Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Resource Economics

Dissertation of Aseffa Seyoum, 2009

Microeconomics of Wild Coffee Genetic Resources Conservation in Southwestern Ethiopia: Forest zoning and economic incentives for conservation

Start: 2006
End: 2009



The project focuses on the sustainable use and conservation of wild coffee populations in the rainforests of southwestern Ethiopia. Both the exclusionary in the past and the recent forest zoning conservation efforts have had limited success. This is basically due to lack of knowledge on the attributes of local households and their interaction with natural forests. The study highlights theoretical and conceptual frameworks of the interaction between forest and local households. Afterward, based on primary data collected from Yayu forest area, the author analyzes impacts of establishment of protected areas on the local household economy as well as implication of development interventions on sustainable use and conservation of coffee forests. This study makes a substantial contribution toward better understanding of the harvesting behavior of local households living around coffee forest areas for designing sound conservation policies. It reveals that implementation of exclusionary forest conservation strategies would deepen poverty, which compromise the desired conservation effects. Implications of return to labor enhancing interventions and households’ residential location on labor allocation decisions and demand for forest products is also addressed. The study, finally, suggests a range of policy options including role of economic incentives for coffee forest conservation and local development.

Researcher: Aseffa Seyoum

Cooperation partners:
Advisor: Prof. Dr. Dr. Konrad Hagedorn


Funding: BMBF