Matiwos Bekele Oma
PhD Candidate | Political Ecologist | Restoration Governance Researcher
Matiwos Bekele Oma is a PhD researcher in the Development Geography Research Group at the Department of Geography, University of Bonn. He is investigating how global restoration initiatives, forest governance, and climate adaptation policies reshape livelihoods, labour relations, and environmental governance in Eastern Africa.
Research Interests
- Forest Landscape Restoration
- Socio-ecological transformation
- Participation & Local Agency
- Agroforestry & Coffee Landscapes
- Climate Adaptation & Environmental Governance
I am a PhD candidate in Development Geography at the University of Bonn, where my research examines the political ecology of forest landscape restoration and the Great Green Wall initiative in Ethiopia.
My research examines how global restoration agendas are translated into local practice and how they reshape governance, labour relations, participation, and rural livelihoods. Drawing on political ecology and development geography, I explore the interactions between international environmental policies and the everyday realities of communities living within restoration landscapes.
More broadly, I am interested in questions of environmental governance, socio-ecological transformation, climate adaptation, and the politics of sustainability interventions in Africa. My work seeks to understand how ambitious restoration initiatives generate both opportunities and tensions, and how local actors navigate, negotiate, and sometimes resist these interventions.
Matiwos Bekele Oma
U1.032
Geozentrum - Meckenheimer Allee 176
53115 Bonn
Personal Information
Before joining the University of Bonn, Matiwos worked for more than eight years in natural resource management, ecosystem restoration, and resource conservation across Ethiopia. I have collaborated with international organizations, NGOs, and research institutions on projects related to biodiversity conservation, climate adaptation, agroforestry, and biosphere reserve management.
Master of Science, University of Bonn
Agricultural Sciences and Resource Management in the Tropics and Subtropics (ARTS), October 2018 — June 2021
Bachelor of Science, Jimma University
Natural Resource Management, September 2011 — June 2013
Projects
The Great Green Wall and Restoration Governance in Ethiopia
My doctoral research investigates how forest landscape restoration is governed within the Ethiopian segment of the Great Green Wall initiative. The project examines how restoration policies and interventions are implemented across multiple scales and how they influence local livelihoods, labour arrangements, land-use practices, and governance structures.
Publikationen
Green Jobs, Invisible Workers: Scalar Politics of Indecent Forest Landscape Restoration Labour in Ethiopia
Authors: Matiwos Bekele Oma, Linda Annala Tesfaye
Forest Policy and Economics (2026), DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2026.103806
This article examines how labour is organized within restoration programmes and reveals how restoration workers often remain marginalized despite policy narratives that frame restoration as a source of green employment and sustainable development.
Expanding Political Forests: On-Farm Tree Planting and Restoration Governance in Yayo, Southwest Ethiopia
Authors: Matiwos Bekele Oma, Prof. Dr. Detlef Müller-Mahn
Forest Policy and Economics (2026), DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2026.103799
This paper investigates how restoration governance extends beyond forests into agricultural landscapes through tree-planting initiatives, reshaping land-use practices and state-society relations.
Resistance as Agency: Reimagining Participation in Forest Landscape Restoration in Tigray, Ethiopia
Authors: Matiwos Bekele Oma
Trees, Forests and People (2025), DOI: 10.1016/j.tfp.2025.100967
This article challenges conventional understandings of participation by demonstrating how resistance can function as a meaningful form of agency within restoration initiatives.