INHERITANCE, LAND FRAGMENTATION, AND ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE: EVIDENCE FROM YORUBA CUSTOMARY LAND TENURE IN SOUTHWEST NIGERIA

Customary inheritance patterns are rarely examined in environmental governance, despite having a significant influence on land-use decisions in many African nations. This study examined how the Yoruba Ori-O-Jori customary inheritance system contributes to environmental deterioration in Southwest Nigeria through land fragmentation, tenure insecurity, and unplanned urban growth. The mixed-methods approach included an examination of twelve inheritance-related court cases, sixty-four semi-structured interviews with farmers, Baales, and sand miners, supervised classification of lands at satellite imagery (2010–2024), and local government land transaction records from specific communities in Ogun and Oyo States. The findings highlight three primary ways that customary inheritance affects the environment. First, frequent fragmentation of family land reduces the economic viability of inherited plots by encouraging their sale and hastening their destruction. Second, insecure customary tenure discourages long-term investment in sustainable forestry and agriculture while promoting extractive businesses like sand mining and timber harvesting. Third, inheritance-driven land sales raise the risk of urban floods by enabling uncontrolled residential expansion on ecologically sensitive territory. A review of the study data revealed that over 38% of the recorded deforestation events in the study area between 2018 and 2023 were connected to land transfers related to inheritance. The study argues that customary inheritance should be recognised as a legal and environmental institution, with significant implications for climate adaptation and sustainable land governance. It recommends integrating traditional land management with environmental policy through family land conservation trusts, environmental inheritance assessments, and incentive-based conservation initiatives. These adjustments would bring indigenous land governance into line with Nigeria's climate obligations while promoting biodiversity conservation, ecosystem resilience, and intergenerational environmental stewardship.