The impact of Ethiopian land certification on land conservation, maintenance and tree planting

Abstract

This study analyses the impact of land registration and certification on rural farm households’ investment on conservation, maintenance and tree planting in Ethiopia. I used cross-sectional data collected from Tigray region in 2015. The Instrumental variable approach used to control for endogeneity in certificate ownership shows there is no systematic distribution in certificate ownership or no endogeneity. The estimation results suggest a mixed result with different outcome variables used as proxy for land related investment. There is positive and significant correlation between possession of land certificates and investment in conservation and maintenance or improvement of conservation structures. However, I didn’t find a significant correlation between certificate and tree planting. Variables such as distance of farm plots and public investment on plots tend to have a strong and positive effect on farmers decision on land related investments.