Resource information
Land degradation is a severe problem across sub-Saharan Africa, and Ethiopia is among the most affected countries. To stop further land degradation, the government of Ethiopia has initiated a number of projects including soil and water conservation works and the establishment of Area Enclosures (AEs) with the financial assistance of international donors, mainly the World Food Program (Betru, 2003). In spite of the impressive results of the ecological rehabilitation and improvements of productivity, many communities have had a bad experience with AEs in the past due to uncertainty and the lack of clarity of land tenure and public land use policy in the country. Due to these uncertainties, the communities did not have decision making power in the management and utilisation of the resources. In addition, they could not use grass and wood produced in the AEs. This study aims to develop guidelines to support the government in developing management plans with a clear land tenure and land use policy for the sustainable management of AEs. Field work was carried out in 4 Regional States: Tigray, Amhara, Oromya and Southern Nations and Nationalities and Peoples Region.Detailed recommendations of the report cover a number of areas: data on area enclosurescommunity interest and benefits from area enclosuresprotection of AEsmanagement systemsparticipationgender issuesmembership to the AEsgrazing management management of wildlife populationchoice of tree speciesmanagement plansinstitutional and policy issueslinkages and coordinationstaff trainingexpansion of AEs?further studies required
