Post-1990 Natural Resource Management Policies and Laws in Ethiopia: A Scrutiny in the Lens of Integrated Landscape Management Approach

Abstract

In Ethiopia, scholarly works examining the post-1990 renewable natural
resource management policies and laws and their implementation in terms of
integrated landscape management (ILM) are generally scarce. This paper aimed
at filling that knowledge gap and contributing to the debates on natural resource
governance in Ethiopia. The article is based on data and information drawn both
from primary and secondary sources. Secondary data was collected from eight
policy and strategy documents, sixty-three laws (proclamations and regulations)
that were enacted by the Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of
Ethiopia and those of the regional states and several related documents. Primary
data were collected from five micro-watersheds and two large landscapes using
landscape performance score card, in-depth interviews with policy advisors, and
dialogue workshops and focus group discussions (FGDs) with landscape actors
and stakeholders. The data were analysed using content analysis, by matching
the principles of ILM to provisions of the existing legal frameworks. It was
found that many of the polices and laws make provisions that support the
practicing of ILM approaches. However, those policies and laws were neither
adequately implemented nor adequately disseminated to actors at the grassroots.
Some of the provisions are marred by contradictory and overlapping provisions;
most of them contain incomplete articles that require complementary laws to
make them practicable; some are more than two decades old and thus require
revision; and some others were frequently changed before implementation.
Where the legal frameworks provide for cross-sectoral and cross-institutional
collaboration, they were rarely pursued. Drawing on the findings of the study,
the researchers recommend an urgent need for a comprehensive natural
resources management policy review and both vertical and horizontal
harmonization of inter- and intra-sectoral policies and laws, taking ILM and
sustainable land management into account. There is also apparent need to
improve policy implementation by, for example, building implementers’
capacity and joint implementation, monitoring and periodic policy review.