From Community Voice to Triggering Legal Reform

Participatory law development is the guiding approach that GIZ’s Land Governance project, together with the Ministry of Agriculture, employs in designing laws that are practical, enforceable, and less restrictive. The process is meant to ensure that community voices are heard, particularly the voices and lived experiences of women, who are often most directly affected by land use decisions.

One testimony that emerged during consultations of the draft rural land administration and use proclamation of the Sidama region organised by the GIZ-implemented Land Governance project where Mrs Womitu Bushar became one of the strongest community advocates against haphazard eucalyptus tree planting, unreasonable fallowing of land, and the undermining of women’s land rights.

During the consultations, she strongly advocated for the inclusion of legal provisions against uncontrolled eucalyptus planting, stricter measures against improper use of agricultural land. Her advocacy reflected not only policy concerns but also lived experience. She had already removed eucalyptus trees from her own farmland and replaced them with enset, the staple food crop of the locality. Beyond her own farm, she also worked closely with local administration structures to support women raising complaints related to land rights violations.

In the consultation Mrs. Womitu opined passionately about how eucalyptus trees had brought “hunger” to villages in her locality. She explained that absentee landholders increasingly planted eucalyptus trees to occupy land and secure their holdings, often using fertile agricultural land located near food crops and vital plants such as enset. As eucalyptus plantations expanded, food production declined, negatively affecting household food security and rural livelihoods.

In response to these concerns, GIZ commissioned a follow-up study through Hawassa University Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resources to better understand the socio-economic and environmental impacts of eucalyptus plantations and to identify balanced and evidence-based solutions. 

The study confirmed the concerns raised by communities, demonstrating that the same land, when used for maize cultivation, could generate significantly greater economic value as well as strengthening food security. Combined with the voices raised during the participatory consultations, the findings of the study directly informed the legal reforms. The law which was officially adopted as Proclamation No. 27/2015, by virtue of article 27, requires eucalyptus plantings to follow land-use planning principles and prohibits plantings near food crops and water sources. Additionally, it also addressed harmful land use practices.

This became an important example of how participatory lawmaking can successfully bridge scientific evidence and community experience to produce laws that are socially responsive, practically enforceable, and grounded in the realities of rural communities.