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The management of soils is an important issue for policy makers in Ethiopia. However, most of the interventions designed to conserve the soil resources have fallen short of the expectations, performing impressively in the short run, but proving unsustainable on a long-term basis. There are no simple explanations for the failure of these interventions to reverse soil degradation, but it has been evident for some time that there is an uneasy connection between 'objective' assessments of the state of the land and the way this information is used in the policy-making processes. It is now widely accepted that understanding the processes of the soil degradation is not simply a matter of analysing changes in the stock of physical and nutrient capital. While studies of nutrient balances are an important component of research in soil erosion and land degradation, their results need to be considered in the context of social, cultural and political factors. This paper presents the results of a study in Tigray, Ethiopia, exploring local people's perceptions on and understanding of their land resources, and the way their views influence natural resource management. Our findings indicate that land use is not only a function of the physical properties of fields, but is also shaped by historical processes and local cultural values, and that management strategies adopted by farmers are influenced by a broad range of factors. These include history of tenure and patterns of inheritance, investment in a plot, and the sense of place, identity and attachment to a locality that develops over time as generations pass through the same family dwelling. Land users in Tigray do not judge arable land purely in terms of its agricultural value. The cultural and social values attributed to specific tracts of land also play an important role in shaping the physical condition of fields and the manner in which farmers interact with their surroundings may explain why certain plots are still 'good', despite having been continuously cultivated by successive generations. It also accounts for local resistance to some types of land redistribution and acceptance of others. Policy makers, therefore, need to pay more attention to the relations between people and land, and to the value that farmers attach to their land resources. Our findings have significant implications for policies on agricultural extension and land redistribution, and for on-farm research, as the type of plot used to test technologies will have a significant impact on the outcome of trials.
