It is evident that Ethiopia is one of the countries of Africa that is experiencing significant population growth as well as land use/cover dynamics. Land use/cover induced degradation of natural resources is a major challenge to the country’s development. The main objective of this study was to investigate the impact population dynamics has had on land use/cover in Mandura district. Data on population over time were taken from the CSA during the 1984, 1994 and 2007 national census results. A total of 210 farm households from three kebeles: 105 from the local people and 105 from migrants were surveyed in May 2011 to acquire data on socioeconomic, land use, resource use and management. Aerial photographs of 1957, 1982 and SPOT-5 image of the 2006/07 were used to generate data on land use/cover changes. The results indicate that population has substantially increased, more than fourfold between 1957-2006/07, mainly due to migration from the surrounding areas, government sponsored resettlements, and flourishing of new urban centers. No less important is mortality has decreased due to immunization and the birth rate has been increasing due to improved maternal and child care as compared to the situation prior to the 1990s. The change on land use/cover show that from the total land use/cover conversions, which totals 58,403 ha of land, farm land constitutes 90.1 %. The study finds natural population increase, migration, urbanization, agricultural extensification, institutional weakness, land tenure insecurity, famine and drought, and poverty as root causes. The study further identifies existence of all weather road, resettlement, Tana-Beles project, expansion of agriculture, land colonization, wood extraction for fuel, and soil fertility decline as direct causes of land use/cover changes. As a result of change of customary land tenure system, the local population has been forced to engage in extractive economic activities that have never been practiced in the past. Therefore, the study calls for coordinated efforts for resources use and management at different levels, land use policy formulation, devising alternative sources of livelihoods and fuel, regulating migration and involvement of the wider community in policy formulation and implementations. / Geography / D. LITT. et. Phil. (Geography)

It is evident that Ethiopia is one of the countries of Africa that is experiencing significant population growth as well as land use/cover dynamics. Land use/cover induced degradation of natural resources is a major challenge to the country’s development. The main objective of this study was to investigate the impact population dynamics has had on land use/cover in Mandura district. Data on population over time were taken from the CSA during the 1984, 1994 and 2007 national census results. A total of 210 farm households from three kebeles: 105 from the local people and 105 from migrants were surveyed in May 2011 to acquire data on socioeconomic, land use, resource use and management. Aerial photographs of 1957, 1982 and SPOT-5 image of the 2006/07 were used to generate data on land use/cover changes. The results indicate that population has substantially increased, more than fourfold between 1957-2006/07, mainly due to migration from the surrounding areas, government sponsored resettlements, and flourishing of new urban centers. No less important is mortality has decreased due to immunization and the birth rate has been increasing due to improved maternal and child care as compared to the situation prior to the 1990s. The change on land use/cover show that from the total land use/cover conversions, which totals 58,403 ha of land, farm land constitutes 90.1 %. The study finds natural population increase, migration, urbanization, agricultural extensification, institutional weakness, land tenure insecurity, famine and drought, and poverty as root causes. The study further identifies existence of all weather road, resettlement, Tana-Beles project, expansion of agriculture, land colonization, wood extraction for fuel, and soil fertility decline as direct causes of land use/cover changes. As a result of change of customary land tenure system, the local population has been forced to engage in extractive economic activities that have never been practiced in the past. Therefore, the study calls for coordinated efforts for resources use and management at different levels, land use policy formulation, devising alternative sources of livelihoods and fuel, regulating migration and involvement of the wider community in policy formulation and implementations. / Geography / Ph. D. (Geography)

In 1994 Ethiopia introduced a federal system of government as a national level approach to intra-state conflict management. Homogenisation of cultures and languages by the earlier regimes led to the emergence of ethno-national movements and civil wars that culminated in the collapse of the unitary state in 1991. For this reason, the federal system that recognises ethnic groups¿ rights is the first step in transforming the structural causes of civil wars in Ethiopia. Against this background this research examines whether the federal arrangement has created an enabling environment in managing conflicts in the country. To understand this problematic, the thesis conceptualises and analyses federalism and conflict management using a qualitative research design based on in-depth interviewing and content-based thematic analysis ¿ taking the case study of the Benishangul-Gumuz regional state. The findings of the study demonstrate that different factors hinder the federal process. First, the constitutional focus on ethnic groups¿ rights has led, in practice, to lessened attention to citizenship and minority rights protection in the regional states. Second, the federal process encourages ethnic-based elite groups to compete in controlling regional and local state powers and resources. This has greatly contributed to the emergence of ethnic-based violent conflicts, hostile intergovernmental relationships and lack of law and order along the common borders of the regional states. Third, the centralised policy and decision making process of the ruling party has hindered genuine democratic participation of citizens and self-determination of the ethnic groups. This undermines the capacity of the regional states and makes the federal structure vulnerable to the dynamics of political change. The conflicts in Benishangul-Gumuz emanate from these causes, but lack of territorial land use rights of the indigenous people and lack of proportional political representation of the non-indigenous people are the principal manifestations. The research concludes by identifying the issues that determine the sustainability of the federal structure. Some of them include: making constitutional amendments which consider citizenship rights and minority rights protection; enhancing the democratic participation of citizens by developing the capacities of the regional states and correcting the organisational weakness of the multi-national political parties; encouraging co-operative intergovernmental relationships, and maintaining the territorial land use rights of the Benishangul-Gumuz indigenous people. / Addis Ababa University

In 1994 Ethiopia introduced a federal system of government as a national level approach to intra-state conflict management. Homogenisation of cultures and languages by the earlier regimes led to the emergence of ethno-national movements and civil wars that culminated in the collapse of the unitary state in 1991. For this reason, the federal system that recognises ethnic groups' rights is the first step in transforming the structural causes of civil wars in Ethiopia. Against this background this research examines whether the federal arrangement has created an enabling environment in managing conflicts in the country. To understand this problematic, the thesis conceptualises and analyses federalism and conflict management using a qualitative research design based on in-depth interviewing and content-based thematic analysis - taking the case study of the Benishangul-Gumuz regional state. The findings of the study demonstrate that different factors hinder the federal process. First, the constitutional focus on ethnic groups' rights has led, in practice, to lessened attention to citizenship and minority rights protection in the regional states. Second, the federal process encourages ethnic-based elite groups to compete in controlling regional and local state powers and resources. This has greatly contributed to the emergence of ethnic-based violent conflicts, hostile intergovernmental relationships and lack of law and order along the common borders of the regional states. Third, the centralised policy and decision making process of the ruling party has hindered genuine democratic participation of citizens and self-determination of the ethnic groups. This undermines the capacity of the regional states and makes the federal structure vulnerable to the dynamics of political change. The conflicts in Benishangul-Gumuz emanate from these causes, but lack of territorial land use rights of the indigenous people and lack of proportional political representation of the non-indigenous people are the principal manifestations. The research concludes by identifying the issues that determine the sustainability of the federal structure. Some of them include: making constitutional amendments which consider citizenship rights and minority rights protection; enhancing the democratic participation of citizens by developing the capacities of the regional states and correcting the organisational weakness of the multi-national political parties; encouraging co-operative intergovernmental relationships, and maintaining the territorial land use rights of the Benishangul-Gumuz indigenous people.