Beyond Ostrom: Randomized Experiment of the Impact of Individualized Tree Rights on Forest Management in Ethiopia

Ryo Takahashi, Keijiro Otsuka (), Mesfin Tilahun (), Emiru Birhane and Stein Holden ()
Additional contact information
Mesfin Tilahun: Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Postal: Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432 Aas, Norway
Emiru Birhane: Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Postal: Centre for Land Tenure Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, NO-1432 Aas, Norway

No 6/21, CLTS Working Papers from Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies

Abstract: In this study, we argue that while community forest management is effective in protecting forest resources as argued by Ostrom, it may fail to provide proper incentives to take care of such resources because of collective sharing of benefits of forest management. This study proposes a mixed private and community management system as a desirable arrangement for timber forest management in Ethiopia, which is characterized by communal protection of community-owned forest area and individual management of individually owned trees. By conducting a randomized experiment in Ethiopia, we found that the mixed management system significantly stimulated intensive forest management activities, including pruning, guarding, and watering. Furthermore, the treated members extracted more timber trees and forest products, which are byproducts of tree management (thinned trees and pruned branches). In contrast, the extracted volumes of nontimber forest products unrelated to tree management (fodder and honey) did not change by the intervention.

Keywords: property regimes; individual rights commons; community forest management; RCT (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 P48 Q23 Q24 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36 pages
Date: 2021-12-23
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-dev, nep-env and nep-exp
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https://www.nmbu.no/download/file/fid/53966 Full text (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Beyond Ostrom: Randomized experiment of the impact of individualized tree rights on forest management in Ethiopia (2024)
Working Paper: Beyond Ostrom: Randomized Experiment of the Impact of Individualized Tree Rights on Forest Management in Ethiopia (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:nlsclt:2021_006

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