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Land and Poverty Conference 2015
Linking Land Tenure and Use for Shared Prosperity
Equity and Efficiency of Registering Land Tenure Rights in Benishangul-
Gumuz Region, Ethiopia
Shewakena Aytensifu & David Harris
Responsible & Innovative Land Administration (REILA) Project, Ethiopia
shaoa75@gmail.com davidwharris@hotmail.com
Paper prepared for presentation at the
“ANNUAL WORLD BANK CONFERENCE ON LAND AND POVERTY”
The World Bank - Washington DC, March 23 - 26, 2015
Copyright 2015 by Shewekana Aytensifu & David Harris. All rights reserved. Readers may make verbatim copies of this
document for non-commercial purposes by any means, provided that this copyright notice appears on all such copies.

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ABSTRACT
Benishangul-Gumuz Region is one of the lowland regions in Ethiopia, situated in the west of the
country and bordering Sudan. Complex land tenure rights exist in the form of formal, informal
and customary, held by a range of indigenous and non-indigenous ethnic groups. A range of
factors affect land rights in Benishangul-Gumuz Region. These include: ‘slash-and-burn’
cultivation methods; inequitable land allocation; improper land use practices; encroachment onto
communal grazing and forest lands; a lack of gender equity; polygamous family relationships;
marginalization of indigenous land rights; boundary conflicts; tensions between commercial
agricultural investors and small-scale subsistence farmers; limited capacity in land administration
institutions.
This paper argues that a critical success factor for the land registration is the extent to which the
needs of the society are being satisfied and considered throughout the whole process. A
progressive and pragmatic approach is needed to improve security of tenure, and buy time to
strengthen the capacity of governing land right institutions. The Regional land legislation should
seek to bridge legality and legitimacy by providing a framework for effective, equitable and
sustainable practices, rather than seeking to impose a non-contextualized set of rules which
ultimately could be unenforceable and jeopardise the benefits of land registration.
Key Word List
Equity
Efficiency
Systematic land registration
Indigenous groups
Public Information & Awareness

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Contents
ABSTRACT..............................................................................................................................................2
Key Word List...........................................................................................................................................2
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES ......................................................................................................................5
Shewakena Aytensifu................................................................................................................................5
David Harris BA MSc MRICS FRGS ......................................................................................................5
Terms, Acronyms & Abbreviations..........................................................................................................6
1 Benishangul-Gumuz Region..................................................................................................................7
1.1 Geography.....................................................................................................................................7
1.2 Benishangul-Gumuz comparison with the Ethiopian highlands.................................................10
2 REILA Project.......................................................................................................................................13
2.1 1st
& 2nd
level registration ...........................................................................................................13
2.2 REILA Imagery trials..................................................................................................................13
2.3 REILA Imagery Trial locations ..................................................................................................14
3 Land Registration in Benishangul-Gumuz...........................................................................................15
3.1 The Regional BoEPLAU ............................................................................................................15
3.2 Land Registration in B-G............................................................................................................16
3.3 Agricultural investment land.......................................................................................................17
3.4 Public Information and Awareness.............................................................................................17
3.5 Technical Implementation...........................................................................................................18
3.6 Legislation and the 10 hectare law..............................................................................................20
3.7 Scale-Up......................................................................................................................................21
4 The Future...........................................................................................................................................23
4.1 Challenges...................................................................................................................................23
4.2 Summary.....................................................................................................................................25

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List of figures
Figure 1 Map showing the physical relief of Ethiopia including Benishangul-Gumuz Region ..................7
Figure 2 Map showing Benishangul-Gumuz Region within Ethiopia.........................................................8
Figure 3 Map of the administrative Zones & Woredas of Benishangul-Gumuz Region..............................9
Figure 4 Table showing the main ethnic groups in B-G Region................................................................10
Figure 5 The recent Villagisation Centres - from where some relocated farmers return back to their
original dwelling place - challenges the systematic land registration process............................................12
Figure 6 Map showing REILA Imagery Trials locations...........................................................................14
Figure 7 Organogram of BoEPLAU ...........................................................................................................15
Figure 8 Field work Bullen Woreda ..........................................................................................................19
Figure 9 Office work training Belo Jiganfoy Woreda ...............................................................................19
Figure 10 Dramatic highland landscape in Dangur Woreda, in the north of Benishangul-Gumuz ............23
Figure 11 United Nations Refugee camp in Bambasi Woreda, B-G Region.............................................25

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES
Shewakena Aytensifu
Shewakena Aytenfisu Abab is a development
professional with over 13 years of technical and
management experience in public, private, and
Non-Governmental Organizations in areas of
rural and urban development. He worked as a
junior statistician in his early career and
continues to work as land registration and
administration senior expert at different levels of
capacity in government structures. Shewakena
has practical experiences in formulation of policy
and legal instruments, and implementation
strategies, institutional and human capacity
development related to land administration
systems (land registration and titling, cadastral
surveying and mapping, land information
management), urban and rural land use planning
and development controls, municipal waste
management, urban green infrastructure
development, housing, real estate planning and
development, valuation and land market. He is
well known in his knowledge on concepts and
approaches relevant to advocating the importance
of land tenure and property rights’ recognition for
men and women and how to translate into actions
through conducting research. Formulation of
policy options for dialog, devising strategic
instruments and operational technical
requirements in the field of specialization in a
pragmatic way is part and parcel of his
professionalism. Since August 2013 he has been
working as National Land Tenure and
Administration Advisor for the REILA project.
David Harris BA MSc MRICS FRGS
David Harris is a British Chartered Land
Surveyor - MRICS, with a BA in Geography
from University College London and an MSc in
Cadastre & Land Information Management from
the Polytechnic of East London. He has over 33
years’ experience in surveying, mapping & land
registration. David spent 1981-84 working with
the Directorate of Overseas Surveys in North
Yemen and Tanzania. He moved to Ordnance
Survey GB, managing a topographic surveys
revision group in London and south-east
England, then led internal consultancy projects to
improve OS efficiency. He worked in the original
Ordnance Survey International, during the 1990s
‘golden era’, leading land reform projects in
Latvia and Macedonia and consultancy in
Estonia, Albania, Kyrgyzstan Latvia and
Slovenia. From 2001, he worked as a freelance
consultant, then for BlomInfo A/S (Denmark),
ORGUT UK and now ORGUT Sweden.
Primarily this has been leading land
administration projects in Romania, Mongolia,
Ukraine, Kosovo and Albania. He has also
completed consultancy in Egypt, Ethiopia,
Afghanistan, Croatia and Romania. From 2011-
14 he was Chief Technical Adviser and Team
Leader for the Responsible & Innovative Land
Administration (REILA) Project in Ethiopia.
Since September 2014 he has been Team Leader
for REILA in Benishangul-Gumuz Region.

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Terms, Acronyms & Abbreviations
Abay Blue Nile river
B-G Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State
BoEPLAU The Regional ‘Bureau of Environmental Protection, Land administration & Use’
CSA Central Statistical Agency
Derg The Marxist ‘Committee’ which ruled Ethiopia from 1974 to 1991
Green Book ‘Books of holding certificates’ issued to land holders, which record details of all the
registered parcels in each holding, so-called because of their green covers in several
Regions
Kebele The lowest level administrative unit in Ethiopia, contains on average 3,500 land parcels
KLAUC Kebele Land Administration & Use Committee
LAUD Land Administration & Use Directorate (Ministry of Agriculture)
MoA Ministry of Agriculture
PIA Public Information and Awareness
QGIS Quantum GIS (software)
REILA Responsible & Innovative Land Administration Project
SLMP Sustainable Land Management Project
UPIN Unique Parcel Identification Number
Woreda Administrative District, contains on average 20 Kebeles

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1 Benishangul-Gumuz Region
1.1 Geography
Figure 1 Map showing the physical relief of Ethiopia including Benishangul-Gumuz Region
Benishangul Gumuz Region is one of the nine constituent Regions of Ethiopia, situated to the west of the
country, bordering Sudan and South Sudan. B-G has a population of 784,345 (2007 census) and a surface
area of 50,699 sq kms; thus population density is 15 people/sq km. It is a predominately lowland Region
(in contrast to the Ethiopian highlands to the north and east), mainly at an altitude between 1000 and 1600
metres above sea level, with pockets of higher ground (see Figure 1 and Figure 10).

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Figure 2 Map showing Benishangul-Gumuz Region within Ethiopia
B-G is split by the Abay River (Blue Nile), which has only one bridge crossing within the Region.
Administratively there are three zones: Metekel zone to the north of the Abay, and Assosa and Kamashi
zones to the south. The zones are further divided into 20 Woredas, and the Woredas are divided into about
450 rural Kebeles. The administrative centre of B-G is Assosa in the south-west, which is 660 kms west of
the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

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Figure 3 Map of the administrative Zones & Woredas of Benishangul-Gumuz Region

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1.2 Benishangul-Gumuz comparison with the Ethiopian highlands
B-G Region differs in its nature from the Ethiopian highlands in several ways.
a. Farming Methods. Most rural land in the highlands is intensively farmed, either cultivated using
oxen plough, or as managed grazing. In B-G, much land is sparsely populated forest or
savannah, and cultivated land is often farmed by shifting cultivation methods using hoes, and the
overall density of cultivated land is much lower than in the highlands.
b. Ethnic Groups. Each ethnic group in the highlands tends to dominate in its Region (especially
in Tigray, Amhara and Oromiya). In B-G, there is a mix of indigenous ethnic groups (mainly
Berta, Gumuz and Shinasha) and settler groups from the highlands (mainly Amhara and Oromo).
ETHNIC GROUP INDIGENOUS POPULATION1
%
Berta YES 199,224 25.4
Gumuz YES 163,928 20.9
Shinasha YES 60,395 7.7
Mao YES 14,748 1.9
Komo YES 7,481 1.0
Amhara 170,203 21.7
Oromo 106,671 13.6
Agaw-Awi 32,942 4.2
Other 28,753 3.6
784,345 100%
Figure 4 Table showing the main ethnic groups in B-G Region
c. Established Settler Communities. During the years of rule by the Derg (1974-1991), people
were forcibly settled from the highlands to B-G. These settler groups are now well established,
live in self-contained villages (e.g. around the Region capital Assosa) and farm their land
according to traditional highland practices, on small fields using oxen plough.
1
source Central Statistical Agency census 2007

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d. Recent Settlers. Since the end of Derg rule in 1991, there has been regular voluntary movement
of people from the highlands into B-G, due to population pressure in the highlands and available
land in B-G. Many of these recent settlers rent land from the indigenous peoples.
e. Land Tenure. Most rural land in the highlands is legally held by the farmers with lifetime
inheritable use rights. The introduction of lifetime inheritable use rights is only just beginning in
B-G. In B-G, except in the resettlement and villagisation Kebeles the majority of the land is
occupied by the existing landholders without any formal or administrative land allocations. There
are also large areas of land which is rented by farmers; usually these tenant farmers are recent
settlers from the highlands. Centuries’ long shifting cultivation has brought large tracts of land
under family or clan possessions especially in the Gumuz community, where they trace historical
and ancestral land tenure and other productive natural resources rights.
f. Villagisation. The traditional dispersed settlement patterns of the indigenous communities makes
it difficult to provide important and basic social services such as health, drinking water, schools,
and market infrastructures. The main objective of the villagisation is to increase communities’
access to social services. The region has planned to relocate 45,000 households. In the 2010/2011
Ethiopian fiscal year more than 15,000 households have already been moved to a new villages.
g. Economic activities. The regional economy of Benishangul-Gumuz depends on agriculture which
accounts for 93% of the economically active population. Other livelihood sources include
traditional gold mining, gathering edible fruits, fishing, honey production, collection of wood,
hunting, handicrafts, petty trade and charcoal preparation and selling. This shows that the
population is highly dependent on land and other natural resources in and on the land. As a result,
any project or development activity in the region needs to understand how the people are linked to
the natural environment.
h. Land Use. The current land use practices of the region show that forest and bush land occupy the
largest proportion. The agricultural activities of the largest indigenous communities in the region
(Gumuz and Berta) is dominated by shifting cultivation that involves clearing of land – usually
with the assistance of fire – followed by phases of cultivation and fallow periods or in some cases
renting out of the land to recent settlers. The land use practices assume that land is abundant in
Benishangul-Gumuz region. In fact, the land which is currently under forest/bush is considered as
potential agricultural land, and partly allocated to potential investors. Available information shows
that there was a plan by regional agricultural office to expand agricultural land by 25% per annum
during the last 2 years. However, there is no land use study conducted so far. Unless proper land
use planning is followed, this will have severe environmental consequences.

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i. Kebele Administrative boundaries. Both the natural features like rivers or man-made features
such as roads are used as physical boundary marks. However, there appears overlapping claims of
the same land by two or more adjacent Kebeles. As the rural land proclamation and regulations
state, there is a need to involve the representatives of the bordering Kebeles and Woredas in the
boundary demarcation. REILA asked a farmer in one of the trial Kebeles in Bullen Woreda how
they identify Kebele boundaries and if they know exactly where the boundary lies, he then replied
‘is there any mother who cannot identify her baby in dark’? This example works in settler Kebeles,
practicing sedentary agriculture, without shifting cultivation. However, this is not the case for
Woredas and Kebeles occupied by indigenous community with fuzzy boundaries.
Figure 5 The recent Villagisation Centres - from where some relocated farmers return back to
their original dwelling place - challenges the systematic land registration process

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2 REILA Project
REILA is the “Responsible & Innovative Land Administration Project”, funded by the Governments of
Finland and Ethiopia. It began in July 2011 and is planned to last for five years. The total budget is about
13.7 million Euro. The main objectives of the project are to strengthen the land rights of smallholder
farmers by capacity building for land administration officials, and registering and mapping large numbers
of rural land parcels. REILA is focussed in Benishangul-Gumuz Region, Amhara Region and at Federal
level.
2.1 1st
& 2nd
level registration
During the past 16 years, Ethiopia has made impressive progress in registering rural land rights at low cost,
mostly without surveying and mapping the boundaries of the country’s 50,000,000 plus rural land parcels.
This ‘1st
level’ registration of over 12 million rural households’ land holdings was highlighted by issuing
‘Green Books’ to each household, detailing the land holdings of the rural households. This is now being
enhanced by a ‘2nd
level’ registration process to survey and map the land parcel boundaries.
2.2 REILA Imagery trials
In recent years, the Ethiopian Government has been looking for a low-cost method of surveying and
mapping rural land parcels, so that registration of all rural cultivated land can be completed, with each
parcel having a map of its boundaries and an accurate parcel area. This parcel mapping activity is known
as ‘2nd
level certification’. In early 2011, a group of Ethiopian Government officials visited Rwanda to find
out how a nationwide land registration programme was being done, using orthophotos produced from aerial
photographs as a base for the surveying and mapping of land parcel boundaries. The REILA Project
organised a similar study visit to Rwanda in 2012, to investigate the application of the imagery-based
methodology in more detail. It was decided to test a similar imagery-based methodology in Ethiopia, under
the auspices of the REILA Project.
During the past three years, the REILA project has implemented trials in five Ethiopian Regions (see map
on the next page), which have mapped land parcel boundaries using orthophotos based on aerial
photographs (Oromiya and SNNP Regions) or satellite images (Amhara, Tigray and Benishangul-Gumuz
Regions). These trials have shown that the surveying and mapping methodology is effective, low cost and
sustainable. The work is now being scaled-up on a countrywide basis, by REILA and other donors such as
DfID (UK).

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2.3 REILA Imagery Trial locations
Figure 6 Map showing REILA Imagery Trials locations
1. Oromiya Ilu Woreda start April 2012
2. SNNP Meskan Woreda June 2012
3. Amhara Dembecha Woreda February 2013
4. Tigray Kola Temben Woreda March 2013
5. Benishangul-Gumuz Bambasi Woreda June 2013
6. Benishangul-Gumuz Bullen Woreda January 2014
7. Benishangul-Gumuz Belo Jiganfoy Woreda June 2014

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3 Land Registration in Benishangul-Gumuz
3.1 The Regional BoEPLAU
The BoEPLAU is the authority responsible to lead the land administration, use and protection of the
environment in the B-G region and was established in 2011. The Bureau has three Zonal department offices
and 20 Woreda level environmental protection land administration and use offices. The establishment
proclamation declared that there also has to be a Kebele level Land Office which serves the local
community. There are over 450 Kebele level Land Administration and Use Committees (LAUCs) which
represent their constituencies, and are mandated to deal with land governance issues including land
registration and dispute resolutions within their respective jurisdictions. Since its establishment, the Bureau
has tried to implement the Rural Land Administration and Use Proclamation. Different documents have
been prepared to guide the implementation.
Figure 7 Organogram of BoEPLAU
Vice Bureau
Head

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A significant number of staff within the BoEPLAU have Bachelor degrees and some have higher degrees.
This could be a good basis for further acquisition of skill and professional development for land
administration; however, the learners must have positive attitudes and willingness to adopt new ways, and
some incentive for their efforts. It is reasonable for a person to ask “What is in it for me?” There also
seems to be a serious career development disincentive in place, in which personnel are summarily moved
from position to position, and place to place. This does not help with effective human resources planning,
succession planning, or productivity. Personnel can become cynical about training, or procedural and career
development activities in this kind of environment. It is useful to consider that often, young people are
more open to change, if their superiors allow them to adopt and utilise new ways that they have learned. If
the BoEPLAU decision makers continue to encourage frequent movement of personnel, particularly at the
Zone and Woreda levels, it will be impossible to build up the skill and knowledge base required to run the
new land administration system. Similarly, decision makers must ensure that when selecting personnel for
positions that they have adequate, relevant backgrounds, and that they are provided with opportunities to
acquire job-specific knowledge and skills.
3.2 Land Registration in B-G
Most rural land rights in the Ethiopian highlands (where most of the population live) are legally registered.
Most of these registrations are at ‘1st level’, where the rights and rights holders are recorded and registered,
but there is no map of the parcel boundaries. A major systematic programme of surveying and mapping,
known as ‘2nd level certification’ has now begun in the highlands. In B-G, land registration is still in its
early stages; an estimated 1,000,000 rural land parcels need to be surveyed and registered. The registration
is not being done in two stages as in the highlands, but in one stage. ‘Pre-registration’ (making an inventory
of land holdings) is done immediately before ‘full registration’, which includes the surveying and mapping.
However, because there is no history of land registration in B-G, a Public Information and Awareness (PIA)
campaign is particularly important, so that citizens understand the role and importance of registering their
land rights.
The development of and need for formal land registration in B-G Region is complicated by a range of
factors such as: large areas of unfarmed land, different ethnic groups, indigenous and settled peoples, legal
and illegal settlers, shifting cultivation, demand for land from commercial agricultural investors, large
numbers of tenant farmers, the infant stages of institutional capacity, the recent villagisation programme,
and the construction of the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam, which will create a reservoir with a capacity
of 63 billion cubic metres covering over 1800 sq.km. . These ‘layers of complexity’ affect how land
registration can be successfully introduced, in order to regulate and protect the legal land rights of
households and companies.

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In the context of the above factors, the authorities in B-G are now implementing consecutive programmes
of land reform and land registration. The land reform process is part of the ‘pre-registration’ and is intended
to assess and limit individual household land holdings to a maximum of 10 hectares per household. There
are exceptions, e.g. in polygamous households (for each additional wife, an extra 5 ha of land is allowed),
or where permission is granted for farmers to hold more land as investors under lease agreements with the
Region Government (these are dependent on the farmer proving he has the capability to farm the extra
land). The land reform is being implemented now by the BoEPLAU Woreda officials with support from
BoEPLAU Region and Zone offices. The land registration is intended to legally register the revised or
adjudicated land holdings which have been defined by the pre-registration land reform process. Land
registration is being implemented with the support of the REILA project: one trial Kebele in each of the
three zones in B-G and scale-up is now starting in two Woredas each in Assosa and Metekel zones.
Land Registration was also implemented in 2011-13 with support from the Sustainable Land Management
(SLM) phase 1 project, and is starting in 2015 with support from the SLM phase 2 project (phase 2 is using
the same image-based methodology developed by REILA).
3.3 Agricultural investment land
There is considerable demand for land for agricultural investment purposes in B-G. This is not surprising,
considering the low population density and reasonable fertility of the soils. Investors may be foreign
(particularly for larger areas of greater than 5,000 hectares), or Ethiopian, for areas ranging upwards from
50 hectares. Larger areas and foreign investors are usually leased from Federal level (but managed by the
Region authorities), whereas smaller areas are leased and managed from Regional level. Particularly for
the larger areas, this has the potential to cause conflict with smallholder farmers who live and farm within
the investor’s land. Sensitivity and flexibility are required to balance overlapping claims.
3.4 Public Information and Awareness
Considerable effort has been put into developing and implementing a PIA strategy for land registration in
B-G. Particular challenges have been the multiplicity of languages in B-G, and the low literacy levels (2007
literacy figures: 47% men, 23% women). So, a range of methods is being used to explain and publicise
Land Registration, including community meetings, women’s meetings, radio broadcasts, audio messages,
desk calendars and newspaper articles. Key in this PIA strategy has been the recruitment of an experienced
Ethiopian social scientist by the REILA project and three Legal Aid Agents.

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3.5 Technical Implementation
The seven REILA imagery-based trials, in one Kebele each, spread through five Regions (see map at Figure
6), have been used to develop and refine a methodology and to describe this methodology in detail in an
‘Operations Manual’. The main elements of the methodology are:
a. Planning and preparation, including procurement of equipment, recruitment of contract staff to
do the field and office work, renting of office space
b. Training of production managers, contract staff and Woreda officials
c. Public Information & Awareness campaign at Zone, Woreda and Kebele (community) levels
(ongoing throughout the field campaign), including radio broadcasts and newspaper articles. Legal
advice will also be available during the scale-up in B-G from specially recruited Legal Aid Agents.
d. Field work using four teams of four people each in each Kebele, one of whom is a member of the
Kebele Land Administration Committee, one surveys and demarcates parcel boundaries, one
records attribute information for each parcel and one is the Team Leader, who ensures the work is
done correctly
e. Office data processing of the attribute and map data collected in the field work, resulting in geo-
referenced and digitised parcel boundaries and attribute data in a Quantum GIS database. Map and
attribute data is linked for each parcel by a five digit Unique Parcel Identification Number (UPIN)
f. Quality Control of the data
g. Public Display of the provisional results (maps and attributes), displayed in a publically accessible
place for at least four weeks, and staffed by field and office workers, where citizens can view and
check the map and attribute data, and confirm as correct or make an objection
h. Corrections to the provisional results following Public Display objections
i. Preparation and recording of entries in new legal Registry books at Woreda level
j. Preparation, printing and issuing of parcel maps and certificates for each land holder and land
parcel

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Figure 8 Field work Bullen Woreda
Figure 9 Office work training Belo Jiganfoy Woreda

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3.6 Legislation and the 10 hectare law
Ethiopian legislation at Regional level (Ethiopia has a federal structure), consist of three levels of
legislation:
1. Proclamation
2. Regulations
3. Directives
B-G Rural Land Proclamation. The legal basis for rural land holding in B-G is “Proclamation No.
85/2010, Benishangul-Gumuz Regional State Rural Land Administration and Use Proclamation”.
The Proclamation states that every citizen from 18 years of age who wants to make a living from
agriculture should be accorded free access to land. It farther gives rights to all rightful rural
landholders to inherit, donate, and rent their landholdings. However, there are restrictions on the
arrangements and durations of land use rights’ transfers via rent. The law states (inter alia) 2
:
Land acquiring means and holding size
1. Any person who resides in the Region and would like to engage in agricultural activity shall
acquire land in one of the following procedure.
a) From the Land administrator of his Kebele in which he permanently resides
b) By bequeath, donation and rent the detail shall be determined by the regulation
2. A system which determines maximum land holding size, submissions for acquiring land
through holding, rent and lease shall be established in the regulation.
B-G Rural Land Regulations. The B-G Rural Land Regulations were enacted in 2011. They set the
maximum allowable size of rural land holdings (except for authorised investors) at 10 hectares in the
lowland areas and 5 hectares in the highland areas3
. Polygamous households are allowed an additional
5 ha for every additional wife. The proportion of a land holding which can be rented out is restricted
to a maximum of 50% of the total land holding, except in the cases of the old, disabled, women and
orphans4
. The common rent of land is between the indigenous community (particularly the Gumuz)
and the settlers (the ‘oxen plough’ community). Some of those renting out their landholdings are
powerful traders, community leaders or even politicians. The rental arrangement is for the benefits of
both the indigenous and settler communities. As it was observed in Woredas like Belo Jiganfoy, the
dispossession of those people holding larger than 10 ha of land impacts on many families (the tenants).
2
Section 7 of the Proclamation
3
Section 5, article 4 of the Regulations
4
Section 12, article 5 of the Regulations

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These issues require detailed study and an implementation plan, to minimize the law’s impact on both
the indigenous and the settler communities. It can also be seen in terms of its impact in disrupting the
established land access arrangement and regional food security situation.
B-G Rural Land Directives. The Directives were enacted in 2014. These new directives include
provisions for:
a. A Land Bank will be created which will hold land expropriated from farmers holding above
the 10 hectare ceiling. This land will be registered in the name of the Kebele. This land will
then be re-distributed to the landless people who are registered as residents of B-G Region.
b. Residence ID essential to hold land. This means that many recent settlers to B-G from
Amhara and Oromiya Regions will be unable to hold land legally, since they are considered
‘illegal’ settlers and the Kebele administration may not issue them with an ID card.
c. Waiting list for landless people. There is a waiting list for landless people. Land will be
allocated to these people in priority order from land in the land bank, without considering the
tenants’ chance of retaining what they have been farming under rental arrangement from the
indigenous who have above a 10 ha holding.
d. Tenants with residence ID. Tenants with residence ID go to the bottom of the waiting list,
since they are considered ‘better off’ due to the criteria that they have the financial capacity
to rent.
e. Indigenous people. Part of the motivation for the laws is to get indigenous people who rent
out all of their land back to work.
The recently enacted rural land directives have the potential to cause problems if they are enacted without
flexibility and sensitivity. There are large numbers of land holders in rural B-G who use or rent out more
than 10 ha of land, or who rent land as tenants, or who do not have a residents’ ID.
3.7 Scale-Up
Following the successful completion of the REILA trails in Bambasi and Bullen Woredas, the B-G Region
authorities want to scale-up the work in five Woredas (Bullen, Bambasi, Assosa, Pawe and Belo Jiganfoy)
during the 2015 field season (January to June). The trial in Belo Jiganfoy Woreda (Belo Didessa Keble)
has not yet been completed, due to starting the work just before the rainy season in 2014, and problems
between smallholder farmers and investment farming in a neighbouring Kebele. Work in Belo Didessa will
be completed before scaling up in other Kebeles in Belo Jiganfoy Woreda.

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Scaling-up will present challenges so that quality of the outputs is maintained, and the understanding and
support of farmers and citizens continues. One of the biggest dangers when scaling-up systematic
registration from pilot/trial phase to a large scale programme is maintaining quality. In the rush to register
a large numbers of land parcels, too often quality is sacrificed. Quality does not just mean quality of data
and outputs (though it includes that), but it also includes the quality of understanding and support from the
local communities. This means that the fieldwork must not be rushed; time needs to be taken to explain
procedures to and to listen to the problems of individual land holders while working ‘on site’ at their land
parcels. It is better to complete 50,000 parcels correctly, than to complete 100,000 parcels poorly.

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4 The Future
Figure 10 Dramatic highland landscape in Dangur Woreda, in the north of Benishangul-Gumuz
In such ‘islands of highlands’ in B-G, household land holdings are restricted to a maximum of 5 hectares,
in lowland areas the limit is 10 hectares.
4.1 Challenges
a. Planning & co-ordination. Planning and communication become more important to achieving
high quality outputs when the quantity of the outputs is larger. So this means that planning and
co-ordination of all activities must be done to a very high standard when scaling up.
b. The human element: Public information and Awareness. Systematic surveying and land
registration is not just a technical programme. Land rights are at the heart of people’s livelihoods
in rural societies such as Ethiopia. So communicating information about why the registration
programme is important is essential, as is helping land holders resolve disputes and uncertainties
about their land right.

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c. 10 ha law. A law which restricts land holdings in most circumstances to 10 ha per household
seems, on the surface, to be equitable. However, due to the history and circumstances of land
holding in B-G, many farmers hold more than 10 ha. So, if land holdings are going to be reduced
to 10 ha, then this must be done in a sensitive and flexible manner so that social harmony in rural
areas is maintained.
d. Tenancies. Tenant farmers are common all over the world. It is not necessary to own your land
in order to make a livelihood. Tenant farmers may farm small or large areas, and may be
subsistence farmers or make a profit. There should be no reason to treat tenant farmers as some
kind of ‘second class citizens’.
e. Investment farms. Investment farms held on long leases (20 years plus) are a type of tenancy.
There is support for investment holdings at Federal and Regional levels in Ethiopia. However,
particularly for larger investment holdings, care needs to be taken to avoid conflict with existing
smallholder famers’ land holdings.
f. ‘Illegal’ settlers. So-called ‘illegal settlers’ are largely those people who have come from
highland Ethiopia to find land to farm and feed their families, but do not have a resident’s ID.
What will happen to these people?
g. Quality Control. The processing of large amounts of land related data presents challenges in
ensuring that data quality is maintained at all parts of the data processing. This means that
rigorous quality control procedures are required. The QC procedures are often the first to be
abandoned (or cut back), when delivery targets are putting pressure on production staff and
managers to deliver ion time. This must not be allowed to happen; poor data quality will lead to a
reduction in confidence from land holders, which in turn will damage the whole land registration
process.

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4.2 Summary
The successful implementation of large systematic land registration programmes is always a balance
between ‘efficiency’ (speed and low cost) and ‘equity’ (correctness and fairness). The former requires well
designed technical procedures, and first class organisation and management. The latter requires discipline
in adhering to the technical procedures and an understanding and empathy with the human element of land
rights, to ensure that laws are fair and are fairly implemented, and that land holders’ concerns are carefully
and properly considered. Attaining a balance between these two requirements is not easy, but it is essential
for a successful programme and a stable society.
Figure 11 United Nations Refugee camp in Bambasi Woreda, B-G Region
REILA’s systematic image-based parcel mapping showed that the refugee camp had encroached onto
farmers’ land in the neighbouring Kebele.