ESTATE MANAGEMENT AND LAND USE.

INTRODUCTION,

An estate is any landed property, which could be a land consisting of

building infrastructure or simply a piece of land .The aspect of management, is
indeed the big trouble question which comes to the mind of every estate
owner, because it has to deal with operations or better still management
operations, as stipulated by section 55 of the town planning laws NO.
2004/OO3 OF 21ST APLRIL 2004. Giving provisions for land management
operations ,which shall be to organize the maintenance , extension or approval
of new housing activities, providing collective equipment’s safeguard or
develop built on or non─ built on land and natural spaces. With this said here is
when intervenes the second aspect of land use.

FACTORS WHICH influence the acquisition of an estate.

1 The location of the estate,

This will depend on weather the estate is found in the rural or urban
area , this will do with the cost price of the estate, which with the price
difference existing between both areas, influenced by the supply, it is very
cheap to acquire a piece of land in Muea, Buea than in Bonanjo ,Douala.
Which we know is found in the economic capital, characterized by many
business activities.

2 the purpose for which the estate is intended for,

This has to do with the type of activity which the owner wants to carry on his
estate, nowadays most people in the acquisition of an estate have as prior
motive the making of profit, although some may simply want to have it to
construct their personal houses.

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3 the person who wants to acquire the estate,

Here we talk of the government, private individual , a private company or

even multinationals, because they will need to check the availability, of
resources, the environment , and if they will be able to archive their goal and
find all what they are in search of in that estate.

Besides these factors order factors will include,

─ the climatic area of the estate, this has to deal with the weather conditions
in the area, if this will favor , whatsoever expropriatory activity is intended on
the land. This has to do with mostly agricultural purpose. It should be noted
that here it is advisable for the someone wanting to acquire an estate to take
this factor very seriously because there is no way one can fight climatic
conditions.

─ the relief of the estate, this has to do with the topography of the area, that
is how undulated is the surface area of the estate because this will
influenced the type of crop to be cultivated of the said estate if purposed for
agriculture, for example banana as a cash crop will necessitate a flat surface
area for the connection of water pipes to keep watering the plants, but for
the construction of a building the relief will only influence its construction to
a certain extent, but many at times with the availability of machines such as
caterpillars and bulldozers such problems have been over come.

─ Natural features, here we talk of the presence of water bodies such as

streams, lakes which may either be within the estate, cut across or besides
the estate. Apart from this we also have hills, valleys, but such estate with
any of such features as stipulated by the Cameroonian law belongs to the
government , neither should any infrastructure be put there, never the less
individual strive to expropriate these places illegally by cultivating food
crops.

A ─ESTATE MANAGEMENT,

Management on its own can be regarded as the act of making and keeping
something functional, which necessitate a master know how of the said
activity, for an achievement to be attained.

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 Estate management on its part necessitate the following aspects to be
taken into consideration, fore casting, planning , coordination , commanding
and control. But before this the good question is who is fit or better still who
is legible to manage an estate,

All government land due to the process of decentralization are manage by

the Senior Divisional officer and at the council level the town planner working
in collaboration with the government delegate and the services of the senior
divisional officer to design , manage and partition the various estates for use.

The government has also come up with order efficient bodies who are in
charge of managing its estates such as MAGZI, who are in charge of managing
all state industrial zones, we also have the rural and urban land equipment ,
MAETUR. Societe Immobilier du Cameroun, SIC.

On the order hand, we have private individuals and multinationals wanting

to develop their estate with the aim of exploiting it to the fullest, often seek
aid from order estate experts. These to be able to meet up with its
achievement, such as, the American banana company, DELMONTE and the
French group of BOLLORE whose aim is to maximize profit at all cost.

Like we earlier mentioned above , managing an estate properly for it to be

prosperous will require,

1 The ability of forecasting,

This has to do with speculation , base on two main aspects, economic, and
projection for a rise or an increase in the size of the population,

The economic aspect here is often considered by most companies, who may
see the need to diversify the exploitation of their estate, these was the case
in PENJA ,Douala with most of its cocoa and coffee companies diverting to
the production of the white pepper , in order to be more competitive in the
word market, which here we will say was very thought full of them when
they realize white pepper will do well on their basaltic soil and today a
kilogram of white pepper is sold at ten thousand francs, in the country , with
that of Cameroon being the most convicted for in the world market.

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This also has to do with most petroleum products on their speculation in the
word market today.

The government, does economic speculations. But is not easily noticeable,

but on the speculator aspect of population the government does embark on
the construction of low cost housing for its citizens. Even in the production of
its food crops.

Besides this we also have technology which goes along with population,
which most American and French companies, of general motors and Peugeot
have known how to go about exploiting this field, deporting most of their
industries to the order end of the Asian ocean of China and Japan to acquire
new estates to establishment of their companies this areas, where the
population is on an exponential increase. These to be more competitive with
their local industries of Toyota and Mitsubishi. Order examples will include
APPLE AND SAMSUNG.

2 Planning.

It is so vital to do planning or better strategizing, because this determines to

the success or failure in the course of the management of an estate, a simple
example will be part of the CDC plantation found in Buea, between the
Malingo and Muea neigbour hood which had to be given out to the
population for construction, on the order hand the CDC s extending its estate
to new areas, like Boa in Mamfe, this goes with planning. Comparing this with
the situation of Nkongsamba ,Douala, with the close up of its cocoa industries
, we can see that no proper planning was done.

3 Coordination

any form of management will necessitate the coordination of various activity

to move on smoothly be it for the cultivation of crops on a farm land which
will necesssite the expertise of a specialist , for example an agronomist or
biologist to coordinate an agricultural estate.

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4 Commanding

IT is advisable for any estate owner to have a clear idea of the activity he
wants to carry on the estate, if its for a business purpose it is for the owner to
analyze the environment in which he finds him self taking into consideration
various options at his disposal , but most especially if he will be able can
modify the estate use, for example the transformation of his business shops
into residential apartment which is the case of Molyko, in Buea where with
the implantation of the university most estate shop owners were able to
switch to residential apartments.

5 Controlling

Most estate owners be it the government or private will like to have total
control or hand on their estate , but in most countries which is also the case
of Cameroon it is the government which has an upper hand , through its
policies , wanting every estate operator to be in conformity with its rules and
regulation.

LAND USE;

Land use is subjected to social control which restrict the freedom of individual
estate management, which happens to respect the recommendations and
provisions of the land use plan. Which comes to re enforce the town
planning rules applicable to that area

Land Use Plan

Like the Urban Master Plan that is drawn up by the Ministry of housing and
Urban Development, the Land Use Plan is different from the Master Plan in
that it is recommended and approved by Prefectural order
The Land Use Plan is a document which gives guide lines on how the town
shall be planned. Indeed, it is thanks to this document that council apply or
confirms town planning in their municipalities , namely through its regulations
(combination of written rules and mapping documents) that constitute its
normative corpus

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 Generally speaking, the Land Use Plan sets, in compliance with the Urban
Master Plan where necessary, the general provisions and easements for use
and land occupation that are applicable to the entire territory of the council
concerned for the medium term of 10 to 15 years .

CONCLUSION

Haven reach at this point , we shall be concluding by saying that from the
various illustrations and analyses made as went on exploiting this theme,
which here it will be good for us to recall , estate management and land use. It
will be advisable for anyone who wants to embark on an estate to go through
this document and seek the advice of a professional, such as a town planner
who is in better position, to have a mastery of not only land use but also its
policies to advise someone.

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TABLE CONTENT PAGE

ESTATE MANAGEMENT AND LAND USE……………………………………………….1

INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………………….1

FACTORS INFLUENCING THE ACQUISITION OF AN ESTATE…………………….1

ESTATE MANAGEMENT…………………………………………………………………………2

LAND USE……………………………………………………………………………………………..5

CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………………6

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 BIBLIOGRAPHY

TOWN PLANNING LAWS

URBAN PLANNING TOOLS IN CAMEROON , CRITICAL ANALYSIS . BY JEAN

YANGO , ECONOMIST AND TOWN PLANNER

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