Communal Land Use and Management Practice in the Highlands of Ethiopia

Communal lands are source of livelihood for rural peoples of Ethiopia. Especially, communal grazing lands are important sources of livestock feed and most of the livestock population are mainly dependent on natural pasture and crop residue. Such areas are managed based on the collective action of communities that have protected them from complete disappearance. However, these local community grazing land management systems have not been given policy attention. In addition, land is currently subdivided from communal lands and given to different parties for different purpose by the government without considering local community and without any compensation. Thus, communal grazing lands are decreasing in size and its productivity at a faster rate, faced with severe land degradations, subject to competition with another type of land-uses and becoming a source of frequent conflicts. This book, therefore, tries to show the major communal grazing land problems and its impact on agricultural communities whose life is highly dependent on it. The analysis and outcomes of this work is expected to be utilized by researchers, academicians, land managers, policy makers and strategy developers.