Land Tenure and Tenure Security Among Somali Pastorals of Ethiopia

Rural Land is the single most productive asset that the rural communities in developing countries have at their disposal and through which they can chart their development destiny. Therefore having a legally secured access right and well defined property rights in land is the sign qua non test for sustainable utilization of rural lands. For pastoral communities like the Somali Pastoralists rural land is even a treasure that needs adequate legal protections. But in Ethiopia the issues of Pastoral Land rights were somewhat neglected for more than a century and currently the pastoral communities have one of the most unsecured tenure rights and this paper call for the recognitions of customary land rights of Somali pastoralists living in Eastern Parts of Ethiopia.