Ethiopia’s legal framework on land comprises its constitution and subsequent land laws enacted bythe

Federal Government for rural and urban land administration and management. Enacting separate laws
for rural and urban land system. Many proclamations repealed and replaced successively. The current
land laws includes proclamation 455/2005 enacted for compensation matters, proclamation 456/ 2005
for rural land administration. There are also regional constitutions, laws, regulations and directives. The
federal constitution (Article 40) states that the right to ownership of rural and urban land, as well as of
all natural resources, is exclusively vested in the state and in the people of Ethiopia. The main concern of
the Government in advocating state ownership is that private ownership will lead to concentration of
land in the hands of few people who have the ability to buy, resulting in the eviction of poor peasants
and thus aggravating landlessness and potentially leading to massive rural - urban migration of people
with unpredicted consequences. Therefore, as per the federal constitution, land is a common property
of the Nations, Nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia and shall not be subject to sale or other means of
exchange (Article 40/3). Sub Article 4 also states that Ethiopian peasants have the right to obtain land
without payment and the protection against eviction from their possession. This right shall include the
right to alienate, to bequeath, and, where the right of use expires, to remove his property, transfer his
title, or claim compensation for it.Under the overall public ownership as stipulated in the constitution,
subsequent proclamation recognize different tenure types. Proclamation No. 456/2005, defines three
tenure types, table 2. In article 2 sub article 11, it defines private holding as rural land in the holding of
peasants, semipastoralists and pastoralists and other bodies entitled by law to use rural land. Article 2
sub article 12 gives definition of communal holding as rural land which is given by the government to
local residents for common grazing, forestry and other social services. State holding is defined in article
2 sub article 13 as a rural land demarcated and those lands to be demarcated in the future at federal or
regional states holdings; and includes forest lands, wildlife protected areas, state farms, mining lands,
lakes, rivers, and other rural lands. The same proclamation (Art. 5:4:a) recognize private investors to
acquire and use agricultural land, which is stated as - Private investors that engage in agricultural
development activities shall have the right to use rural land in accordance with the investment policies
and laws at federal and regional. The Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia has
enshrined the basic principles about the property right of citizens under Article 40. Sub-article 1 of this
Article generally provides that “every Ethiopian citizen has the right to the ownership of private
property. ” However, these general provisions are qualified and limited by exceptions under sub- articles
2, which provides that “private property, for the purpose of this Article, shall mean any tangible or
intangible product which has value and is produced by the labour, creativity, enterprise or capital of an
individual citizen, association which enjoy juridical personality under the law, or in appropriate
circumstances, by communities specifically empowered by law to own property in common.” According
these constitutional provisions, there is no labour, creativity, enterprise and capital to create land and to
consider it as a private property. The other side of the debate emphasis that the constitution has put the
most precious resource of the nation "value less". There are a heated debate on this issue especially
during election campaign in every five years.

State land
Legal recognition: Recognized as state holding by the federal Rural Land

Administration and Land Use Proclamation (No. 456/2005) and regional land laws.

Registration/recording:

Land banking is a method practiced in Ethiopia to prepare land for investment and resettlement
programs. In this program state holdings were demarcated and mapped. The surveyed land is ready for
the transfer to investors (domestic and foreign) through lease contracts. This is a point of controversy
that sometimes is termed as land grabbing (Rahmato, 2011). The maximum duration for the leasehold is
different in different regions. Lease contracts can be renewed after the expiry period. In the lease
contract the rightsand obligations of the lessee as well as of the lessor are included. Among
others,taking proper natural resources conservation measures are major responsibilities the lessee. But
in practice, large scale commercial investment farms are not environmentally friendl

Transferability: State land is transferred by lease agreement with the regional states. The leased land
can be used as collateral during the lease term. The lease can also be inherited for the term as long as
the legal heirs are willing to continue to abide with the previous lease contract.2

Private holding

Legal recognition: The land holding right is given by constitutional provision and further clarified by
federal framework land law Proclamation No. 456/2005.Registration/recording: Four major regional
states are issuing primary books of holdings following participatory adjudication process. The coverage
can be estimated between 60 to 98% of the land holders in the four major regional states.

Transferability: Private individual holdings cannot be sold and can be transferred only through
inheritance to family members practicing agriculture and living with the right holder. Holdings can be
leased to other farmers or investors, subject to restrictions on the extent and duration of leases.2

Communal holding

Legal recognition: Access rights to communal holding over rural land are recognized by the constitution
and proclamations (Proc. No. 456/2005).

Registration/recording: Registration of communal holdings in four major regions is similar to individual

holdings except that the holders of communal holding are group of people. However, the users generally
are not happy on the enforcement of billows for the protection of communal holdings. In pastoralist
areas the group, clan is the owner of the area of land though they are not permanently settled on the
area.

Transferability:

for example Proclamation 133/2006 defines the common holding as rural land not under the ownership
of the government or of any private holding, but used by the local people in common for grazing,
forestry and other social services. In most cases, communal holdings are governed by traditional rules
and by-laws. According to the regional states regulations the local society is entitled to establish by-laws
based on local circumstances. The decisions based on these local rules are legally valid unless or until
they are in contradiction with established formal law.The regional land laws have also provisions how to
transform communal holdings into individual holdings. Legal restrictions in the transformation process
are the agreement of the rightful users of the concerned area and the perpetuation of the existing land
use type after individualization. Additionally, the transformation3process has to be approved by the
authorities to minimize possible environmental consequences. The common rights are normally given to
specific Kebele (parish) membership, but in some cases the rights are limited to specific groups within
the Kebele. Common rights are linked to the place of residence. The landless dwellers of the Kebele have
full right and responsibility to use the common pool resources within their vicinity.Common pool
resources are grazing lands, community and conservation forests, market places and other service areas,
river banks, and water bodies. In practice the right to use the common pool resource is not exclusively
given to the landholding rights, but it is a beneficial right with a weak connection to theholding right.
Communal rural land holdings can be changed to private holdings as may be necessary” (Proc. No.
456/2005, Art. 5-3).

Leasehold /rental

Legal recognition: Lease according to the definition of some regional states is the agreement between
investors and regional states. Whereas rent is the agreement between individual land holders and
tenant. Private investors can acquire timebound use rights on payment basis over rural land to engage in
commercial activities through contract with the state or private landholders (Proc. No. 456/2005, Art.
5/4 and art.8). Registration/recording: any rural land that is held through lease or rental shall be
registered by the competent authority ((Proc. No. 456/2005, Art. 6/). Transferability: Investors who hold
rural land through lease or rent have the right to transfer and use as collateral their holding right3