Local Agreements:
Local agreements (or local conventions) on the utilization and protection
of natural resources which regulate use and access are important tools
for the decentralized management of natural resources. They have been
promoted in West Africa since the 1990s. They encompass all kinds of
formal or informal regulations between all resource users. They can be applicable
to the inter-village or communal level as well as to wider spatial
management units. Responsibility for the use of common pool resources
is assigned to a group. The government takes a hands-off approach, no
longer influencing matters directly. It retains a supervisory role, however,
ensuring that the user associations comply with certain basic conditions
in order to be viable. In addition, it enables groups to carry out their functions,
especially regarding technical matters and the enforcement of legal
claims such as sanctions for violations of standards.