This is a PhD dissertation by Haileselassie Medhin and containing seven self-contained papers:

Tourism in southern Africa is based on the region’s wildlife and nature assets and is generally environmentally sustainable, but the extent to which it contributes to other aspects of sustainable development — overall income generation or poverty eradication — is less well explored.

REDD+ (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, “plus” afforestration) is a tool that supports forest carbon-enhancing approaches in the developing world in order to mitigate and hopefully reverse climate change. A key issue within REDD+ is to appropriately bring in the almost 25% of developing country forests that are effectively controlled by communities.

This paper assesses the impact of a landcertification program in Ethiopia on the level of interpersonal and institutional trust among households in the Amhara region. The landcertification program is designed to enhance landtenure security of farmers, by maintaining (egalitarian) status quo land distribution and equity concerns.

Empirical studies across many developing countries routinely document a positive correlation between participation in rural nonfarm employment and households’ wealth or income.