The Players, the Assumptions and the Tensions in Community-Based Natural Resource

Management: a look at theory and practice through three case studies in Ethiopia

Supervisors: Dr. Anke FischerDr. Lorna J. PhilipDr. Natasha S. Mauthner Dr. Michelle A. Pinard

Advisor: Prof. Steve Redpath

16 June 2010, Aberdeen

Dereje Tadesse WakjiraPhD Research Project, Nine Month Progress

Report

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Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM)

1. Alternative approach to centralized CPR governance

2. Overlap with other political processes – Politics of decentralization, citizen participation

3. Assumes local level institutions are:– Capable of regulating, coordinating and negotiating

(vertically and horizontally)

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Local Institutions

1. Biodiversity

1. Development2. Intern. conventions3. Maintaining Power

1. Secured rights2. Livelihoods1. Secured rights2. Livelihoods

NGO

CBO

Line Depts.

Key Players in Common Pool Resource Management

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CBNRM in Ethiopia

– Highland (>1500 m.a.s.l) cover about 44% of the country’s land cover & 2/3 Africa's highland

– 88% of the human population live in this region (~80 million)

– CI hotspot – Afromontane Habitat

– State owned - common pool resources

– In the past ten years CBNRM has been piloted in different places in the country mainly by NGOs

– Recently the government of Ethiopia adopt CBNRM to its policy

– Slow process and weak local institutions are the concern

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Aims of the study

Overall aim: • To understand how and why local context (e.g.,

formal and informal institutions) challenges the implementation of policies that strive for decentralized natural resource management.

Methodology: • Three case studies• Mixed methods

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Study Site 1: Guassa• Afroalpine grassland above 3200

-3700 masl• Managed by traditional

institutions before 1974 for grazing and Grass (Festuca sp.) harvesting for thatching

• Communally managed by nine peasant association after 1975

• FZS and local gov’t provide support since 2000 – home of endemic plant and animal species

• The institutions nested within the lower local government.

• ~8000 ha

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Study Site 2: Dinsho• Fragmented dry Afro-montane forest• Located within three peasant

associations at three different localities• De jure State property since 1974• Source of domestic wood and grazing

land for local people• Open access with limited or no

regulation• FZS started to support for CBNRM

building• ~ 2500 ha

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Study Site 3: Harenna Forest• Montane moist forest• Used locally for beekeeping,

seasonal grazing and fore3st coffee for many years

• Local Institutions govern resource use

• CBNRM in progress with support of NGOs

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Specific aims• To examine how local institutions adapt to the

changing internal and external situations in governance of local commons under different environments.

• To evaluate the interplay of formal and informal institutions and how it facilitates or hinders the process of CBNRM and building local institutions in different context.

• To understand how the objectives, expectations and assumptions of local people and other key actors engaged in governance of local commons change over time

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Methods• Multiple and mixed

– Questionnaires (Harenna, Guassa and Dinsho)• Heterogeneity within community

– Ethnography (historical and current context and process)

• Participant observation• Focus group discussion• In-depth interviews with key informants• Archive Review

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Progress: Harenna• Household survey -10% ()• Group interviews (w/ beekeeper, semi pastoralist)

• Key informant in-depth interviews with elders (clan leaders)

• Archive review – NGO working about CBNRM (next plan)

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Progress: Dinsho• Individual Interview - 10% (260)• Documentation of the process

agreement with FZS• Participant observation recording –

meeting, PRA, workshop (will continue)

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Progress: Guassa

• Individual interview – 10% (491)• Key actors identified – for further in-depth

interview• Involved in meeting and discussions

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Training

• Library Search of journals and books• Time management• Project management• Focus group interview• In-depth interview• Qualitative data analysis

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Next 6 month plan• Coding and recoding of survey questionnaire for

analysis using SPSS (Descriptive, cross tabulation and correlations)

• Prepare in-depth group interview check list for Guassa

• Undertake in-depth interviews• Follow-up Dinsho and participate in key moments for

observation recording• Prepare for Harenna further in-depth interview• Analysis information gap for Harenna and prepare

next fieldwork

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