Applying the centrifugal organizational model for pastoralists and other competing communities on the Ethiopian landscape and the shift to agriculture after 1975

Abstract

For the past four decades pastoralist activities have been pushed to marginal areas in several regions of Ethiopia. This change was initiated by The Agrarian Land Reform Proclamation of 1974. Pastoralist activities prior to the agrarian reforms was strongly connected to the Earth and developed symbiotically. A connection to the Earth through symbiotic relationships has been shown to foster sustainability. There are a few goals of this paper: 1. to apply the centrifugal organizational model, originally synthesized in the field of plant community ecology, to the changing environment and pastoralism in Ethiopia, 2. to demonstrate a shift from periphery habitat to the core habitat with respect to land use since the agrarian reform in 1974, 3. to demonstrate a loss of connectedness with the Earth in regions of Ethiopia.