Land Grabbing, a Virus in the Fruit of Food Sovereignty in West Africa: A Case Study from ‘Office du Niger’ Zone in Mali

Major challenges have emerged in recent years in Mali, related to land governance, access to and securing of land for family farms, and, most significantly, the appropriation of land by private national and international companies in areas with high agricultural potential. These challenges are related, more generally, to the current trends in the privatization of agricultural land in Mali. Land legislation has been under reform in Mali for diverse purposes, aiming to promote land registration, do away with public estate land, recognize customary rights in their diversity, as well as to promote the decentralization of land management through the creation of local land institution. Yet, in the context of the appropriation of large tracts of land, particularly in irrigated and irrigable areas, to private international and local players, the more progressive aspects of the legislative reforms may be marginalized under the weight of land grabs and land speculation. This chapter begins with some conceptual issues related to sustainable natural resource management, before focusing on the land question in Mali and the specific case of land appropriation in the Office du Niger (ON) zone.