Governance Change and Institutional Adaptation: A Case Study from Harenna Forest, Ethiopia Dereje T. Wakjira • Anke Fischer • Michelle A. Pinard Received: 4 June 2012 / Accepted: 6 January 2013 / Published online: 25 January 2013 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 Abstract Many common pool resources have tradition- ally been managed through intricate local governance arrangements. Over time, such arrangements are con- fronted with manifold political, social, economic and ecological changes. However, the ways in which local governance arrangements react to such changes are poorly understood. Using the theoretical concept of institutional adaptation, we analyse the history of Harenna forest, Ethiopia, to examine processes of institutional change over the last 150 years. We find that the traditional institutions that governed Harenna’s resources persisted, in essence, over time. However, these institutions were modified repeatedly to address changes caused by varying formal, supra-regional governance regimes, the development of markets for forest products, increasing population pressure and changes in formal property rights. A key mechanism for adaptation was combining elements from both informal and formal institutions, which allowed traditional rules to persist in the guise of more formal arrangements. Our findings also highlight several constraints of institutional adaptation. For example, by abolishing fora for collective decision-making, regime changes limited adaptive capac- ity. To conclude, we argue that such insights into tradi- tional resource governance and its adaptability and dynamics over time are essential to develop sustainable approaches to participatory forest management for the future, both in Harenna and more generally. Keywords Adaptive capacity Á Coffee Á Oromo Gada Á Informal institutions Á Historical trend analysis Á Pastoralism Introduction Globally, institutional arrangements for forest governance are moving towards more holistic approaches and a broader base of stakeholder involvement (Sayer 2005; ITTO 2006). In many places, such governance approaches have already been existing for a long time, as many common pool resources have traditionally been managed through intri- cate local governance arrangements that persisted without formal recognition and resolved local resource use conflicts by defining access and property rights (Johnson and Kristen 2004; Tengo ¨ and others 2007; Wakjira and Gole 2007; Clarke and Jupiter 2010; Tang and Tang 2010). However, over time, such arrangements are confronted with change, such as human population growth and ecological, social, political and economic changes. Thus, they need to adapt in order to continue to be operational and relevant. The concept of institutional adaptation (Young 2010) might be useful to investigate such processes of change. We understand institutions here as rules that structure social interactions, including both formal, codified rules (e.g. legislation) and informal, uncodified norms of D. T. Wakjira Á M. A. Pinard Institute for Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Aberdeen, 23 St. Machar Drive, Aberdeen AB24 3UU, Scotland, UK e-mail: m.a.pinard@abdn.ac.uk D. T. Wakjira (&) Frankfurt Zoological Society, P.O. Box 100003, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia e-mail: d.wakjira@abdn.ac.uk; derejetadesse@fzs.org A. Fischer The James Hutton Institute, Social, Economic and Geographical Sciences Group, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB15 8QH, Scotland, UK e-mail: anke.fischer@hutton.ac.uk 123 Environmental Management (2013) 51:912–925 DOI 10.1007/s00267-013-0017-9