Land tenure
Concerning the land tenure, following the promulgation of many laws, the process of privatization has been accelerated which encouraged the people to transform the rangelands into cropping fields and now most of the land has become private. This has resulted in the extension of olive orchards at the expense of grazing lands. The evolution of the land tenure is linked to the attribution of the collective lands as private ownerships. The collective situation of the land has undergone a constant evolution during three main periods (1901-1964, 1964-1974 and 1974-1998). The area of the collective lands decreased from 99,150 ha in 1901 to 19,680 ha in 1998, i.e. a reduction of 80 %. 86 % have been attributed to private owners whereas the remaining (14%) are proclaimed as ranges within forest lands. During the period 1964-1974, the private lands doubled whereas it increased only by 19% between 1974 and 1998 due to the attribution procedures as well as the encountered difficulties at the level of some communities: the process of privatization is complex and requires a full agreement between the members of each community (tribes). The current land tenure situation of the study zone is characterized by two features: The prevalence of the small sized properties. 50 % of the farms have a maximum area of 5 ha, the property division is rather reduced (Sghaier et al., 2003).
