Communal Land Management. Governing Commons and Natural Resources (PDF)

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject Sociology - Miscellaneous, grade: A, Bahir Dar University (Land Administration Institute), course: Governing Commons and Natural Resource, language: English, abstract: Land is a major economic factor and it is crucial for the development in our Country. Land administration has not any unique definition. The most commonly accepted definition of land administration is set out in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Land Administration Guidelines (1996) "Land administration is the processes of recording and disseminating information about ownership, value, and use of land when implementing land management policies.

The objectives of the paper are to assess the indigenous common property grazing land management; to show the effectiveness of village by laws in sustainable management of grazing lands; the options of certifying grazing land holdings in Borena area, to scrutinize the effect of population growth in natural resource management; and to recommend on the problems that are found in the Borena grazing land management. To achieve those objectives I have used secondary as well as primary qualitative data.

In general the findings of my paper are that Borena pastoralists have an effective traditional dispute settlement mechanisms as far as range land management is concerned. The other problem facing the Borena range land management system is construction of water points which has caused range land degradation. Bush encroachment is the other major treat to the Borena range land. The use of simple hand tools and chemicals are not solutions for the problem. The community had traditional knowledge to clear bush by using fire. The Borena communities are in need of certification. They are questioning the government why land certification is available only in highland areas. Compensation is not being paid for the Borena pastoralists when their grazing land is expropriated, even though the constitution granted them the right.

For the findings I got, I have developed certain recommendations. Strengthening the traditional system of conflict resolution, consultation with the Borena community before conducting any developed activity, piloting the use of fire for clearing bush encroachment, enactment of pastoral land administration management law, registration and certification of range land, are some of the recommendations.