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This chapter shades light on natural resource conservation and management practices in Tigray region, Ethiopia. This was examined in the context of national policies, strategies and laws related to environmental protection and food security. Over the past couple of decades, the Tigray region of Ethiopia has demonstrated effective natural resources rehabilitation and conservation measures that revolved around the principles of grassroots’ participation, stakeholders’ synergy and local innovations that led to successes which were duly recognized in global platforms. The efforts made to synchronize conservation activities with food security have been particularly exemplary. However, recurrent drought, poverty and unviable livelihoods, budgetary constraints to finance large projects, as well as weak and fragile land use and land administration institutions, have hitherto constrained the resilience and proper scaling-up of best practices. Hence, the chapter recommends the need to scale up the Tigray region’s best practice on natural resources conservation and rehabilitation by adopting an integrated national land use and land use change policy. It is also important to apply stringent environmental conservation and rehabilitation measures, including; judicious utilization of already existing human and material resources as well as implementing cost-effective state-of-the-art approaches. Besides, there is also a need for proper coordination among various stakeholders to ensure the economy of scale and achieve sustainable, inclusive and eco-friendly development in the years to come.

We researched how CSO s working in the area of sustainable development responded to regulatory restrictions on advocacy work using Ethiopia as a case study. We found that the restrictive laws had a severe impact: many CSO s had to shut down or limit their operational capacity to service delivery only. Those that survived continued to do advocacy work, disguised as service delivery. This shows that northern stakeholders should not adhere to a strict division between advocacy and service delivery in their funding policy. They also should focus on long-term CSO engagement and long-term CSO funding. In 2019, regulatory reform reopened political space to some extent. The new law envisions a greater role for self-regulation in the civil society sector while still maintaining some degree of State oversight through registration, reporting and funding allocation requirements. Despite these improvements, the sector is still in need of international support and consistent and reliable funding.

Based on primary and secondary data, this paper provides a qualitative account of current changes in the pattern of natural resource management as a result of resource degradation and conflict in the Borana rangelands of southern Ethiopia. Population pressure, recurrent drought and the depleted carrying capacity of pastoral resources, as well as the encroachment of neighbouring ethnic groups, present the Borana community with a significant challenge. The diminishing resilience of traditional politico-judicial institutions under the famous Gada system often result in the rise of new forms of land use such as farming and private enclosures, which compete with the traditional communal tenure system. The gradual collapse of traditional norms and value systems and the apparent inefficiency in the formal administrative structures have exacerbated the problems of resource degradation and conflict between multiple resource-users.

Based on a literature review, this article examines the dynamics in pastoral systems, natural resource conservation and conflict in the drylands of East Africa. It argues that, in the context of East Africa, pastoralism and biodiversity conservation in general are distinct forms of land use that are complementary rather than competitive. The present state of natural resource degradation in the drylands is explained in terms of factors related to ecological and demographic pressures, land use conflicts and inefficient land administration policies. When the customary pastoral institutions of land administration and resource management are threatened, the problem of degradation is further exacerbated and violent conflicts occur among multiple resource users, including pastoralists, farmers and the state. The article recommends the revitalisation, empowerment and recognition of pastoral institutions in a way that ensures effective synergy between the formal and customary structures of resource governance.

Women’s response to poverty and unemployment is a major concern for policy makers. One of the most prominent livelihood strategies used by poor, unemployed and uneducated women in Northern Ethiopia is migration to the Middle East to earn money to support their families back home. Based on qualitative data, the study looks into migrant women’s pre-and post-migration scenarios in terms of their economic, social and psychological wellbeing. The pull and push factors, the challenges and opportunities as well as the pattern of decision making are examined. The migration of large number of women domestic workers into the Gulf States is propelled by the need to earn income to support family and save money to start small businesses in their places of origin. Peer pressure and family influence are also found out to be crucial factors in migration. Despite marginal socio-economic gains, migrants are subject to incidents of domestic violence, rape, harassments or even murder. This calls for an integrated and concerted multi-stakeholder effort to empower women through sound policies and interventions.