Land tenure links to resource degradation: the case of central Ethiopia

This article attempts to explore the links between land tenure and resource degradation during the present regime in two Kebele Administrations (KAs)of Central Ethiopia, located at about 65 km south of Addis Ababa, at two sequential levels. First, at a general level emphasizing agrarian and rural development dynamics. Second, in the specific contexts of the prevailing socio-economic statuses of peasant households concentrating on land tenure insecurity, resource extraction from peasants and poverty. Evidences show that insecurity of land tenure is less painful to the rich than the poor, although the constraints imposed by such insecurity on tree planting and soil conservation are considerable. Peasants refrain from emphasizing long-term use of land resources and concentrate on short-term gains. This 'short-term sightedness' is mainly manifested by the poorest section of the peasants. The emerging land-use dynamics such as sharecropping, land lease and sale have not been legalized and therefore the conditions under which they are practiced remain destructive to land resources. Resource extraction from peasants has been both the cause of poverty and an impediment to improve production technology in turn shaping the patterns of resource uses, conservation and management. The severity of resource overexploitation stemming from resource extraction is much more pronounced in the case of the most impoverished category of peasants, providing empirical confirmation to the belief that poverty leads to resource degradation, the environment. As a whole, many peasants express resentment about state landownership and suggest that the government should not necessarily be the owner of the land, but rather an outside actor, to facilitate and guard ownership rights and take action if necessary. State landownership is seen as a challenge to their autonomy, needs, interests and long-term conservation of land resources. The degree of this varies across peasant socio-economic categories. The convergence point as to the required type of land tenure needs to reflect varied socio-economic stances and the different kinds of uses to which pieces of lands are put, which means multiple tenure systems: private, group/communal and possibly state ownership. This in turn appears requiring cadastral survey and a restructuring of the agrarian economy.