Institutions, sustainable land use and consumer welfare: the case of forest and grazing lands in northern Ethiopia

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Land is an essential factor of production. Institutions that govern its efficient use determine the sustainability of this essential resource. In Ethiopia all land is publicly owned. Such an institutional setting is said to have resulted in the major degradation of Ethiopia's land resources and dissipation of the resource rent. An alternative to this is assigning a private property institution. In this paper, we examine the consumer welfare effects of a change in the institutional setting on communal forest and grazing lands, using a cross-section data set of 200 households in Northern Ethiopia. Findings suggest that changing the current institutional setting could indeed be welfare reducing.

Tenure Insecurity, Climate Variability and Renting out Decisions among Female Small-Holder Farmers in Ethiopia

“…The pre-1975 land tenure system in Ethiopia has been vested in either the rist system, the gult system (private land holding), or the church [22]. The rist system, a communal land tenure system, in which the right to land was not exclusive but shared, implied individuals had usufruct rights to land in a given community on the condition that claimants could establish a direct line of descent from the recognized original holder of the land.…”

“…The rist system, a communal land tenure system, in which the right to land was not exclusive but shared, implied individuals had usufruct rights to land in a given community on the condition that claimants could establish a direct line of descent from the recognized original holder of the land. Distribution of land within the rist system was based on the principle of equality, with the land allocated by lottery after being divided into parcels according to quality, making it fairly egalitarian [12,22]. The individual's rights to land under this system were not transferable to others through sale or mortgage, although there was room for temporary lease [23].…”

“…On average, there were two adults to each hectare. Secure property rights are considered an important catalyst for leasing out decisions, the argument being that landlords can only be confident of leasing out land if the benefits of renting out land, in terms of increased productivity are larger than the risk of expropriation [22,37,38]. Furthermore, average yield potential or productivity of plots (i.e., i m ) is represented by physical characteristics of the plot which include plot fertility, plot slope, and soil color; and the number of livestock per hectare of the plot.…”

The Environment for Development Initiative: lessons learned in research, academic capacity building and policy intervention to manage resources for sustainable growth

“…Meanwhile, EfD researchers were gathering data on how forests are managed at the community level in Ethiopia (see, for example, Mekonnen, 2009; Mekonnen et al , 2010); Damte and Mekonnen, 2011; Gebreegziabher et al , 2011); Damte et al , 2012; Damte et al , 2013); Gelo and Koch, 2012; Damte and Koch, 2013). As in many other countries, most forest land in Ethiopia has been government owned and, in theory, government controlled.…”