Wibke crewett, humboldtuniversity of berlin ayalneh bogale, alemaya university benedikt korf, university of zurich. The post is located in the offices of the land policy initiative in addis ababa, ethiopia. It further examines alternative policy, legislative, institutional and implementation mechanisms, and makes recommendations deduced from a thorough analysis of. Land tenure in the changing periurban areas of ethiopia. Ethiopias constitution states that ownership of all land is vested in the state and in the peoples. Attempts to modernize land ownership by giving title either to the peasants who till the soil, or to largescale farming programs, have been tried under imperial rulers like emperor haile selassie, and under marxist regimes like the derg, with mixed. The land tenure project of the institute of development research idr, a joint undertaking funded by the ford foundation, and involving the land tenure center of the university of wisconsinmadison, usa, and the african studies center of boston university, usa, held its second workshop in may 1994 on the theme land tenure and land policy in ethiopia after the.
Review of landholding systems and policies in ethiopia. Several significant problems have brought thiopias land tenure laws to. The most common form of land degradation in ethiopia is soil erosion by water. This provided the government with a progressive and stable source of revenue. It is estimated that ethiopias closed canopy forest cover has fallen from 40% to 3% of the land area since the beginning of this century. In welo province, for example, there were an estimated 111 types of land tenure. The merger of the hitherto separate urban and rural land administrations. Ethiopia land administration and nurture land project. Land lease policy in addis ababa ethiopian, chamber. Land tenure policy in ethiopia in 1975, the socialist derg regime that had overthrown the imperial regime of haile. Ethiopian economic policy research institute, addis ababa, ethiopia.
The international land coalition ilcs global rangelands initiative is a programme facilitating. The problem of land reform in ethiopia has hampered that countrys economic development throughout the late 19th and 20th centuries. Effects of land tenure and property rights on agricultural. Over 90% of its annual energy supply comes from biomass, but only one third about 9 million tonnes from fuelwood and charcoal. Land tenure and taxation, 5 ethiopia observer 302, 309 1962.
In no other country in africa is the impact of deforestation more severe. Gebar land tenure system in the south as well as the rist tenure system of north ethiopia during imperial regime shows some resemblance to the current land tenure system and with some reservations also it resembles that of the military regime, with the exceptions that the communal rist system is replaced by the organs of state, i. Land policy has remained controversial in ethiopia since the fall of the derg regime in 1991. Land security is foundational to a functional, peaceful, and prosperous society. This paper questions the above described two widely accepted views. The ethiopia land administration to nurture development land project works at the national and regional levels of government to further improve the legal and regulatory framework related to land tenure and property rights and thereby support the government of ethiopias and usaids goal of increasing economic growth, particularly agricultural sector growth, improving rural. Ethiopia experiences a fierce political debate about the appropriate land tenure policy. Continuity and change, shifting rulers, and the quest for state control article pdf available january 2008 with 5,921 reads how we measure reads. Land tenure insecurity in postcertification amhara, ethiopia. Land is one form of property that is a subject of ownership or other form of use rights. Urban areas in ethiopia have been growing very quickly in recent decades. A considerable volume of information has been produced since the mid1980s regarding soil. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext.
Agriculture and ministry of rural development are in the process of merging into one. The challenges of land tenure in ethiopia are part of a complex policy problem that stem from failed attempts at agricultural modernization and the consolidation of state power. Continuity and change, shifting rulers, and the quest for state control. Implications of land policies for the ruralurban linkages. Research and studies in ethiopia show that insecurity of land tenure restricts rights in. Section three discusses data source and descriptive statistics. That the land reform programme has created a clean break between the current and older tenure systems is a widely accepted viewpoint. Effects of developing country policies on agricultural services, extension, rural infrastructure. Economics of land degradation and improvement in ethiopia. The objective of the sustainable land management project slm in ethiopia is to reduce land degradation in agricultural landscapes and to improve the agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers.
The term land tenure and property rights will be used to refer to the rights that individuals, communities, families, firms, and other corporate or community structures hold in land, water, forestry, wildlife, and in some cases, mineral resources. Usaids work with land tenure and property rights ltpr in ethiopia began with the ethiopia land policy and administration assessment in 2004, which led to the following projects. Research on the challenges of urbanization in periurban land tenure system and. Land tenure in ethiopia continuity and change, shifting rulers and the quest for state control wibke crewett,1 ayalneh bogale, and benedikt korf the controversy. Cgiar systemwide program on collective action and property rights capri. In ethiopia, all land is state land, and households are allocated land on which they are granted limited tenure rights in the form of usufruct rights for the purpose of sustaining a livelihood, depending on the needs and ability to cultivate holden et al. Land tenure and agricultural development in ethiopia. The services common in earlier days have now been restricted, at least in theory. International journal of urban and regional research, 38 6. For much of ethiopias population, access to land and natural resources is a. Ethiopia, land tenure, property rights regime, bundles of rights. Effects of land tenure and property rights on agricultural productivity in ethiopia, namibia and bangladesh shimelles tenaw, k. Land tenure and agrarian social structure in ethiopia, 16361900 by habtamu mengistie tegegne dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of doctor of philosophy in history in the graduate college of the university of illinois at urbanachampaign, 2011 urbana, illinois doctoral committee. Pdf ethiopia experiences a fierce political debate about the.
Instead, the new constitution of 1995 approved and confirmed the state ownership of land in ethiopia fdre, 1995. Ownership, equity, and liberty in land use rights daniel weldegebriel ambaye, ethiopia key words. Land tenure in much of africa is usually portrayed as either customarytraditional, or statestatutory. Land lease policy in addis ababa l and lease policy in addis ababa 7 the urban land management system and identifying issues and problems underlying the gap between supply and demand. Therefore, a spatial policy that is assisted by favorable land tenure regime and that would relieve the rural areas of the evermounting population pressure and promote more speedy urban development is required.
Farmers have use right to transfer or lease use rights of agricultural land. Is rural land distribution in ethiopia highly equitable as generally accepted. The taking of rural or urban land for public interests is an inherent right of any state regardless of the land tenure system. An orderly system of land registration and supporting systems of land adjudication and landuse planning are key ingredients to this socioeconomic formula for progress. Ethiopia sustainable land management project english abstract. Until the l974 revolution, ethiopia had a complex land tenure system.
This study explores land tenure issues theories, country experiences, and the ethiopian case during the period pre1975 to present and raises fundamental issues for further investigation. Ethiopia sustainable land management project english. But it is important that the political and social rami. What is land tenure 7 land tenure 7 land administration 12 access to land 16 tenure security 18 4. Inherent in the assumption of the historiography is that in northern ethiopia a communal land. For convenience, land is used here to include other natural resources such as water and trees. It is one of the poorest and the second most populous country in. Ethiopia offers fertile ground to study the impact of land tenure insecurity. Ethiopias urban expansion and development strategy has been based on the acquisition of land by government from adjacent periurban areas. Reporting lines the land tenure officer reports administratively to the coordinator of the subregional office for eastern africa sfe, the fao. Pdf land policy in ethiopia has been controversial since the fall of the military. Current land policy issues in etkiopia food and agriculture. There are reasons to believe that the land policy in ethiopia is in the way of social mobility.
Keywords land tenure, rural land certification, landrelated investments, productivity, africa, ethiopia 1. Its principles stem from rights established through first clearance of land, or con. The general land law and the special land law have a lot of common areas and hence are. Where an application to merge an old possession with a lease hold is permitted.
Ethiopia is being the follower of continental europe legal system that the term expropriation is widely used in the constitution. After the fall of the socialist derg regime in 1991, land property rights have remained vested in the state and only usufruct rights have been alienated to farmers. Why land tenure should be considered in design of projects 23 environmental issues 23 gender issues 25 conflict, migration and resolution processes 27 the interrelationship between issues 30 5. Property is everything that has material or moral value for human beings and guaranteed and enforced by law. The econometric results, both for the determinants of land related investment and the simulation of the impact of greater tenure security, via investment, on net farm. The dynamics of cognatic descent monographs in ethiopian land tenure hoben, allan, ph. Customary land tenure is characterised by its largely unwritten nature, is based on local practices and norms, and is flexible, negotiable and location specific. A case study from the central ethiopia workneh negatu idr, addis ababa university abstract land in ethiopia is a public property.
After the fall of the socialist derg regime in 1991, land property rights have. Introduction there is now a growing consensus that, even in rural african contexts where individual titling of land may not be desirable or feasible and use of land as a collateral for credit is at best a distant possibility, providing. All original manual records should be stored in a secure vault. The dynamics of cognatic descent monographs in ethiopian land tenure. The world bank report on corruption in ethiopia indicates that the land sector in. The existence of so many land tenure systems, coupled with the lack of reliable data, has made it difficult to give a comprehensive assessment of landownership in ethiopia. Implications of land policies for ruralurban linkages and rural transformation in ethiopia getnet alemu zewdu and mehrab malek development strategy and governance division, international food policy research institute ethiopia strategy support program 2, ethiopia e ethiopia strategy support program essp essp ii working paper no. For much of ethiopias population, access to land and. But it is difficult to make authoritative statements with regard to its resource base in the absence of a comprehensive and adequate survey of its natural resources. It represented the issue of power and governance in ethiopia, as land was the. The relevance of ethiopia in a study of the link between land rights and development is also without doubt. These rules therefore combine some form of efficiency.
Soil erosion is indeed considered the most significant environmental challenge to the food security of the population and future development prospects of the country wagayehu 2003. Land rights, holding rights, expropriation, largescale agricultural investment summary from time immemorial, land had been controlled by the elite kings and their trusted followers in ethiopia. Ethiopia 6 international land coalition secretariat at ifad via paolo di dono, 44, 00142 rome, italy tel. An assessment of the challenges and prospects of good. Land tenure and land policy in ethiopia after the derg. The land tenure history i outlined above in the form of the dersha system in the amhara region, and even more so the prevalence of inheritance in snnp dercon and daniel, 2007. A paper presented for the fourth annual conference on the ethiopia economy, addis ababa.
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