RISULTATI RICERCA

Urban and peri-urban agriculture plays an increasing role in supplying towns with food supplies and provides the urban populations involved with the major part of their income from sources such as market garden crops, small-scale livestock rearing, poultry farming, fish farming, agro-forestry and associated post-harvest operations, etc., located within and around the urban area. Although such a location ensures easy access to services and markets, it is also a source of pressure on resources, while the cohabitation of town-dwellers, growers and livestock farmers often leads to conflict. Though urban and peri-urban agriculture remains unchanged and cannot be stopped, it is essential to note that the main challenge faced by the authorities is managing peri-urban areas in order to improve urban sustainability, enhance the urban food system, especially as regards food security; and minimize conflicts between agriculture and other land cover/land use activities. This paper describes a methodology for the identification, inventorying and monitoring of urban and peri-urban agricultural zones in The Gambia, based on a spatial-temporal analysis using Remote Sensing and GIS (Geographic Information System) techniques. The purpose of this document is to illustrate how GIS applications can be utilized to assist decision making and share existing experience in the promotion and development of urban and peri-urban agriculture.

Land management needs to be adapted to micro-level land tenure behavior, especially in customary/informal peri-urban areas. The focus of the paper is a case study and a framework for analyzing conflict and social change in peri-urban customary areas. An understanding of these issues is essential to land management in these areas. A 20-year history of Mgaga, an area south of Durban, South Africa, is presented, showing the evolving micro-level land tenure relationships which led to the development of an informal settlement on customary land. In 1959, the area was sparsely settled with scattered homesteads and a handful of kinship groups. By 1980, it was an informal settlement with over 5,000 people. A range of factors was responsible, including economic growth and urbanization in the region, as well as apartheid-based land use planning and urban management. However, development is also associated with the fact that the area was the nexus of three tribal wards belonging to competing headmen and their coalitions. The material presented is then used to create a rigorous framework for analyzing conflict and social change in land tenure systems under these conditions. The paper then shows how this framework has subsequently been used to design land titling approaches in Namibia, and for the development of land management approaches to informal settlement for a local government in South Africa.

The rate of urban growth is the single most important phenomenon transforming the pattern of human settlements. The unprecedented transformation is most pronounced in the land use changes in the peri-urban interface of the urban centers in Kenya. The peri-urban fringe is the transition zone between well-organized and recognized urban land uses, and areas devoted to agriculture. The problems witnessed in the peri-urban fringe stem from rapid urbanization and sagging urban economic productivity. Taking the capital city of Kenya, Nairobi, as a case study, this paper examines the land use changes in peri-urban Nairobi, with particular emphasis on the historical roots of land conversion changes. In addition, the paper examines the main changes within the peri-urban fringe over time in terms of physical issues, land use, tenure, housing development, and employment status. This is all the more important in view of the fact that arable land is limited and urban development of prime farmland threatens self-sufficiency in food production. The question of these locations, which are peripheral to large cities and land quality, are both considered. The paper ends by discussing the consequences of the transformation, and proposes the way ahead in the effective management of land markets in order to achieve social, economic, and environmental objectives of urbanization.

The conversion of rural land into urban soil in advanced economies has been extensively investigated, and has consequences which differ widely from those in poor economies, which have as yet received little attention, particularly in tropical Africa. Though Niger has the highest rate of urban growth in all of tropical Africa, it is also one of the countries that is poorest in terms of prime farmland, and has the world’s lowest per capita income. This paper investigates whether urbanization in the communauté urbaine of Niamey (the capital of Niger) generates or aggravates urban food insecurity. It first examines patterns in agro-pastoral production, demand for foodstuffs, and buying power. The paper then analyzes the characteristics of food insecurity, the measures taken to alleviate it, and the problems encountered in implementing these measures. It was found that Niamey’s high rate of urban growth has brought greater food insecurity for its inhabitants. However, the problem is not simply due to the loss of farmland (and hence of agricultural production) resulting from urban encroachment. Food insecurity is caused by a variety of other factors: the low productivity of peri-urban agriculture, insufficient influxes of provisions from neighboring areas, sharp increases in the demand for foodstuffs, increasing prices, extreme poverty, and a nutrient-poor diet. The measures that have been taken fail to strike at the roots of food insecurity, one of which is the uncertainty of land tenure. Niamey’s demographic increase is inevitable. If effective policies for increasing peri-urban agro-pastoral production are not put into place, food insecurity can only increase.

Over the last forty years, the urban population of Tropical Africa has increased seven-fold: more than anywhere else on the planet. To date, this intense process of urbanization has chiefly been investigated from the demographic standpoint, i.e., in terms of population growth. Conversely, little is known of urbanization’s physical component: the expansion of cities. This paper reviews the literature on rural-urban land conversion in the major capital cities of Tropical Africa, first focusing on the extent, type and methods of conversion. This is followed by an examination of conversion’s repercussions on peri-urban desertification, food insecurity, urban poverty and environmental degradation. Finally, the paper assesses the literature dealing with the urban planning efforts associated with conversion, concluding that our knowledge of its extent, type and methods is limited to a few capital cities. By contrast, the repercussions of conversion have been investigated in a much wider range of urban centers. The literature suggests a variety of measures for planning conversion. These measures, however, do not appear to be feasible without first recognizing the rights of those who possess the land (its customary owners), those who use it (the farmers) and those who work it or occupy it illegally (squatters). Without land reform, none of the measures that have been proposed for regulating land conversion can be put into practice. In this fundamental area, however, the literature on rural-urban land conversion has little to say.

Il saggio analizza il principio di «non regresso» contenuto in molte direttive comunitarie in materia di politica sociale e volto ad impedire la riduzione del livello di tutela, riconosciuto dagli ordinamenti interni nell’ambito di un determinato istituto, nell’attuazione della relativa direttiva comunitaria. L’attenzione è concentrata in modo particolare sulle caratteristiche e sulla natura del principio, nonché sull’ambito della comparazione fra il livello di tutela interno precedente e quello successivo alla fonte comunitaria. Si ricercano, poi, le ragioni che escludono la violazione del «non regresso» e consentono di ridurre la «soglia» di protezione dei lavoratori, privilegiando un’interpretazione caratterizzata dall’individuazione di uno stretto legame fra il principio stesso ed alcune norme del Trattato Ce, in modo tale da valorizzare la regola contenuta nelle direttive comunitarie, ed evitare al contempo un’eccessiva ingerenza delle fonti europee nel diritto interno.

Il saggio affronta il tema della flessibilità del lavoro, con particolare riferimento alla flessibilità in entrata e alle tipologie contrattuali atipiche (lavoro temporaneo, lavoro a tempo parziale, lavoro a tempo determinato). Attraverso un’analisi comparata, l’autore si sofferma soprattutto sulla dimensione degli interessi che si agitano nel dibattito giuslavoristico, mettendo in luce i diversi punti di vista sulla flessibilità. L’impresa, il lavoratore, il sindacato, le istituzioni pubbliche e quelle sopranazionali concorrono, ciascuno con i propri interessi, a definire i tratti di un fenomeno che sta trasformando i sistemi di diritto del lavoro, tra spinte alla deregolamentazione e tentativi di riregolamentazione.