Land Tenure and Challenges of Tenure Security: The Case of Dedo District, South Western Ethiopia

This study examined rural land tenure issues using mixed research approach. Survey data were collected from 203 randomly selected respondents and qualitative data were generated from focus group discussions, in-depth and key informant interviews. Informal means of land access predominates in the area though some mechanisms such as renting for long period and purchasing deviates from the Federal and regional rural land administration proclamations. Women access to land is not a norm; it is possibility. Established customs held about women victimse their land right mainly post-divorce. Attributed to land fragmentation, competition overland is soaring mainly between natives and illegal settlers. Competition over forestland and land reserved for grazing negatively affected land tenure security. Land expropriation for mining industries also invoked tenure insecurity as it affects not only current holding but also erodes the readiness of farmers to cultivate fearing that they will be dispossessed. Land certification was perceived to enhance tenure security among those who were issued but manipulation by local elites and fraud compromised land rights of rural poor. Conflicts arising from traditional boundary surveying and false certification were found to affect sustainable land utilisation. Land tenure system in the area also affects the environmental resources and livelihood security of the people. This calls for robust land management strategies, which integrates customary land tenure to emerging land administration technologies to assure sustainable utilisation of environmental resources.