Abrar Juhar Mohammed

Explaining disparity in outcome from community-based natural resource management (CBNRM): a case study in Chilimo Forest, Ethiopia

This paper examines the constraints on achieving positive social and environmental outcomes from community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) in Ethiopia, a rarely researched country. A comparative case study on successful and failed CBNRM in a pioneering and influential CBNRM project revealed the important determinant for disparity in outcome to be whether the existing collective decision-making arrangements on use rights and benefit-sharing support the members to whom those benefits are salient. Institutionalising CBNRM in government forest policy and improving the capacity to implement it are recommended to improve current conditions.

Exploring decentralized forest management in Ethiopia using actor-power-accountability framework: case study in West Shoa zone

Decentralized forest management is a pivotal approach in Ethiopia for balancing biodiversity conservation with demand for economic development, and for improving forest-dependent local peoples’ livelihoods. With the aim of filling the literature gap on Ethiopia, this paper explores the dynamics of decentralization in the forestry sector using the actor-power-accountability framework. Generally, three forms of decentralization are practiced: deconcentration to government administrative branches, devolution of selected decision-making power to local people, and delegation to enterprises. Although transfer of meaningful discretionary power to local people or to downwardly accountable lower-tier governments is a precondition for achieving positive outcomes from decentralization, this prerequisite has been realized in none of the three forms decentralization. Overall, three important trends emerged from the latest decentralization reform, which was a switch from the conservation-oriented deconcentration form of decentralization to the income generation-oriented delegation form of decentralization. Those trends are as follows: monetary income generation for local people through enterprise, albeit with possible risk of being deprived of income and subsistence opportunities on which local people depend for their livelihoods; moving decision-making power away from the grassroots; and lack of incentive to manage natural forests, a major source of biodiversity.

Drawbacks of decentralized natural resource management: experience from Chilimo Participatory Forest Management project, Ethiopia

This paper highlights the drawbacks of decentralized natural resource management in the rarely researched country, Ethiopia. We argue that, under the guise of decentralization policies, the central government extended its authority and also forced the high costs of its policy onto local people. In addition, local authorities have been dominated by local leaders who have changed rules to their own advantage. Moreover, the central government has failed to support local authorities. We also show the negative impacts of the shortcomings of decentralization on natural resource governance by local people, including lessened discharge of responsibilities for management and exclusion, as well as on people’s livelihoods, as in the polarization of benefits.

Forest-dependent communities' livelihood in decentralized forest governance policy epoch: case study from West Shoa zone, Ethiopia

This study analyzed the livelihoods of households located in and around forests in Ethiopia, and investigated the impacts of two major forest policies of the country, delegation and devolution. The results showed that forest-related livelihoods are an important mechanism to cope with drought and concomitant food shortages. The forest is also an important source of income, especially for the relatively resource-poor community and for the poor and very poor households in the community. The delegation policy has frustrated this role of the forest in local peoples livelihoods while devolution yielded mixed results, with some forest-related benefits declining while others showed increase.

Present State of Community Forestry (Hutan Kemasyarakatan/HKm) Program in a Protection Forest and Its Challenges: Case Study in Lampung Province, Indonesia

This article discusses the state of a community forestry program in a protection forest in Indonesia, which has been running for almost two decades. We found that the program did not achieve its objective mainly because of frequent changes in regulations. There are also activities such as: measuring and mapping working area boundaries, drawing up a work plan, planting, maintenance and security, paying royalties to those who harvest forest resources, and submitting annual reports on land use to the district government head, which have not worked as expected. We also found that the major incentives for local people to participate in the program are getting certificates of management and the program’s effectiveness in minimizing land-use conflicts. Participants perceived that their major role on the program is to follow farmer-group directives or government rules. To achieve the program’s purposes, farmer groups need technical assistance related to protection-forest management and opportunities for financing.

A Modified Actor-Power-Accountability Framework (MAPAF) for analyzing decentralized forest governance: Case study from Ethiopia

This paper posits a Modified Actor-Power-Accountability Framework (MAPAF) that makes three major improvements on the Actor-Power-Accountability Framework (APAF) developed by Agrawal and Ribot (1999). These improvements emphasize the nature of decentralized property rights, linking the outputs of decentralization with its outcomes and the inclusion of contextual factors. Applying MAPAF to analyze outputs and outcomes from two major decentralized forest policies in Ethiopia, i.e., delegation and devolution, has demonstrated the following strengths of the framework. First, by incorporating vital bundles of property rights into APAF, MAPAF creates a common ground for exploring and comparing the extent of democratization achieved by different decentralizing reforms. Second, the inclusion of social and environmental outcomes in MAPAF makes it possible to link the output of decentralization with local level outcomes. Finally, the addition of contextual factors enhances MAPAFs explanatory power by providing room for investigating exogenous factors other than democratization that contribute to the outcomes of decentralization reforms.

Transformation Strategy for Managing Coupled Socio-Ecological Systems: Case Studies from Bangladesh and the Philippines

This study demonstrates the potential of transformation strategy (an approach that emphasizes strengthening interdependence among social and ecological systems) to rehabilitate degraded land by examining two cases in Bangladesh and one in the Philippines. The study considers the benefits obtained from forests and forest-related activities in the form of income and energy sources as key parameters to link the social system (local people) with the ecological system (forest). Qualitative and quantitative analysis of data on land use and socio-economic changes indicates that the transformation strategy improved both the wellbeing of local people and forest cover. In the case of the Philippines, social and ecological linkages were found to be strong, with local people rehabilitating the degraded land while also obtaining a high proportion of their total income from the activity. For the two Bangladesh cases, however, the level of dependency on the forest for livelihood declined as local people used their income from the forest and forest-related activities for diversification to non-forest activities.

Impact of community forest program in protection forest on livelihood outcomes: A case study of Lampung Province, Indonesia

ABSTRACT The global to local-level importance of Indonesian forests for the environment and development is now very well documented. However, how to govern these forests to achieve the diverse and, at times, conflicting interests is still an open question. Hutan Kemasyarakatan (HKm) is a community forest (CF) that is being implemented to contribute to local development while creating sufficient incentives for conserving the forest. Previous studies have demonstrated the potential of HKm to conserve forests. This study analyzed the changes in the five major types of capital for HKm farmers. The results indicated HKm to have contributed positively to the improvement of natural, physical, and human capital. In addition to its direct impact, HKm was also found to improve the financial capital of the farmers by avoiding patron–client relationships and side payments between the pre-HKm illegal encroacher farmers (now legal land cultivators) and government officers. Although the results support the possibility of HKm producing a win-win situation between forest conservation and rural development, its future applicability, especially with consideration of population growth and associated increase in demand for cultivation land, needs to be given due emphasis.

Understanding REDD+ with Actor-Centered Power approach: A review

Climate change presents an unparalleled menace to our globe. Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is a recent global response to the climate change challenge posed by forest based carbon emissions. Global interest in REDD+ is growing unabated, as is researches on the topic. However, there has been limited synthesis work on power relationship among major actors involved in REDD+. This is particularly relevant because REDD+ is currently based on negotiations and voluntary actions. In order to fill the gap, this article employed an actor-centered power approach and identified major actors, their interest, means of power to realize their interest and outcomes from these actors-interestpower interplays. The article is based on review of primary and gray literatures. The review showed that currently there are a total of eight major actors, ranging from multi-lateral financial institution to national government and indigenous people. These actors play important role in the negotiation, design and implementation of REDD+. The actors represent diverse interests and employ various means of power to realize their interest. Through this process of power interaction and associated action, REDD+ has brought both hopes and concerns for the institutional, economic, social and ecological outcomes from global forest governance. While the potential transfer of sizeable fund to the forestry sector, especially from Annex I countries and funding agents to Non-Annex I countries, constitute the main positive role REDD+ will play, there are salient issues that need to be addressed including lack of strong global institution; biodiversity concern, lack of competitiveness, lack of tenure clarity and possibility of distributive and procedural injustice.

Land Tenure Reform and Its Implication for the Forest. Case Study from Oromia Regional State of Ethiopia

Abstract With consideration of proximate and intricate relationships among rural livelihood, farm land and forestry; this paper examined impact of land tenure reform on local peoples’ forest dependency by taking Ethiopia as case study. The post 1975 major land tenure reform and associated activities such as land distribution and forest demarcation were found to be short of minimizing pressure on the forest as has been evidenced by percentage of new households established inside the forest and current level of dependency on the forest. With most of recently established households all making up the poor and very poor categories, together with overall of household composition which is dominated by dependent members coupled by current land tenure system that tie farmers with their land, future dependency on the already diminished forest seems to increase unabated. Reconsidering the existing land tenure system backed by policy for livelihood diversification, improvement in rural education and awareness on demographic issues can minimize future dependency on the forest.Key Words: Land reform, rural socio-economics, forest dependency, Ethiopia