Barriers and enabling conditions for improved land restoration and climatic resilience in Oromia, Ethiopia

Bibliographic Data

ID21497986
AuthorsF M van Woesik (Utrecht University, corresponding author), G Senbeta (Government of Ethiopia), R Daniel (Government of Ethiopia), G Eshatu (Government of Ethiopia), N Masresha (Government of Ethiopia), I Dorresteijn (Utrecht University), S C Dekker (Utrecht University), H J de Boer (Utrecht University)
Year2026
Volume167
Pages108054
Publication date2026-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLand Use Policy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0264-8377 • E-ISSN: 1873-5754
PublisherElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.landusepol.2026.108054
OpenAlexW7151894604
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited64

Watershed restoration is widely promoted as a strategy for climate adaptation and land degradation control, yet long-term uptake and maintenance of restoration practices remain persistent challenges. This study focuses on Oromia, Ethiopia, examining how continuity, durability, and scalability of restoration practices are shaped by interactions between key barriers and enabling conditions across governance levels. Drawing on qualitative focus group discussions with 43 participants, including farmers, local administrators, technical experts, and policy actors across three woredas in Arsi Zone, the analysis identifies three cross-cutting clusters: planning quality, ownership and engagement, and coordination and accountability. The findings show that in Oromia, weaknesses in planning processes, particularly a campaign-based, top-down and quota-driven approach, constrain contextual adaptation, learning, and agroecological fit, among other factors. Barriers related to ownership and engagement highlight that in Oromia's watershed campaigns, participation is frequently short-term and incentive-driven with limited collective responsibility for sustaining structures and practices beyond short-term mobilisation. Challenges in coordination and accountability in Oromia, including fragmented mandates across governance levels and monitoring systems oriented toward upward reporting rather than horizontal learning, undermine credibility and adaptive capacity after campaign periods. Across these clusters, the interaction between barriers and enabling conditions gives rise to pathways that shape whether restoration efforts translate into sustained land-use change. Taken together, the results suggest that improving restoration outcomes in Oromia require system-level shifts aligning planning processes, community ownership arrangements, and institutional accountability mechanisms. The study highlights locally led climate adaptation as a practical entry point through site-specific planning, locally grounded monitoring, and social learning

Climate change · Land degradation · Land restoration · Land use · Psychological resilience · Restoration Ecology · Climate change impacts on agriculture · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology · Soil erosion and sediment transport

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access