The Political Economy of Environmental Governance in Ethiopia: Exploring Trends, Actors and Drivers Alemayehu Assefa Assele A Dissertation Submitted to The Center for Environment and Development, College of Development Studies Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Development Studies (Environment and Development) Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa, Ethiopia May 2019 The Political Economy of Environmental Governance in Ethiopia: Exploring Trends, Actors and Drivers Alemayehu Assefa Assele A Dissertation Submitted to The Center for Environment and Development, College of Development Studies Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Development Studies (Environment and Development) Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa, Ethiopia May 2019 ii Declaration I, the undersigned, declare that this is my original work, has never been presented in this or any other University, and that all the resources and materials used for the dissertation have been fully acknowledged. Name: Alemayehu Assefa Assele Signature: ____________ Date: _________________ Place: Addis Ababa Date of submission ___________________ This dissertation has been submitted for examination with my approval as University supervisor: Main advisor’s name: Yohannes Aberra (PhD) Signature: _________________________ Date: ________________________ Co-advisor’s name: Dawit Diriba (PhD) Signature: _____________________ Date: ________________________ iii Dissertation Approval Addis Ababa University School of Graduate Studies This is to certify that the dissertation prepared by Alemayehu Assefa Assele entitled “The Political Economy of Environmental Governance in Ethiopia: Exploring Trends, Actors and Drivers” and submitted in fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Environment and Development Studies) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the Examining Committee: __________________________ ______________ _____________ Chair, Examining Committee Signature Date __________________________ ____________ _____________ External Examiner Signature Date __________________________ ____________ _____________ Internal Examiner Signature Date __________________________ ____________ _____________ Advisor (Main) Signature Date __________________________ ____________ _____________ Advisor (Co) Signature Date _______________________________________________________ Chairperson of the Department or Graduate Program Coordinator iv The Political Economy of Environmental Governance in Ethiopia: Exploring Trends, Actors and Drivers Abstract In the face of mounting environmental crisis, instituting a viable environmental governance system has been one of the arduous challenges in the context of developing countries like Ethiopia. The objective of this PhD dissertation was to explore the political economy of environmental policy and governance in Ethiopia with a focus on historical trends, actors, and drivers. Being a macro level policy research, the study was based on data collected from weredas purposively selected from four regions namely Oromia, Southern Regional State, Amhara, and Addis Ababa city. A mixed research design was employed whereby most of the study objectives were based on bulk of in depth qualitative data generated from communities, experts, government officials, and the private sector, which was also complemented by a range of archival data and policy review. Household survey data was collected from 402 subjects. The findings have shown that environmental policy and governance in pre-1991 Ethiopia had been characterized by a narrow view that equated environment as synonymous with land based resources, which has had a detrimental effect on the institutionalization of environmental mandates, approach of governance and conservation of environmental resources until today. Since 1992, the country has attained a holistic view of environmentalism with formulation of comprehensive environmental policy, and instituted numerous environmental regulatory bodies consistent with the changing narrative in policy conceptualization. However, the policy implementation has been under the influence of historical legacies in many aspects. Thus, top-down approach of planning, state centric actor role and lack of defined modality to engage non state actors, and asymmetry in rural urban dichotomy manifested with inclination towards conservation of land based resources while neglecting urban environmental protection are some of the major drawbacks. Despite proliferation of environmental institutions, the influence of agriculture sector over these institutions has still been prevalent resulting in a meagre executive attention and support. While environmental security is seriously threatened by poorly planned and rarely regulated initiation of development projects, compliance to environmental laws is highly compromised not only by the private sector, but also by the public sector, too. The quantitative findings revealed that the current governance practice was found to be ineffective, falling below the average threshold value. On top of this, environmental governance is significantly determined by sex, marital status, occupation, role in community, agro-ecology, availability of benefit sharing schemes and access to forest resources. An investigation of local community role in park governance has also shown that adherence to the fortress model has been posing a threat to the overriding conservation objective. In general, Ethiopia’s environmental governance, despite its success in achieving broad based policies, has been suffering from practical ineffectiveness, poor policy implementation exacerbated by dominance of agriculture sector and weak institutional existence at lower levels. It is suggested that there is a need to make a balance between growth and environmental care through freeing environmental regulatory institutions from the influence of agriculture sector and other executive branches; creating law based platform for engagement of non-state actors; and making a shift from top-down approach of governance to application of participatory modes which engage local communities. Key words: Environment, political economy, environmental governance, environmental policy, effectiveness v Acknowledgments First and foremost, I must praise almighty God for His gracious help that has been with me during the entire course of my study. His mercy and grace has helped me tremendously during the severe health failure amid my study which was followed by irresistible physical and psychological distresses. Besides the help of my Lord, my dream of pursuing a terminal degree in general and the entire course of my study in particular became a reality as a result of the many friends, relatives, and colleagues whom I am always indebted to. Therefore, I would like to express my cordial gratitude to some of them without whose remarkable assistance this Doctoral degree could not have been made a reality. First of all, I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Yohannes Aberra, Associate Professor, College of Development Studies, Center for Environment and Development, who has ever since been generous in sharing me his deep knowledge and experience. Dr. Yohannes has demonstrated a strong sense of enthusiasm and brotherly concern to my success in which he further provided me with an opportunity to learn from his rich research experiences. I would also like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to my co-advisor Dr. Dawit Diriba, Assistant professor, College of Development Studies, Centre for Environment and Development, whose support in reading the manuscript and providing me with invaluable insights to complete the research work has been pivotal. It is my pleasure to be sincere to Dr. Tadesse Wolde, Oxford University, UK, who facilitated the PhD grant support from the Christensen Fund. Above all, this PhD was financially supported by the Christensen Fund, California. Had it not been for their kind help, I wouldn’t have pursued the study due to the financial constraint that is always detrimental in our country context. Therefore, I am exceptionally indebted to the Fund and its management. I would be thankful to the SNNPR government, office of the president for granting me a salaried study leave for over five years as well as their tremendous logistic support during the data collection work. I am also highly grateful to His Excellency Ato Haile Mariam Dessaleng, the former prime minister of Ethiopia who accepted and officially approved my request to pursue the terminal degree. I should also thank Ambassador Admasu Tsegaye (prof.), the then president of Addis Ababa University, whose help in facilitating my admission was pivotal. I would like to thank my USA based friends Abbas Hussein (Virginia), Lemma Lamango (Los Angeles, California), and Solomon Equbamichael (Denver, Colorado), whose all-round support has been immense throughout the study period. I have to owe my profound thanks to my cousin, Ambassador Teruneh Zenna, a distinguished career diplomat and former commissioner of the Human Rights Commission of Ethiopia, for his encouragement, advice, caring and uninterrupted support throughout my study. I would like to express my appreciation to my friend and class mate Befikadu Esayas with whom I have enjoyed sharing views, experiences and resources from the early period of course work to the final write- up of the