“Medium-Scale” Forestland Grabbing in the Southwestern Highlands of Ethiopia: Impacts on Local Livelihoods and Forest Conservation

Abstract

Abstract:Tropical forest provides a crucial portion of sustenance in many rural communities, although it is increasingly under pressure from appropriations of various scales. This study investigated the impacts of medium-scale forestland grabbing on local livelihoods and forest conservation in the southwestern highlands of Ethiopia. Data were generated through interviews, discussions and document review. The results indicate that state transfer of part of the forestland since the late 1990s to investors for coffee production created in situ displacement-a situation where farmers remained in place but had fully or partially lost access to forest-that disrupted farmers' livelihoods and caused conflicts between them and the investors. Court cases about the appropriated land and related imprisonment, inflicted financial and opportunity costs on farmers. Farmers considered the livelihood opportunities created by the companies insufficient to compensate for loss of forest access. Companies' technology transfers to farmers and contributions to foreign currency earnings from coffee exports have not yet materialized. Forest conservation efforts have been negatively affected by deforestation caused by conversion to coffee plantations and by farmers' efforts to secure rights to forestland by more intensive use. The medium-scale forestland grabbing has been detrimental to farmers' livelihoods and forest conservation in a way that recalls criticism of large-and mega-scale land grabbing since [2007][2008]. The overall failure to achieve the objectives of transferring forestland to investors highlights a critical need to shift institutional supports to smallholders' informal forest access and management practices for better development and conservation outcomes.

Reconciling food security and biodiversity conservation: participatory scenario planning in southwestern Ethiopia

“…This is most obvious in the mining green gold scenario, where poor land tenure rights, prioritization of national revenues, and the influence of external agricultural investors leads to a type of land grabbing, which would largely exclude local people from the financial benefits of development. Such development has been reported for other parts of Ethiopia where land grabbing by private agricultural investors has led to a displacement of smallholders from their farmland (Rahmato 2011), and, to a limited extent, in Jimma Zone (Ango 2018).…”

Livelihood strategies, capital assets, and food security in rural Southwest Ethiopia

“…Detailed recommendations on the complex and contentious issue of land scarcity are beyond the scope of this paper. At a basic level, however, and in view of land-grabbing in various parts of Ethiopia (Ango 2018 ), opening space for debate at the policy level, and exploring options for land sufficiency at the household level should at least be taken up; possibly alongside culturally appropriate efforts to address population growth. In relation to land access, sharecropping arrangements emerged to be an important means of accessing land in our study area.…”

Understanding land-use change conflict: a systematic review of case studies

“…The largescale acquisition of agricultural land is practised by countries or private investors who are economically rich, but relatively limited in natural resources, with the aim of securing their food and energy supply for the future and ensuring large-scale control of land holdings beyond national borders (BORRAS JR & Franco, 2012). In the case studies we reviewed, land grabbing was identified as the reason for land-use change, for instance, in the south-western Highlands of Ethiopia and Sudan (Ango, 2018;Sulieman, 2015). More specifically, large-scale farmers played a role in 25% of all cases reviewed, and multinationals in 19%.…”