The World Bank/WBI’s CBNRM Initiative
Case Received: January 26, 1998
Author: Nick Chisholm, University College Cork, Ireland
Tel. +353 21 903347/902570
Fax +353 21 903358
Email: n.chisholm@ucc.ie
Community-Based Natural Resource Management
in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia
Introduction: identification of the case
This case study focuses on community-based natural resource management
in the Eastern Zone of the Tigray Region in northern Ethiopia. The Zone has a
land area of about 8,800 sq. km. and a population of about 600,000. The
agricultural economy is typical of the plough-based, mixed crop-livestock
system of the Ethiopian Highlands.
The Zone is characterised by high rates of land degradation, low land
productivity, proneness to drought, and chronic food insecurity. The
population of the Zone is highly dependent on food aid: per capita food aid
allocations are amongst the highest in Ethiopia. In addition, Tigray, along with
Eritrea, was the main arena for the 17 years of civil war between the former
Derg regime and the opposition forces, which ended in 1991 with the collapse
of the Derg and the takeover by the TPLF. This is a major contextual element
of the case study, particularly in two senses:
(i) the changes in the enabling environment brought in by the change in
regime, and
(ii) the development by the TPLF forces during the civil war of local institutions
(the baito system of representative local government) which constitutes a form
of social capital for use in addressing various natural resource (and other)
problems.
This case study focuses on the management of three renewable natural
resources: soils, grazing land, and forest areas.The case study is relevant to
at least the first three themes of the workshop. Table 1 lists the specific
locations where fieldwork was conducted and the common property-type
resources at each location.
Table 1. Locations and Resource Characteristics
Location
Resources
Birki
Irrigation, common grazing, hill-slopes
Addis Zemen
Watershed, individual grazing, irrigation, hill-slopes, soils
Era
Forest, common grazing, hill-slopes
Aragure
Forest, common grazing, hill-slopes
The initial situation
This case study partly illustrates the evolution of existing institutions to
address natural resource issues within a changing policy and tenure
environment: it is therefore not easy to define a clear initial situation.
However, a distinction can be drawn between the situation during the Derg
regime (1974-91) and the period of EPRDF/TPLF rule since 1991. This is
because, as noted above, tenure arrangements in relation to land and other
natural resources are changing as a result of the change in political regime,
and at the same time the baito system developed by the TPLF in opposition
now plays a significant role in relation to natural resource issues.
The "initial situation", as defined above, can then be briefly described. In
relation to soils, the problem of soil erosion in the Ethiopian Highlands is well
known: even if earlier estimates are now thought to overstate the rate of
erosion, it is generally accepted that soil erosion and soil nutrient depletion
are critical issues (Bojo and Cassells 1995). The method of treating this
problem during the Derg regime was through the development of large-scale
soil and water conservation (SWC) activities supported by Food for Works
(particularly the WFP 2488 Project). This approach was however essentially
top-down and emphasised physical structures constructed with little attention
paid to their impact on productivity. Farmers did not generally view this
approach positively, and after the fall of the Derg they destroyed many such
structures.
In relation to grazing land, under the mixed crop-livestock system certain
areas of village land are put aside for grazing particularly of oxen. In the
Eastern Zone there are two different systems of grazing land management:
the predominant system is known as hizati where grazing land is common
property and is managed at village (kushet) level; a less common system
involves the division of grazing land to individual households. The problem in
relation to hizati is primarily the pressure to convert such land to crop
production or divide it to individuals, a problem actually intensified after the fall
of the Derg due to the return of forced settlers and demobilised soldiers.
In relation to forests, there is only one substantial area of forest remaining in
the Zone, the Dessa’e forest, covering about 125,000 ha., although very little
of this forested area is in dense stands. However, the forest contains fertile
grazing land. This forest area was managed for decades by local communities
under the traditional rist land tenure system. Although this system was
abolished by the Derg regime in 1975, the use-right system which replaced it
was to some extent based on the traditional ristegna groups, so local
communities continued to manage the forest. Essentially the system enabled
local communities to regulate forest use and in particular to restrict claims of
outsiders. Growing pressure on forest resources, particularly in the southern
parts of the forest close to the urban centres of Mekelle and Qiha, and
occasional incursions by Afar pastoralists from the neighbouring Afar Region,
increased the pressure on the forest area. In 1991, following the fall of the
Derg, the forest was gazetted as State forest, and preparation of a Forest
Management Plan is underway.
The reform process
It is clear that community-based forms of natural resource management
generally exist where resource sharing is required, and that during the Derg
regime State interventions (especially on SWC) were largely unsuccessful.
Although the initial land reform introduced by the Derg in 1975 was well
received, the regular land redistributions afterwards created tenure insecurity.
Furthermore, regulations concerning trees were particularly unclear, and
deforestation of catchments intensified due to this uncertainty. When the
TPLF took over power, there was one further land redistribution in Tigray in
1990-91, followed by an announcement that no further land redistribution
would occur. This decision has been maintained and at household level there
is now greater tenure security and readiness to make on-farm investments, for
example in trees.
The main institutional innovation however is the development of the baito
system, which is essentially a system of local democracy, developed by the
TPLF during the civil war, based on direct election of representatives at village
(kushet) and inter-village (tabia or kebele) level. Tabia representatives then
make up the woreda council, which has major responsibilities for planning and
implementation of local development. At tabia level social courts have been
established which amongst other tasks deal with conflicts over sharing of
natural resources.
The baito system facilitates detailed discussion at local level of development
problems, including those of a common property nature. There are a number
of strengths of the system: (i) it provides a forum to address local externalities
such as degradation in upstream catchments, (ii) it is used to mobilise
communities to directly deal with specific problems, both through labour
mobilisation and through rule-making and resolution of conflicts over resource
sharing; (iii) the system is part of the overall governance system developed by
the TPLF in Tigray, and therefore there is a clear channel for natural resource
issues to enter into the policy arena at Regional level.
In essence the baito system, partly building on traditional community-based
institutions, has enabled the Region to mobilise significant social capital to
resolve natural resource problems, in a way that was impossible during the
Derg regime.
The outcome
In relation to the problem of soil erosion, therefore, the previous negative
attitudes of farmers towards SWC works during the Derg have been largely
overcome: the baito structure provides the framework both for discussing the
need for reducing land degradation and for mobilising the social capital to
undertake different SWC measures. However, the current approach still tends
to focus on conservation measures separate from measures which increase
farmer incomes, and pilot participatory watershed management activities are
now being developed to integrate conservation and productivity concerns.
(Parmesh Shah 1997).
In relation to grazing lands(and also to water), the traditional communitybased organisations controlling access to these areas are generally based at
kushet or tabia level anyway, and can be seen as elements of the baito
structure. Since the takeover by the TPLF, there has been a tendency for
grazing land to be managed at kushet level, whereas previously management
in some areas was at tabia level. This localisation of management is one step
in the planned intensification of resource use: currently there are pilot
programmes in grazing land enrichment on hizati grazing areas.
In relation to the Dessa’e forest, however, designation as State forest has led
to an approach at odds with the generally decentralised approach fostered by
the baito system. Since 1991 State-employed forest guards have been
introduced to protect the forest resource, and since 1995 local communities
have been banned from using any wood from the forest, even for domestic
use. The predictable outcome, at least in communities nearer to urban areas,
has been an increase in deforestation since communities now have no
incentive to exert control. Outsiders and local people alike now take wood
illegally, particularly under drought conditions. Community management of the
grazing land continues however. Discussions with local communities have
clearly indicated that they will exercise local sustainable management of the
forest if they can also derive benefits from it. What is interesting in this context
is the different policy stance between the decentralised management of locallevel resources - small-scale grazing lands, small river diversions, individual
catchments - and the State-led management of the forest. The recent Tigray
Forest Action Plan (1997) proposes moving to a co-management approach
however.
The lessons learned
The main lessons learned are as follows:
(i) "traditional" forms of natural resource management are usually
present and respond flexibly to changing situations due, for example, to
increased pressure on resources
(ii) forms of local democracy provide a forum to mobilise social capital
around natural resource management issues; such institutions may be
more likely to be effective if they are related with "traditional"
community-based structures
(iii) new institutions need mechanisms (such as tabia councils and
social courts) to address externalities at catchment level, i.e. above the
level of individual communities
(iv) different types of co-management are increasingly needed to
maximise the benefits from local-level resource management (capacity
to negotiate solutions on a basis of trust, ability to respond flexibly to
problems: i.e. the reduction of transactions costs) on the one hand, and
the ability of the State to provide additional resources (credit, technical
support, investment funds) to augment natural resources and to
address related policy issues on the other hand.
The main unique element in this case is the role of the civil war in generating
social capital, particularly to address the soil erosion problem: there is now an
awareness at policy level of the need to switch to approaches which provide
clear economic benefits in the short term. However, the combination of a form
of local participatory democracy with more traditional, long-standing but
flexible natural resource management systems is widely replicable, except
perhaps in a highly stratified society.