The increasing population pressure in the rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa has caused land degradation as well as an increase in the number of landless farmers. To promote a conservation-oriented utilization of communal lands and increase the livelihood of poor farmers, the Ethiopian government introduced a program to distribute less-utilized communal lands to landless farmers. This study identified the social norms related to natural resource conservation than an ect the participation in this program. Using data from 477 farmer households in northern Ethiopia, we estimated probit models with endogenous regressors for the determinants of social norms and their impacts on program participation. The results show that social norms related to conservation positively and ect program participation. Regarding the policy implication of the findings, an intervention to improve the social norms of local farmers leads to sustainable resource conservation without reducing the intrinsic motivation of the local people. A conservation-oriented utilization of the communal lands would be more active if the land distribution program was accompanied by other programs to improve the social norms in the villages.
