Abstract

Agricultural development has been linked with colonization - population movements and use of underexploited lands. Rapid natural population growth combined with limited agricultural potential in the densely settled centre Bandama region of the Ivory Coast has led to a major exodus toward the tropical part of the country, where population density is low and agricultural potential high. To help settle the major land tenure and ethnic conflicts that have emerged with the local inhabitants, this project will describe the migration and evaluate its effects on agricultural investments, economic growth, and ethnic conflict and recommend policies that may facilitate successful colonization -- both from the point of view of the sending and receiving zones.

Post-Project Summary

The research included an upstream and downstream component. The upstream aspect focused on a sample of 41 villages divided into 189 groups of extended families and 3 121 family units. The survey dealt with demographic structure, reasons for leaving, destinations, length of absence, and relationship between place of origin and new home. The downstream aspect involved 6 705 individuals from 20 communities in 10 subprefectures of four departments. The four data-gathering forms were designed to elicit demographic information (age, household composition, origin of migrants), to assess the areas under cultivation and the crops produced, and to examine relations with the place of origin. The researchers highlighted the frequency of relations with home villages, the reasons for returning, and the circulation of information, people, goods and money. The results of the study led to the conclusion that Baoulé migration toward the forested land to the West is not driven by temporary economic circumstances. On the contrary, it reflects a structural dynamic related to the weakness of the savanna economy. For many farmers, migration is the only solution to the problem of inhospitable surroundings. On the other hand, it seems that the human resources shortage in the Southwest has now been resolved. Although local people were long passive in the face of migration, they are beginning to see it as a threat. Upstream, it will be impossible to undertake any sizable development operation without paying serious attention to stopping the "demographic leakage" posed by rural migration. One of the most urgent tasks with respect to the current migratory trend is to foster cooperation and consultation between political and administrative authorities in both the source and the destination regions. Such an approach would facilitate the search for legal mechanisms of settling outsiders in the forest and arbitrating disputes between neighbors.

Recipient Institution(s)