TY - JOUR

T1 - Woody plant use and management in relation to property rights

T2 - a social-ecological case study from southwestern Ethiopia

AU - Shumi, Girma

AU - Dorresteijn, Ine

AU - Schultner, Jannik

AU - Hylander, Kristoffer

AU - Senbeta, Feyera

AU - Hanspach, Jan

AU - Ango, Tola Gemechu

AU - Fischer, Jörn

N1 - Funding Information: The study was funded through a European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant (FP7-IDEAS-ERC, Project ID 614278) to J. Fischer (SESyP). We thank Dereje Gire and Obsuman Damena for their tremendous effort to talk to the local people. We thank all the respondents for their participation. We thank the Governments of Ethiopia and Oromia Regional State for their permission to conduct the research. We also thank the staff of the different woreda and kebele offices and the local people for their cooperation. The survey procedure was cleared by the ethics committee of Leuphana University Lueneburg. Publisher Copyright: © 2019, © 2019 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

PY - 2019/10/14

Y1 - 2019/10/14

N2 - Many people in less developed countries depend on woody plants, but sustainable management of woody plants often remains a challenge. We assessed people’s use, perceived property rights and management of woody plants in farmland and forests in a landscape of southwestern Ethiopia. We interviewed 180 households and surveyed woody plants in 192 plots. We found that 95 species were used for eleven major purposes. The majority of plants (52) were used for house construction followed by farming tools (42), fuelwood (38) and honey production (37). These benefits were sourced from farmland, forest with coffee management and forest without coffee management. Our study found that local people perceived land tenure security and tree use rights to be limited, especially for forests. We found abundant regeneration of the most widely used tree species in all land use types. However, some of these species, including important pole and timber species, appeared to be overharvested in forests. To improve biodiversity outcomes and sustainable use, it would be beneficial to recognize local people’s diverse needs for woody plants and grant them appropriate property rights. Conservation policies should encompass the entire landscape and empower local farmers to proactively manage tree populations while providing safeguards against overuse.

AB - Many people in less developed countries depend on woody plants, but sustainable management of woody plants often remains a challenge. We assessed people’s use, perceived property rights and management of woody plants in farmland and forests in a landscape of southwestern Ethiopia. We interviewed 180 households and surveyed woody plants in 192 plots. We found that 95 species were used for eleven major purposes. The majority of plants (52) were used for house construction followed by farming tools (42), fuelwood (38) and honey production (37). These benefits were sourced from farmland, forest with coffee management and forest without coffee management. Our study found that local people perceived land tenure security and tree use rights to be limited, especially for forests. We found abundant regeneration of the most widely used tree species in all land use types. However, some of these species, including important pole and timber species, appeared to be overharvested in forests. To improve biodiversity outcomes and sustainable use, it would be beneficial to recognize local people’s diverse needs for woody plants and grant them appropriate property rights. Conservation policies should encompass the entire landscape and empower local farmers to proactively manage tree populations while providing safeguards against overuse.

KW - Biodiversity conservation

KW - Houria Djoudi

KW - human wellbeing

KW - local people

KW - property rights

KW - social-ecological systems

KW - sustainable use and management

KW - woody plants

KW - Environmental planning

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073604634&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/26395916.2019.1674382

DO - 10.1080/26395916.2019.1674382

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85073604634

VL - 15

SP - 303

EP - 316

JO - Ecosystems and People

JF - Ecosystems and People

SN - 2639-5908

IS - 1

ER -