Woodcutting and territorial claims in Mali

► Newly-created territorial institutions cannot ignore the pre-existing customary powers that already control the access to space and resource. ► The means of resistance of state and customary authorities to decentralization, which-as a territorialization process-is equated with a loss of control over people and resources. ► Territorial claims are linked with contrasted registers of legitimate land uses and arguments of autochthony. ► Micro-level spatial practices have an instrumental role in the establishment of territorial claims. ► The transfer of authority in forest resource management to woodcutters' organizations has been used in Mali as a tool by customary authorities to establish their authority over their populations and territories.