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Farmers’ Assessment of the Social and Ecological Values of Land Uses in Central Highland Ethiopia

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Abstract

Often in land use evaluations, especially those in developing countries, only the financial aspect receives serious attention, while the social and ecological values are overlooked. This study compared the social and ecological values of four land use types (small-scale woodlot [SSW], boundary tree and shrub planting [BTP], homestead tree and shrub growing [HTG] and cereal farming [CF]) by a criteria-based scoring approach using a bao game. The impacts of local wealth status and proximity to a forest on the value the community renders to the land use types were also assessed. The value comparison, assessed by relative scoring, was accompanied by farmer’s explanations to reveal the existing local knowledge about land use values. It was found that HTG ≥ SSW > BTP > CF for both social and ecological values. Though this trend applies for the medium and rich households, the poor ones chose SSW as the most valuable. With increasing distance from a forest, the social and ecological values of land uses increased. The accompanying scoring justifications indicated the existence of in-depth ecological knowledge, which conform to contemporary scientific reports. Generally, this study showed that social and ecological values, besides financial values, strongly influence farmer’s decision in implementing various practices related to the land use types. Thus, such values are worth considering for a holistic understanding of the diverse benefits of land uses. Finally, the strong preference for tree and shrub-based land use types is a good opportunity for enhancing tree and shrub growing to minimize the major environmental problems (e.g., soil degradation, wood shortage and deforestation) in the central highlands of Ethiopia.

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Acknowledgments

The funds to carry out this research were provided by the Austrian Exchange Service and the authors are very grateful for it. The Institute of Forest Ecology of University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna is well acknowledged for hosting the first author during his stay in Austria. We appreciate the collaboration of farmers in Suba area by providing the necessary information during the fieldwork. We thank the employees of the agricultural bureaus of Alemgana and Welmera districts for their assistances. We gratefully thank the development agents, who work in different peasant associations within the two districts, for their help in administrative organization at the field site. We also thank Alemayehu Negassa, Ayantu Tadesse and Getachew Negesse for their great assistance during the data collection. We are very thankful for the three anonymous reviewers and editorial team for their influential comments that helped to elaborate the paper extensively. We are very grateful to Bradley Matthews for his extensive language edition.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest and Soil Sciences, Institute of Forest Ecology, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna, Peter Jordan-Strasse 82, 1190, Vienna, Austria

    Lalisa Alemayehu Duguma & Herbert Hager

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  1. Lalisa Alemayehu Duguma
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  2. Herbert Hager
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Correspondence to Lalisa Alemayehu Duguma.

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Duguma, L.A., Hager, H. Farmers’ Assessment of the Social and Ecological Values of Land Uses in Central Highland Ethiopia. Environmental Management 47, 969–982 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-011-9657-9

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