Assessing the Contribution of Participatory Mapping Data Collection Methods in Detecting and Mitigating Land Boundary Conflicts on Farm Areas: A Methodological Framework

Land conflict is a serious and sensitive issue in Africa. Disputes about land occur at all levels, which are: Conflicts between neighbors about field boundaries; between pastoralists and farmers; between states and indigenous peoples; etc (Wardell & Lund, 2006). These conflicts are a serious threat to agricultural and land productivity. Now our days there exist several methods of land data collection which facilitates land conflict mitigation, and each of these methods are been explained in various papers. However, none of these papers have compared these methods to bring out their unique contribution as a means to assist practitioners in identifying land conflicts prone areas. Our research is centered around the question: what is the distinctive contribution of each land data collection methods in identifying land conflict prone areas during participatory mapping? Using a case study of three villages in Mbalmayo (Cameroon), our research adopts an approach that combines farmland data from interviews, questionnaires, consultative meetings, field visits, demarcation of farm boundaries; recording of Ground Corner Points using Catalyst DA2, UAV flights, and participatory mapping. In this paper, we discuss the usefulness and limitation of each method, highlighting their unique contribution to the holistic understanding of the context of Mbalmayo and the mitigation of land conflicts. The study was conducted from June to October 2023. The results of our analysis shows that amongst the eight methods used to collect farmland data, six of these methods had a distinctive contribution that facilitated the mitigation process by precisely identifying the land boundary conflicts zones. The ideas provided by this paper can serve as guidelines for researchers and practitioners interested in mitigating land conflicts through participatory mapping approaches.