I taught, coordinated, and supervised seminars in courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels: 

• Main themes include: ecosystem disservices, rural land management, land 'grabs', geographic information systems and methods
• Courses: Geogrpahic information analysis; Field studies; Advanced method in human geography, and urban and regional planning; Political ecology- land use and natural resources in a local to global perspective; Geographic information systems and cartography; and Environmental challenges in a societal perspective, and Development, globalization and the environment 

Research areas and interests: agriculture, child labour and schooling, forest and agro-ecosystem services and disservices, global south, land change, rural livelihoods and development, rural-urban linkages and transformations, political ecology.

Current project: 'Conserving the forest while keeping the children in school – exposing the problem of child labour in Ethiopia’s smallholder forest-coffee sector.' Formas mobility starting grant. 2019-2022. 

Previous project: 'Ecosystem Services and Disservices in an Agriculture–Forest Mosaic: A Study of Forest and Tree Management and Landscape Transformation in Southwestern Ethiopia.' This was my PhD research, which is part of a project titled: ‘Examining mismatches between management and the supply of ecosystem services in Ethiopian agro-ecosystems across scales in space and time,’ financed by SIDA and Formas to Professor Kristoffer Hylander. 

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Coffee, child labour, and education: Examining a triple social–ecological trade-off in an Afromontane forest landscape

  2022. Tola Gemechu Ango (et al.). International Journal of Educational Development 95, 102681-102681

  Article

  Read more about Coffee, child labour, and education: Examining a triple social–ecological trade-off in an Afromontane forest landscape

• The Production and Destruction of Forests through the Lens of Landesque Capital Accumulation

  2021. Lowe Börjeson, Tola Gemechu Ango. Human Ecology 49, 259-269

  Article

  We discuss the management of trees and forests through the lens of “landesque capital.” A theoretical point of departure is how landesque capital accumulates through a process that relies on both the ‘work of nature’ and the ‘work of people.’ This approach highlights the importance of undertaking a critical analysis of labor investment and its landscape legacies in relation to ecological processes, social dynamics, and political economy. Empirically we draw on the case of small holder production of coffee and annual crops in southwestern Ethiopia. We show how both the production (generation and maintenance) and destruction of forests in the study area are largely shaped by processes of landesque capital accumulation and discuss the importance of analyzing how people contribute to produce forests to meet production goals in contrast to the ubiquitous notion of humans as a solely destructive force of change in forest ecosystems.

  Read more about The Production and Destruction of Forests through the Lens of Landesque Capital Accumulation

• Processes of Forest Cover Change since 1958 in the Coffee-Producing Areas of Southwest Ethiopia

  2020. Tola Gemechu Ango, Kristoffer Hylander, Lowe Börjeson. Land 9 (8)

  Article

  We investigated the spatial relations of ecological and social processes to point at how state policies, population density, migration dynamics, topography, and socio-economic values of ‘forest coffee’ together shaped forest cover changes since 1958 in southwest Ethiopia. We used data from aerial photos, Landsat images, digital elevation models, participatory field mapping, interviews, and population censuses. We analyzed population, land cover, and topographic roughness (slope) data at the ‘sub-district’ level, based on a classification of the 30 lowest administrative units of one district into the coffee forest area (n = 17), and highland forest area (n = 13). For state forest sites (n = 6) of the district, we evaluated land cover and slope data. Forest cover declined by 25% between 1973 and 2010, but the changes varied spatially and temporally. Losses of forest cover were significantly higher in highland areas (74%) as compared to coffee areas (14%) and state forest sites (2%), and lower in areas with steeper slopes both in coffee and highland areas. Both in coffee and highland areas, forest cover also declined during 1958–1973. People moved to and converted forests in relatively low population density areas. Altitudinal migration from coffee areas to highland areas contributed to deforestation displacement due to forest maintenance for shade coffee production in coffee areas and forest conversions for annual crop production in highland areas. The most rapid loss of forest cover occurred during 1973–1985, followed by 2001–2010, which overlapped with the implementations of major land and forest policies that created conditions for more deforestation. Our findings highlight how crop ecology and migration have shaped spatial variations of forest cover change across different altitudinal zones whilst development, land, and forest policies and programs have driven the temporal variations of deforestation. Understanding the mechanisms of deforestation and forest maintenance simultaneously and their linkages is necessary for better biodiversity conservation and forest landscape management.

  Read more about Processes of Forest Cover Change since 1958 in the Coffee-Producing Areas of Southwest Ethiopia

• Woody plant use and management in relation to property rights: a social-ecological case study from southwestern Ethiopia

  2019. Girma Shumi (et al.). Ecosystems and People 15 (1), 303-316

  Article

  Read more about Woody plant use and management in relation to property rights: a social-ecological case study from southwestern Ethiopia

• Medium-Scale Forestland Grabbing in the Southwestern Highlands of Ethiopia: Impacts on Local Livelihoods and Forest Conservation

  2018. Tola Gemechu Ango. Land 7 (1)

  Article

  Tropical forest provides a crucial portion of sustenance in many rural communities, although it is increasingly under pressure from appropriations of various scales. This study investigated the impacts of medium-scale forestland grabbing on local livelihoods and forest conservation in the southwestern highlands of Ethiopia. Data were generated through interviews, discussions and document review. The results indicate that state transfer of part of the forestland since the late 1990s to investors for coffee production created in situ displacement-a situation where farmers remained in place but had fully or partially lost access to forest-that disrupted farmers' livelihoods and caused conflicts between them and the investors. Court cases about the appropriated land and related imprisonment, inflicted financial and opportunity costs on farmers. Farmers considered the livelihood opportunities created by the companies insufficient to compensate for loss of forest access. Companies' technology transfers to farmers and contributions to foreign currency earnings from coffee exports have not yet materialized. Forest conservation efforts have been negatively affected by deforestation caused by conversion to coffee plantations and by farmers' efforts to secure rights to forestland by more intensive use. The medium-scale forestland grabbing has been detrimental to farmers' livelihoods and forest conservation in a way that recalls criticism of large- and mega-scale land grabbing since 2007-2008. The overall failure to achieve the objectives of transferring forestland to investors highlights a critical need to shift institutional supports to smallholders' informal forest access and management practices for better development and conservation outcomes.

  Read more about Medium-Scale Forestland Grabbing in the Southwestern Highlands of Ethiopia

• Crop raiding by wild mammals in Ethiopia: impacts on the livelihoods of smallholders in an agriculture-forest mosaic landscape

  2017. Tola Gemechu Ango, Lowe Börjeson, Feyera Senbeta. Oryx 51 (3), 527-537

  Article

  We assessed the impacts of crop raiding by wild mammals on the livelihoods of smallholding farmers in south-western Ethiopia. Data were generated through participatory field mapping, interviews and focus groups. The results indicated that wild mammals, mainly olive baboons Papio anubis and bush pigs Potamochoerus larvatus, were raiding most crops cultivated in villages close to forests. In addition to the loss of crops, farmers incurred indirect costs in having to guard and cultivate plots far from their residences, sometimes at the expense of their children's schooling. Raiding also undermined farmers’ willingness to invest in modern agricultural technologies. Various coping strategies, including guarding crops and adapting existing local institutions, were insufficient to reduce raiding and its indirect impacts on household economies to tolerable levels, and were undermined by existing policies and government institutions. It is essential to recognize wild mammal pests as a critical ecosystem disservice to farmers, and to identify ways to mitigate their direct and indirect costs, to facilitate local agricultural development and livelihood security, and integrate wildlife conservation and local development more fully in agriculture–forest mosaic landscapes.

  Read more about Crop raiding by wild mammals in Ethiopia

• Ecosystem Services and Disservices in an Agriculture–Forest Mosaic: A Study of Forest and Tree Management and Landscape Transformation in Southwestern Ethiopia

  2016. Tola Gemechu Ango.

  Thesis (Doc)

  The intertwined challenges of food insecurity, deforestation, and biodiversity loss remain perennial challenges in Ethiopia, despite increasing policy interventions. This thesis investigates smallholding farmers’ tree- and forest-based livelihoods and management practices, in the context of national development and conservation policies, and examines how these local management practices and policies transform the agriculture–forest mosaic landscapes of southwestern Ethiopia.

  The thesis is guided by a political ecology perspective, and focuses on an analytical framework of ecosystem services (ESs) and disservices (EDs). It uses a mixed research design with data from participatory field mapping, a tree ‘inventory’, interviews, focus group discussions, population censuses, and analysis of satellite images and aerial photos.

  The thesis presents four papers. Paper I investigates how smallholding farmers in an agriculture–forest mosaic landscape manage trees and forests in relation to a few selected ESs and EDs that they consider particularly beneficial or problematic. The farmers’ management practices were geared towards mitigating tree- and forest-related EDs such as wild mammal crop raiders, while at the same time augmenting ESs such as shaded coffee production, resulting in a restructuring of the agriculture–forest mosaic. Paper II builds further on the EDs introduced in paper I, to assess the effects of crop raids by forest-dwelling wild mammals on farmers’ livelihoods. The EDs of wild mammals and human–wildlife conflict are shown to constitute a problem that goes well beyond a narrow focus on yield loss. The paper illustrates the broader impacts of crop-raiding wild mammals on local agricultural and livelihood development (e.g. the effects on food security and children’s schooling), and how state forest and wildlife control and related conservation policy undermined farmers’ coping strategies. Paper III examines local forest-based livelihood sources and how smallholders’ access to forests is reduced by state transfer of forestland to private companies for coffee investment. This paper highlights how relatively small land areas appropriated for investment in relatively densely inhabited areas can harm the livelihoods of many farmers, and also negatively affect forest conservation. Paper IV investigates the patterns and drivers of forest cover change from 1958 to 2010. Between 1973 and 2010, 25% of the total forest was lost, and forest cover changes varied both spatially and temporally. State development and conservation policies spanning various political economies (feudal, socialist, and ‘free market-oriented’) directly or indirectly affected local ecosystem use, ecosystem management practices, and migration processes. These factors (policies, local practices, and migration) have thus together shaped the spatial patterns of forest cover change in the last 50 years.

  The thesis concludes that national development and conservation policies and the associated power relations and inequality have often undermined local livelihood security and forest conservation efforts. It also highlights how a conceptualization of a local ecosystem as a provider of both ESs and EDs can generate an understanding of local practices and decisions that shape development and conservation trajectories in mosaic landscapes. The thesis draws attention to the need to make development and conservation policies relevant and adaptable to local conditions as a means to promote local livelihood and food security, forest and biodiversity conservation, and ESs generated by agricultural mosaic landscapes.

  Read more about Ecosystem Services and Disservices in an Agriculture–Forest Mosaic

• Do Interventions from Participatory Action Research Improve Livelihood and Reduce Conflicts Over Forest Resources? A Case Study from South Central Ethiopia

  2015. Tsegaye Bekele, Tola Gemechu Ango. Small-scale Forestry 14 (4), 441-458

  Article

  Participatory action research was conducted in south central Ethiopia to understand in what ways conflict over forest use and management between the former Arsi Forest and Wildlife Enterprise and the surrounding communities could be managed. Through interviews, focus group discussions, negotiations and series of stakeholder meetings existing scenarios of conflict over forest use and management were assessed, and alternatives interventions were identified and implemented based on the principle of maximizing the goals of local development and forest conservation. A cooperative with three major alternative livelihood activities—cash-credit provision, and poultry and sheep production—was established. It was found that working with communities in collaboration can reduce conflicts over forest management and support local livelihoods. The intervention had reduced ‘illegal’ use of forest resource for income generation and domestic use while within a year the alternative livelihood activities had generated a modest income to 68 % of the individuals involved. The study also demonstrated that working with multiple stakeholders is a challenging and slow process that requires understanding the complex local socioeconomic structure and dynamics. It is concluded that participatory approaches are a better way of bringing about a change in a society where conflicts arise due to resources limitation, and could be avoided by sharing benefits and responsibilities.

  Read more about Do Interventions from Participatory Action Research Improve Livelihood and Reduce Conflicts Over Forest Resources? A Case Study from South Central Ethiopia

• Balancing Ecosystem Services and Disservices: Smallholder Farmers' Use and Management of Forest and Trees in an Agricultural Landscape in Southwestern Ethiopia

  2014. Tola Gemechu Ango (et al.). Ecology & Society 19 (1)

  Article

  Farmers' practices in the management of agricultural landscapes influence biodiversity with implications for livelihoods, ecosystem service provision, and biodiversity conservation. In this study, we examined how smallholding farmers in an agriculture-forest mosaic landscape in southwestern Ethiopia manage trees and forests with regard to a few selected ecosystem services and disservices that they highlighted as beneficial or problematic. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from six villages, located both near and far from forest, using participatory field mapping and semistructured interviews, tree species inventory, focus group discussions, and observation. The study showed that farmers' management practices, i.e., the planting of trees on field boundaries amid their removal from inside arable fields, preservation of trees in semimanaged forest coffee, maintenance of patches of shade coffee fields in the agricultural landscape, and establishment of woodlots with exotic trees result in a restructuring of the forest-agriculture mosaic. In addition, the strategies farmers employed to mitigate crop damage by wild mammals such as baboons and bush pigs, e. g., migration and allocation of migrants on lands along forests, have contributed to a reduction in forest and tree cover in the agricultural landscape. Because farmers' management practices were overall geared toward mitigating the negative impact of disservices and to augment positive services, we conclude that it is important to operationalize ecosystem processes as both services and disservices in studies related to agricultural landscapes.

  Read more about Balancing Ecosystem Services and Disservices

Show all publications by Tola Gemechu Ango at Stockholm University