Participatory Land Use Planning: towards a conceptual outline for a practical approach to land use planning in Sahelian countries

This paper is a critique of conventional (FAO) approaches and practices in land use planning in the Sahelian zone of Africa. The need for land use planning in Africa (particularly the Sahel) is outlined in the first section. The second section describes the evolution of land use planning systems, and the process involved in conventional systems. The fourth section discusses problems with the application of land use planning in Africa, the main critiques being the weakness of a hard systems/top-down approach. these are contrasted with the value of a soft systems/insiders' view approach. The fifth section outlines the principles for participatory land use planning (PLUP), that it: produce advice for farmers in a short space of time, which is easy to understand, and which is widely applicable to varying communities in the Sahel. PLUP should be based primarily on local needs, involving land users in the whole planning process, and providing advice which is not prescriptive but facilitative, and which solves specific problems. PLUP should strengthen village level capacities for land resource analysis and structures for management, combining top-down and grassroots information. Suitable advice should be given in a non-prescriptive way, and feedback and monitoring mechanisms should be established. The final section discusses alternatives to conventional/FAO LUP, and a tentative framework for PLUP is outlined.