Since 1970, in greater Libreville like in other sub-Saharan cities of Africa, space occupation has been dominated by individual initiative. Despite the many rules and regulations in land and urbanism, the most common practice in land appropriation remains squatting and spontaneous urbanisation. This form of territorial occupation and the rapid demographic growth of Libreville have given rise to under-integrated neighbourhoods and uncontrolled city extension. Today, in order to curb this trend, a new model of land administration has been put into practice: decentralization. This movement has led to recomposition of urban land, whose occupation and control represent major geopolitical and economic issues. This analytical outline of Libreville’s development process is focused on land occupation strategies and issues of the political administrative breakdown of the urban administrative units.