19 MARTINDALE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE common practice is for the community to grant them perpetual use rights to the land. Even though these usage rights can lead to exploitation and overuse, in many instances the community establishes norms to protect against such results. Community decisions on who obtains which rights are decided by social status, wealth, and political position (USAID, 2011). Such decisions can obviously lead to disparities, which is a major issue with communal land today. A closer look into communal life reveals some of the strengths and weaknesses of the current land system, specifically in exploring the livelihoods of the Mesioui people, inhabitants of the High Atlas Mountains in central Morocco. The collective Mesioui are one group, but they comprise many different smaller groups and villages. One such group is the Mountain Mesioui, 23,000 people spread across five tribal factions and 80 villages (Dominguez, 2017). The people there speak Tachelhit, a Berber dialect, along with Arabic, often learned from watching television. Collective resources are managed by the community, and it is the specific duty of designated members to look over shared resources. In the summer, access to a nearby forest is prohibited to conserve resources (animals can graze elsewhere, and there is no need for wood as heat). In the winter, access to the land is open for everyone. In other places, herding is also limited to prevent degradation. These management mechanisms are designed to prevent overuse of the land. Land is managed through all male heads of households in this region. According to research by Pablo Dominguez (2017), who lived with the Mountain Mesioui, the role of the male head of household runs much deeper than land management. These men are also in charge of the political, religious, ethical, and economical organization of their families and the community. This heavy involvement effectively prevents the representation of women as well as younger men until they form their own households. Women here are further disadvantaged by the fact that a low percentage of them speak Arabic, a language more common outside the region. Additionally, they receive less education, instead committing their time to domestic work at home. Not speaking the common language or receiving quality education could block exit opportunities for women living on collective land. By comparison, in urban areas, women generally enjoy greater rights (Hanafi & Hites, 2017). In the case of the Mountain Mesioui peoples, payments are made to gain the right to access the land and its resources. As the wealth of some inhabitants increased, they were able to purchase parts of the collective land. Interestingly, as land became privatized, it also became more agricultural, which angered many traditional Mountain Mesioui living there. The speed of privatization was slow, with 15 hectares of the 20 square kilometers of the region devoted to agriculture in 1960, rising to only 34 hectares in 2006. Nomadic pastoralizing remains the dominant activity, contributing to about two-thirds of the region’s economy (Dominguez & Benessaiah, 2017). The collective land of the High Atlas Mountains is thus being sustained, albeit unequally, by social institutions implemented by the heads of households. Systems are in place for the management, protection, and sale of property. When community members protest expropriations, it is these systems and way of life that they are trying to protect. Expropriations of communal land and corresponding controversies The rights of communities to share in the wealth of collective land have not blended well with the country’s developmental and social goals. Government surveyors, working with the World Bank, have reported that about 80% of collective pastureland is degraded; however, such assessments are based on a sample of only 640 hectares of land (Rignall, 2015). The generalization that communal land is abused, underdeveloped, and unproductive has been used many times in the past in attempts to privatize it and should be contrasted with communities like the Mountain Mesioui (Chaudier, 2023). An example of the government using this justification was the creation of the Ouarzazate solar field, built on critical nomadic land that was labeled as desert (Rignall, 2015). Economic inequality is also a problem on collective land for almost all women living there as well as for men who are not delegated usage rights by the community council. These men can also be excluded from the list of inhabitants who are due compensation when land is privatized (Berriane, 2017). For instance, of the 10 million inhabitants on collective lands, at best a quarter have rights to collect compensation in cases of privatization (Chaudier, 2023). Inequality may still exist, even for those with collective rights. In a study on eastern Moroccan communal territories, wealth is measured primarily in livestock. Kreuer (2011), a researcher of communal land, found that there were many small herders but few very large herders (i.e., with 300 or more sheep), reflecting typical inequalities. In total, less than 1% of nomads living in this territory owned cars; however, for owners of large herds, the level went up to just over 50%. Social discrepancies, along with the
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