From exploitation to sustainable use: Examining historical institutional barriers to sustainable forest governance in Ethiopia

Despite decades of global promotion, decentralization and participatory forest management have consistently failed to achieve sustainable and inclusive outcomes in developing countries. Ethiopia exemplifies this paradox, experiencing persistent deforestation and the marginalization of local communities despite a century of forest legislation across successive political regimes and pioneering participatory forest management initiatives. Existing research has examined technical and socio-economic drivers of forest governance challenges but has largely overlooked the enduring influence of historical institutional legacies that shape governance outcomes. This study investigates why sustainable and equitable forest governance has repeatedly failed in Ethiopia, focusing on the persistence and reconfiguration of path-dependent institutional features and their effects on governance outcomes. Through a systematic analysis of secondary data from the late 19th century to the present, the research examines the evolution, persistence, and governance effects of key institutional structures shaping forest management outcomes. The findings reveal that despite surface-level political transformations, foundational institutions and extractive practices have remained largely resilient. This institutional persistence creates a vicious cycle where formal reforms are systematically subverted by entrenched legacies, explaining the consistent failure of reforms. The study concludes that effective forest governance reform in Ethiopia and similar contexts must move beyond technical policy design to actively dismantle these resilient, path-dependent institutional structures. Future research and policy interventions should incorporate explicit strategies for institutional disruption at critical junctures and engage deeply with the historical roots of present-day power imbalances to enable genuine transition.