Submissions Accepted for Presentation at the World Bank Land Conference 2024

Local community participation and seeking the support of local people prior to land acquisition decisions is very essential to safeguard their land rights and livelihood options in the context of large scale land acquisitions. Obtaining free, prior and informed consent from local community is the founding principle of responsible land tenure governance. However, little research has been conducted on how community participation and consent norms function in relation to land acquisition in Ethiopia. Thus, this study aims to offer analytical understanding of how local community participation particularly free, prior and informed consent norms function in in Ethiopia. Descriptive research approach by using both qualitative and quantitative data was employed to achieve the purpose of this study. This study concludes that the practices of land acquisitions are weakly linked to the principles of responsible land governance which in turn has been deterring to realize sustainable agricultural investment in Ethiopia.

This study aims to evaluate the spatio-temporal dynamics of land use and land cover in the Menagesha Forest Catchment over the past decade. Utilizing multi-temporal remote sensing data from Landsat 7 (2010), Landsat 8 (2015), and Landsat 8 (2020), the research provides insights into the changing landscape of the Menagesha Forest Catchment and its implications for global climate change. The findings indicate a significant reduction in forest cover within the catchment area, highlighting the urgent need for afforestation initiatives and sustainable land management practices. The study emphasizes the importance of monitoring land cover dynamics in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and supports the conservation and sustainable management of forests. It is recommended that afforestation strategies are implemented by the government and the local community to address the issue of forest loss.

The research deals with the evaluation and comparison of accuracy and time expenditure of Total Station (TS), Global positioning system (GPS), and SmartStation (SS) to support urban cadastral systems. A network consisted of nine control points that were selected and measured by Total Station to test the SmartStation and GPS-RTK methods. The result of SmartStation showed that better accuracy (2.74cm) than RTK GPS (3.77cm) with reference to the established network. With reference to the time expenditure, the SmartStation way took 225 minutes to test the entire points. Whereas, the separate use of TPS and DGPS took 207 and 162 minutes respectively. Total stations and GPS RTK equipment each have their advantages. SmartStation combines the best of both. Therefore, the researchers recommend that using SmartStation is more advantageous than using separate instruments – for instance, accuracy, time, cost, and number of professionals to be engaged.

Using a 3D cadastre, urban planners can leverage visualization and modelling tools to improve the siting of buildings, determine height or depth restrictions, impose noise limitations, and plan for disaster risk reduction and also improve land governance activities.