“They Think I Know Everything” : The politics and ethics of environmental restoration in Tigrai, Ethiopia

This research examine the political ecology of environmental restoration and the nature of peasant participation in Ethiopia. It investigate the question of how and to what extent have environmental restoration programs in Ethiopia has been shaped by the ‘environmentalism of the state’. Many have been arguing that Ethiopian restoration efforts lack a participatory approach and has been a cause for a less rosy results of restoration projects. EPRDF adopted participatory approach for environmental restoration projects. However, less concern was given to questions like what institutional arrangements exist and what power relations are implied in the planning and implementation of restoration projects and how do the power relation shapes the nature of peasant participation? The research locates itself on the political ecology of conservation and control and argues that environmental restoration projects even though supposedly met their technical merits, but they are being used for social and political control. Peasant participation is limited to the contribution of labor and natural resources. While the literature focuses on the peasant empowerment in economic aspects, this research mobilizes relevant data to argue that the sustainability of restoration is dependent of the political empowerment of the peasants. Despite the claim of that the government is using participatory approach and the peasants are willing to continue to work for free in restoration areas, the research finds out that the peasants considers the restoration areas as a symbol of state power, not their power nor their symbol of commitment.