Generating New Commons and Resource Management Systems: A Case Study of the Tsamako in Southwestern Ethiopia

Abstract

This paper examines the irrigated canal cultivation areas and their management systems that have emerged since the mid-2010s around the plantation established in 1990s in the Tsamako of southwestern Ethiopia. Irrigated lands for cultivation have been cleared adjacent to the plantation, utilizing water from the plantation’s canals, as well as on the west bank of the Woito River, where irrigation canals draw water directly from the river.

The cultivated lands adjacent to the plantation have established a management system that links the government, plantation, and local people. While this management system appears multilayered and stable, there is a lack of direct control by the EPRDF regime through agricultural development, contrary to observations made in the Ethiopian highlands.

On the west bank of the Woito River, the relationship between the administration and cultivators seems more complex and fluid. Here, a joint resource management system is being formed between the Tsamako and Konso cultivators independently from the administrative authority.