source of labour for groundnut production)

• West Africa Oil Seeds Mission (1947)

• ”... killing two big birds with one stone”(28 Oct. 1947)

• North Mamprusi Forestry Conference (Nov. 1947)


• Certificate of Occupancy - 130 km2 (approved by CCNT)

• Nominal capital of GBP 1 million (24% of all CWDA grants to Gold Coast/Ghana, 1946-1961)

• 19 expatriates and 47 technicians

• Multiple incentives but

• only 15 families moved from Zuarungu (1950-57)

• An abject failure – liquidated in 1957

• Pogucki’s report on land tenure ignored

• State Farms Corporation – post-independence efforts to promote mechanized agriculture also failed

Gonja Development Company


“…the Native Authority….personnel functioned without judicial

restraint and were never elected. Appointed from above, they

held office so long as they enjoyed the confidence of their

superiors. Their powers were diffuse, with little functional

specificity. . . . Native Courts, Native Administration, and a

Native Treasury . . . crystallized the ensemble of powers merged

in the office of the chief. . . . [T]hese powers also included a

fourth: making rules”.

Mamdani, M. 1996. Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of

Late Colonialism. Princeton University Press: Princeton: 53

See also Ribot, Berman, Spear and others

The roots of un-democratic features?


• 78% of land under customary ownership

• Administration of Lands Act, 1962– Customary land cannot be alienated

– Renewable leases (50 and 99 years) for foreigners and citizens respectively

– Traditional Authorities (Paramount Chiefs and village elders ) are the title holders with sole authority to negotiate and approve allocation of customary land

• Ghana Constitution, 1992– Compulsory acquisition through right to eminent domain

• National Land Policy, 1999 – protect landowners’ rights

• Land Administration Project (2003-)

Land administration in Ghana post 1962


• Agriculture 34% of GDP and employs 55% of population (2010)

• 20 commercial biofuel investments

• Estimated 1.184 million hectares of land allocated to biofuel companies

• 3 Norwegian companies responsible for more than 60% of acquired land area

• Less than 10,000 hectares under cultivation

• Land acquired through opaque processes of negotiation with Traditional Authorities

• Few approvals from Lands Commission, GIPC and EPA

Land acquisitions for biofuels in Ghana


Distribution of biofuel feedstock plantations


• Smallholder bush fallow (yam) farming being displaced by commercial Jatropha plantations

• Loss of access to land and forest resources

• Net value of employment probably less than net value of displaced economic activities

• Agricultural modernization for economic growth and structural transformation in rural areas?

• Reducing the north-south divide?

Impacts of land acquisition for biofuels


• Low population densities enabling access to large contiguous areas of land at low cost

• Little, if any, compensation (or evidence of Traditional Authorities negotiating compensation on behalf of their constituents)

• Elite capture - customary land users at the mercy of Traditional Authorities, and with few redress mechanisms

• Limited influence of Pogucki’s study and/or Customary Land Secretariats

• The continuing promise of ’development’?

Land acquisitions compared 1


• The incorporation of subject peoples into the arena of colonial power introduced a ’bifurcated state’ encompassing decentralized communities bound by customary laws but which, nevertheless, continued to serve a centralised power

• Customary land authorities remain invisible to the law

• Historically-embedded power relations limit the checks and balances on chiefly authority and, ultimately the utility of public intervention

Land acquisitions compared 2


Nature of right Extent of right Persons permitted to exercise rights

1 Hunting Unrestricted except that use of

steel traps is prohibited.

All inhabitants of the Bongo, Talense, Sekoti and Nangodi Local

Council areas.

2 Fishing Unrestricted. All inhabitants of the Bongo, Talense, Sekoti and Nangodi Local

Council areas. Fishing on permit also permitted for the following

strangers: 1. Denyi Adzarkaku 2. Norman Shama 3. Mensah Azandado

4. Gbetor Adziego

3 Collection of honey Unrestricted but not the months

of Oct. , Nov. and Dec.


Council areas.

4 Right to water and graze cattle Subject to control of the Forestry

Officer.


Council areas.

5 Right to maintain existing paths Unrestricted. All inhabitants of the Bongo, Talense, Sekoti and Nangodi Local

Council areas.

6 Right to cut sticks for making hoe handles,

axes and household implements

On free permit for personal use. All inhabitants of the Bongo, Talense, Sekoti and Nangodi Local

Council areas.

7 Right to collect clay, sand and stone On free permit. All inhabitants of the Bongo, Talense, Sekoti and Nangodi Local

Council areas.

8 Access to, and right to burn grass around

specific fetishes

Subject to control of the Forestry

Officer.


Council areas. Fetishes: 1. Kayengo 2. Goog 3. Dagani 4. Abura

5. Kparida 6. Tulanamoo 7. Sakpari. Access to the following fetishes:

1. Asoliperu 2. Gbelungaan.

9 Right to plant tobacco Along the river banks. All inhabitants of the Bongo, Talense, Sekoti and Nangodi Local

Council areas. Also to the following strangers: 1. Denyi Adzarkaku

2. Norman Shama 3. Mensah Azandado 4. Gbetor Adziego

10 Right to cut building poles On free permit at the discretion

of the Forestry Officer.

Also to the following strangers: 1. Denyi Adzarkaku 2. Norman Shama

3. Mensah Azandado 4. Gbetor Adziego.

11 Cutting of grass for mat making and

roofing. Collection of tie-tie, edible fruits,

herbaceous plants for medicinal purposes,

deadfall for firewood, white ants

Unrestricted The four strangers mentioned above can collect shea butter nuts and cut

grass to maintain their camps.

Reserve Settlement Commissions


Environment

250 years of land acquisitions in Ghana