336 Scarcity and Surfeit
many areas, more powerful clans pushed their herds onto the farming and
pasture lands of weaker groups and clans, and freely grazed livestock on their
crops. Widespread alienation of land and resources from weaker clans and
groups is ongoing today.
Following the break-up of the formal state in Somalia, occupation of land
for political purposes aggravated existing resource scarcities felt by under-
privileged peasant cultivators and pastoralists. Although confusing and com-
plicated in explanation, occupation of land for political reasons has become
a severe problem in war-torn Somalia. While some people use the occupied
land for farming purposes, the majority claim land ownership for political
motives. Most factions in Somalia occupy lands that are outside their areas of
customary control. Political occupations of land are common throughout the
Lower Shabelle region, where land rights are claimed by the Digil-Mirifle clan
who are native to the Bay and Bakol regions. Another area is Jubbaland,
where competing Somali clans claim ownership of specific land (or deegaan).
Land and resource tenure is related to other environmental problems.
Structures to administer laud in Africa suffer from the same weaknesses as
other components of the state. They are often highly centralised and attempt
to reach and implement decisions in a top-down manner, yet are ineffective
in practice because of resource constraints, corruption and 'capture' by pri-
vate interest In the case of Somalia, the absence of land use policies
causes uncertainty and conflict among various user groups, including pas-
toralists, agro-pastoralists and farmers. Insecure rights to access and control
land and natural resources hinder development and the fair sharing of bene-
fits. Resolution of land disputes remains a prominent challenge for the TNG,
authorities of the ruling Jubbaland Alliance in southern Somalia, as well as
the judiciary of any future broad-based Somali government.
Apart from the natural resources available in the area, occupation of land
for political reasons is another recent and very problematic trend. These land
occupations create a powerful disincentive to negotiate on the part of some
clans who find themselves in possession of other lands which are not theirs,
but which they hold to help bargain for a bigger share from the future nation-
al cake. In the past, pastoralists and agro-pastoralists fought over water and
pasture. The civil war introduced another significant problem of land dis-
putes in urban settings.
In Somalia, access to and control of land relates to power, to centre-periph-
ery relationships, and to resource allocations. It centres, in other words, on
politic^.^' Indeed, control of land and resources are central to politics and
conflict in contemporary Somalia.40