Institutional Paradox and Tenure Insecurity in Ethiopian Pastoral Land Administration

Laws governing pastoral communal lands are barely developed in Ethiopia. The Federal Constitution firmly recognizes uninterrupted land use right of pastoralists including for grazing. Federal land laws, however, mention pastoralists’ issues incidentally and are far from being comprehensive frameworks. This research is the review of pillars of federal and regional land laws, examination of their implementation, synergy between state and customary land administration system, and the implication of gaps in accessing land for different programmes in Ethiopian Afar and Somali regional states. The findings revealed that in the absence of any federal laws that effectively regulate communal lands uses, regional laws were found to be precarious, feeble and far from being comprehensive. Ironically, the regional laws offered more protection to crop fields than communal (pastoral) land. It is also shown that customary and state land administration systems that operate simultaneously in the areas lack synergy and created stalemate.