Devolution and Sustainable Management of Forests in Developing Countries: Quasi-experimental Evidence from Household Level Data in Ethiopia

Zenebe Gebreegziabher (), Abebe D. Beyene (), Randall Bluffstone (), Berhanu Gebremedhin () and Alemu Mekonnen ()
Additional contact information
Zenebe Gebreegziabher: Department of Economics Mekelle University, Mekelle, Tigrai, Ethiopia
Abebe D. Beyene: Environment and Climate Research Center (ECRC), Policy Studies Institute (PSI), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Randall Bluffstone: Department of Economics, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, USA
Berhanu Gebremedhin: University of Dallas, Irving, Texas, USA
Alemu Mekonnen: Department of Economics, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

No 25-6, EfD Discussion Paper from Environment for Development, University of Gothenburg

Abstract: This research aims to evaluate the role that devolution of forest tenure rights plays in the sustainable management of forests in developing countries at a highly disaggregated level, using data from a sample of 600 households in four major regions of Ethiopia. Specifically, the study investigates the impacts of the devolution of forest tenure rights towards local communities on forest quality and livelihoods empirically, employing a quasi-experimental approach comparing households that are members of forest user groups (FUGs) and households that are not. The study uses four outcome variables as measurable indicators to empirically analyze the impacts of the devolution and its contributions to improvements in the livelihoods of forest dwellers. The results suggest that FUGs had a robust and positive impact on the harvest of various forest products. These findings contribute to the literature on devolution and highlight implications for research, policy, and development practice with respect to forest commons.

Keywords: institutions; common property forest management; matching; inverse probability weights; Ethiopia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q23 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 44 pages
Date: 2025-07-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev and nep-env
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.efdinitiative.org/sites/default/files/ ... -25-06%20MS-1694.pdf Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:gunefd:2025_006

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in EfD Discussion Paper from Environment for Development, University of Gothenburg
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Franklin Amuakwa-Mensah ().