Is There a Link between Common Property Forest Management and Private Tree Growing? Evidence of Behavioral Effects from Highland Ethiopia
DownloadThis paper attempts to analyze the correlates of (1) aggregated and disaggregated indices of common property forest management (CPFM) as perceived by households, and (2) the decision to grow trees and thenumber of trees grown with the objective of looking at the effect of CPFM. We used data collected in 2007 from a sample of rural households in the Amhara region of Ethiopia. While the CPFM indices we used varied across households, the overall CPFM index and its two sub-indices (management tools and institutional characteristics)showed a generally low level of management. We observed significant differences in the nature of management of community forests across sites, mainly driven by population size, population density, and size of forests. The results also showed that the overall management of community forests, as reflected by the overall CPFM indexand its two sub-indices, had a positive association with the decision to grow trees on-farm as well as the number of trees grown. These results suggest that households that perceive a more strict management are more likely to grow trees on their farm and that those which do grow trees grow more trees. A strong correlation between the different CPFM indices suggests that households perceived the components of CPFM as being similar and hence these components were, in this case, indistinguishable.
Authors
Alemu Mekonnen
Randy Bluffstone