RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS 1. Systematic Literature Review

Land use in general can affect land cover and changes. Although changes in land cover by land users do not necessarily imply degradation of the land, many shifting land use patterns driven by a variety of social causes result in land cover changes that affect biodiversity, water and radiation budgets, trace gas emissions and other processes that come together to affect climate and the biosphere (Riebsame et al., 2014). The author also noted that communal land use land cover can also be affected by forces other than anthropogenic ones.

Natural events such as weather, flooding, fire, climate fluctuations, and ecosystem dynamics may also initiate modifications upon land use land cover.

Communal land use is affected principally by direct human use: by agriculture

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and livestock raising, forest harvesting and management and urban and suburban construction and development. There are also incidental impacts on land cover from other human activities such as forests and lakes damaged by acid rain from fossil fuel combustion and crops near cities damaged by tropospheric ozone resulting from automobile exhaust emissions (Meyer, 2015).

According to this author, in order to use land optimally, it is not only necessary to have the information on existing land use land cover but also the capability to monitor the dynamics of land use resulting out of both the changing demands of increasing population and the forces of nature acting to shape the landscape.

In some instances, communal land use land cover change may result in environmental, social and economic impacts of greater damage than of benefit to the area (Moshen, 2009). Therefore, data on the status of communal land use change are of great importance to planners in monitoring the consequences of land use change on the area. Such data are of value to resources management and agencies that plan and assess land use patterns and in modelling and predicting future changes.

The strong interest in land use and land cover results from their direct relationship to many of the planet’s fundamental characteristics and processes, including the productivity of the land, the diversity of plant and animal species, and the biochemical and hydrological cycles. Land cover is continually moulded and transformed by land use changes such as, for example, when a forest is converted to pasture or crop land. Land-use change is the proximate cause of land-cover change (Alemneh (2011). According to this author, the underlying driving forces, however, can be traced to a host of economic, technological, institutional, cultural and demographic factors.

According to Alex (2002), impacts of communal land use land cover change elaborated as by altering ecosystem services, changes in land use and cover affect the ability of biological systems to support human needs, and such changes also determine, in part, the vulnerability of places and people to climatic, economic or socio-political perturbations. Take, for example, conversion of forested areas to crop lands, pasture or human settlements. The above writer further explained that deforestation can result in the loss of

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biodiversity, especially in the tropics; biodiversity loss results in declines in ecosystem integrity, and also genetic losses that may impede future scientific advances in agriculture and pharmaceutics.

Alemneh (2011) described that deforestation can also impact hydrological processes, leading to localised declines in rainfall, and more rapid runoff of precipitation, causing flooding and soil erosion. Finally, scientists have come to a better understanding of the role that forests play in the carbon cycle, and how forest burning in certain parts of the world is an important contributor to greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Clearly, all of these changes impact society (Alex, 2012).

Molla (2004) explained that the effect of communal land use on ecosystem degradation is not a new phenomenon; and it dates back for the last thousands of years. But the magnitude and significance of the effects are by far greater today than any time before. The main causes of these are: the rapidly growing population seeking food, shelter, clothing, the expansion of croplands and urbanization, etc. Every country in the world reports some sort of impacts of communal land use on the environmental degradation (Mather, 2006).

According to this author, one of the fundamental causes of environmental degradation under the Ethiopian conditions is that land use decisions made at private household level are based on economic factors. This author further pointed out that there are several economic factors, for instance, that influence a farmer’s decisions to conserve or deplete the soil:

 “The value the farmer attaches to future assets may reflect the farmer’s attitude to risk and uncertainty and the level of household poverty and access to credit and off-farm income.

 The costs of current soil conservation efforts to the farmer which in developing countries like Ethiopia may reflect the availability of labor, purchased inputs and credit for conservation efforts.

 Relative input costs and output prices which determine the current profitability of erosive versus less erosive cropping systems including fluctuations in these prices overtime.

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 The future returns of the farming system as affected by technological improvements and by the impact of current cultivation techniques and crops on soil fertility and future yields. In the other words, it means that poverty-environment linkages in developing countries like Ethiopia are not one-way relationships and thus affect the perception of the value of soil and water conservation as one aspect of environmental management”.

Furthermore, a worrying trend in many developing countries like Ethiopia is the concentration of the poorest groups in “ecologically fragile'' zones, i.e. areas where environmental degradation or severe environmental hazards constrain and even threaten economic welfare and sustainable development (Mengisteab, 2009). He described that, by and large, there are some important issues to be considered as causes of environmental degradation when looking for possible solutions in the form of development policy regarding land management in general and that of the fragile zones. These, in particular, are: remedies for market imperfections, avoiding distorting policies and avoiding institutional failures.

In a predominantly agrarian country like Ethiopia, one of the major threats to the food supply and thus to sustainable development is environmental degradation.

Environmental degradation in Ethiopia, other than crop land deterioration, is evidenced also by the deterioration of grasslands and forests (Alemneh, 2011).

Accordingly, outside over cultivation, there are another two predominant human activities identified as contributing to the vicious cycle of environmental degradation, drought and famine: overgrazing and deforestation.

Alemneh elaborates further that in the famine-ridden areas of the Ethiopian highlands, the impact of human activity on the environment is so striking owing to intensive cultivation, overgrazing, deforestation, and overpopulation. Also, the political and economic forces that relate to the peasant agriculture have exerted enormous pressure on the ecosystem.

As UNCCD (2014) stated, under Ethiopian conditions the amount of vegetative cover is greatly affected by the utilisation of the land for cropping, livestock grazing and forestry activities to meet the dietary requirements of peasant

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farmers. Soil erosion as a core factor in environmental degradation in Ethiopia is attributed primarily to the cultivation practices and human pressure on the land.

Alemneh estimated also that 2/3 of the Ethiopian highlands have a slope exceeding 30% and are not suited for intensive cultivation as currently practiced. Lacking proper soil and water conservation strategies and the absence of detailed land use law for such steep slopes will definitely aggravate the problem of land and environmental degradation.

The problem of land degradation in Ethiopia “stems largely from poor land-use practices and population pressure (especially in the highlands). Inappropriate farming practices, overgrazing, deforestation and the use of crop residues and dung for fuel in rural households are among the main causes” (UNCCD, 2014).

As indicated in the various strategic documents and food security strategic papers, the government of Ethiopia has recognised that land degradation is one of the main causes of poor agricultural productivity and unsustainable natural resource conservation (MoA, 2008). However, there has not been a comprehensive land use planning policy in Ethiopia to guide land use planning at national and regional level except in the Amhara region.

Many individuals and households depend directly on non-marketed communal land resources for their livelihood. They sustain the well-being of rural communities and are especially useful for marginalised societies such as the landless and for women who are taking animals to graze and collecting firewood out of common forests and fetching water (Shepherd, 2008). Adhikari and Falco (2009) describes that the rural poor are heavily dependent on communal resources for their livelihood. Singh Katar (2008) also indicated that these communal land resources are used as sources of food, fuel wood, and fodder significantly. Yeraswork (2011) indicates that communal lands in the Wello highlands are sources of green fodder, thatching material, fuel wood, and of cash income these lands being used sustainably by local people. Berhanu et al.

(2012) showed that communal grazing lands are important sources of livestock feed and areas of bee keeping for local communities. Samuel and Pender (2012) also refer to the same fact in the Amhara region. Pastoralists in all parts of the country depend directly on their respective rangelands. 35 to 40% of total

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household income in Southern Zimbabwe (Cavendish, 2008 and 2010), and communal forests contribute 27% of the total household income in Northern Ethiopia (Bedru et al., 2009). As a result, the management of CLR by the local community has gained momentum in many developing countries owing to the positive contributions of those resources to rural livelihoods, biodiversity conservation, and economic development (Adhikari and Falco, 2009).

Therefore, the availability, quality and sustainability of these resources measure the well-being of rural communities.

Many rural communities living near protected areas depend on the land for their livelihoods (Hartter and Southworth, 2009). Among others, two of the direct causes of land degradation are deforestation and overgrazing. However, the degradation of CLR is one of the fundamental problems confronting the efforts to increase agricultural production, and to reduce poverty and food insecurity (Berhanu and Swinton, 2012). The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment estimated that 10-20% of all grasslands is degraded mainly due to overgrazing.

Moreover, there was a decline in forest cover in low-income countries and dry land regions (MEA, 2005). The main causes of CLR degradation in Africa are deforestation, overgrazing, and expansion of agricultural lands over CLRs (Betru et al., 2009). The lack of policy and institutional arrangements also hindered the prevention of over exploitation and depletion of CLRs such as grazing lands, forests, ground water, and fisheries (Bekele et al., 2011).

Besides, the encroachment in the expansion of crop cultivation resulted in diminishing the communally managed grazing lands (Mengistu, 2006). With steady growth in population, clearing of woodlands for agriculture has been a continuous process at an estimated rate of 150,000 ha per year in the past decades (EFAP, 1994). The forest cover has reduced from the original 65% to 2.2% (Berry, 2013). For instance, the degradation of communal grazing lands has led to ethnic conflicts and a decline in total livestock numbers in Borana, Ethiopia (FAO, 2010). Moreover, the growing scarcity of fuel wood resulted in the further over exploitation of communal forests (Bereket, 2012). Thus, addressing the problem of CPR degradation becomes crucial in the efforts of rural poverty reduction.

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The negative consequences of unsustainable CLR management include: the loss of biodiversity that would have crucial importance in reducing rural poverty by managing trade-offs in ways that maintain and/or restore the capacity of ecosystems to provide the full range of services to human beings, and the threat to livelihoods of the CLR users (Berhanu and Swinton, 2012). Moreover, the degradation of CLRs threatens the value of CPRs as insurance against risk and also aggravates the pressure on the remaining CLRs, and results in conflicts among users. For instance, Chabwela and Haller (2008) indicated that communal pastures in the Kafue flats of Zambia faced degradation due to poor flooding regime and loss of habitat caused by the proliferation of weeds. This resulted in declining range capacity and the consequent shortage of feed for livestock

2.4 Indegenious communal land resource management and