The Influence of Indigenous Institutions in the Conservation and Use of Coffeea Arabica
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Date
2005-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The research is conducted on the influence of indigenous institutions in the conservation and use of forest Coffea
arabica and its habitat, natural forest. It is conducted in Yayo district of /Iuu Abba Bora zone, Southwest Ethiopia.
The general objective of the research is to explore the contribution, challenges and prospects of indigenous
institutions in forest coffee and natural forest conservation.
Coffee is a base for the Ethiopian Economy that contributes over more than 60 percent of its foreign exchange
earnings and 42 percent of taxes from foreign trade (EDE, 1999: 1) as well as for local consumption. A substantial
portion of coffee grow wild under the natural forest in the South and Southwestern parts of the country on which
a large number of population depend for their economic subsistence and socia-cultural affairs. However, the
existing wild coffee is endangered due to natural calamities and various human factors that contributed to the
increasing deforestation. The interaction between human beings and the natural environment are the causes for
the endangered wild coffee and natural forest. This in turn is regulated through various rules and regulation that
control the activities of institutions of which indigenous institutions constitute a part.
The research, hence, employed functionalism, cultural ecology and Ostrom's Institutional Analysis and
Development (lAO) framework. Malinowski's functionalism is set up on what he regards as the seven basic needs
of man that include nutrition, reproduction, bodily comforts, safety, relaxation, movement, and growth. These
individual needs are satisfied by derived cultural and social institutions, whose functions are to satisfy them. It
demonstrates that the function of institutions in satisfying human needs that contribute in keeping environmental
stability. Cultural ecologists, focus on the impact of local populations using different cultural and social institutions
on the environment. Indigenous institutions in particular, thus, mediate the interaction between human society
and the natural environment. This is because indigenous institutions based on the social, cultural and other
practices of the society in their attempt to serve the $ociety in adapting the environment. Every rules and
regulations, code of conducts, customary rights and practices, rituals, cultural values, etc. on which indigenous
institutions found directly or indirectly influence the datural environment. The lAO framework also enables to
analyze the role of institutions at different level through substantiating the empirical data with theoretical thoughts.
It allows synchronizing the impact of indigenous institutions at operational and collective choice level as well as
their interaction with formal institutions in order to contemplate its impact on forest conservation and use.
The study reveals that indigenous institutions exist in the study area can be categorized in to four major
categories. These include territorial based administrative indigenous institutions, self-help work organizations,
religious institutions and Indigenous knowledge. Despite the fact that the indigenous institutions are not
established for specific resource management with clear rules, they have been contributing a lot in the
conservation and use of natural resources including forest coffee and natural forest. Broadly speaking their role
can be viewed as operational level activates that perform forest coffee production activities such as clearing the
undergrowth, digging, pruning, planting seedlings, transporting and collecting coffee. They also contiibute in
increasing local people 's income that reduces deforestation of forest coffee and natural forest. Administrative
indigenous institutions perform collective choice level activities that determine the activities of operational level
institutions or self-help organizations. They organize and make decisions on these activities of self-help work
organizations such as dabo, jiga, lafee and quqube that greatly contributes to the conservation and use of forest
coffee and natural forest. The role of indigenous institutions in natural resource conservation has been changed
and declining over the past many years for various reasons of which the domination of formal institution is a major
one.
The research also confirm that the attitude and perception of the local community towards the conservation,
property rights, indigenous and formal institution interrelations, and resource conflicts are the main challenges for
resource conservation and use.
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The potentials of Indigenous institutions in natural resource management is evident from their ability to manage
natural resources through indigenous knowledge, adaptability of th eir rules with changing situations and
mobilization of the community towards natural resource conservation. Hence, systematic combination of
indigenous and state forced local institution through policies and programs of natural resource management can
ensure sustainable forest coffee and natural forest conservation and use.
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The Conservation and Use of Coffeea Arabica: