Incentives and Challenges in Community-Based Rangeland Management: Evidence from Eastern Ethiopia

• Published in: Land degradation & development Vol. 26; no. 5; pp. 502 - 509
• Main Author: Beyene, Fekadu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-07-2015; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: challenges; community based; Continuity; Gain; Impact analysis; Incentives; institutions; Management; rangeland; Rangelands; Resource management; Villages; Ethiopia
• ISSN: 1085-3278; 1099-145X
• DOI: 10.1002/ldr.2340

This paper explores incentives and challenges in community‐based rangeland management. Results from three case studies indicate variability in herders' motivation to contribute to the conservation and management of rangeland resources. The basic reason behind the failure to ensure sustained collective action largely lies in the little effort made by the intervening agencies in creating awareness on the long‐term consequences of climate change and biodiversity loss. In some villages, observation of positive results maintained the motivation to conserve the range, while in others, the removal of external incentives seems to discourage continuity of management practices. Resource users put greater emphasis on short‐term economic gains that undermines the prospect to see long‐term impacts of the present action, refuting the theoretical argument that the absence of alternative livelihoods would force individuals to place emphasis on the possibility to generate income streams from a resource in the longer term. This implies that designing institutions for rangeland management contributes to its sustainable use. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.