LE CADASTRE A LEPREUVE DES PERCEPTIONS STRUCTURANT LA MOBILISATION CITOYENNE A COTONOU

Benin has been undertaking land reform aimed at ensuring land security for all since 2009. The Land and Public Property Code, enacted in 2013 and amended in 2017, designates the land registry as an important tool for ensuring land security in Articles 452 through 486. The implementation of this land registry began in Benin in 2020 in several municipalities, including Cotonou. Although it is a tool for land security, the public is reluctant to support the implementation process. Based on the premise that landowners hold perceptions that undermine their effective participation in cadastral operations, this article aims to describe these perceptions based on the discourses produced by the various stakeholders. To achieve this, a qualitative approach in the social sciences was adopted. Thus, semi-structured interviews and direct observation were used for data collection. Through purposive sampling, 21 stakeholders were interviewed. The empirical data were subjected to triangulation and content analysis and then discussed in light of social representation theory. The results show that the implementation of the land registry is a process-oriented endeavor, revealing the existence of a mechanism that structures the operations and requires the participation of landowners and other stakeholders at every stage. However, conflicting perceptions of the land registry persist and act as a barrier to civic engagement.