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Ethiopia
International
Conference on Participatory
Forest Management, Biodiversity and Livelihoods in
Africa, March 19-21, Addis Abba, Ethiopia
SOS Sahel and Farm Africa are very
excited about the forthcoming conference
which will bring together
experts and practitioners to discuss, debate and present
recent findings on a range of issues associated with the
establishment of Participatory Forest Management (PFM)
as a forest management system.
For more information visit
http://www.pfmp-farmsos.org/conference.htm
"We expect to see new and dynamic relationships between government and people and government and NGOs." (Quote from Strategy Paper)
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Since establishment in 1989 SOS Sahel Ethiopia has worked in:
Southern Nations and Nationalities People’s Region (SNNPR)
Amhara Region
Oromia Region
And in research initiatives collaborating with Ethiopian and international research institutes.
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 Download strategy paper [Word document, 236 kB]
Work and Achievements
SNNPR - developing a comprehensive and multi disciplinary approach, which allows local people to take the lead in land use planning and managing and protecting watersheds. Training trainers in government departments in the approach. Creating seasonal employment for the vulnerable to enable asset protection by poor households and deliver environmental protection works and feeder roads. Piloting a social protection mechanism through idir funeral associations. 40% of smallholder farmers have diversified their farm resource base; 230 kms of feeder roads have been built. Influential work has been done and published in country on effectiveness and impact of cash and food employment schemes on poverty.
North Wollo -
Amhara Region - developing technologies and approaches with local farmers; user rights procedures to permit communities to invest in environmental protection work have been integrated into the Region’s Land Act; 2,500 households have top bar bee hives producing 30kg of honey per year and 1,750 households in other woredas have also benefited; seed bank, grain bank and blacksmith associations established, blacksmiths are producing high quality tools and attending regional and national trade fairs; Meket Micro Finance Insitute established - the only independent rural credit institute in the country
Borana-
Oromia Region - pioneering collaborative forest management in the dry juniper forests of the region with pastoralists, farmers and townspeople. The first such programme in a pastoralist area of the country and a new approach for Ethiopia, helping customary Boran pastoralist institutions to adapt to modern management demands. Participatory forest management groups have formed, the incidence of forest fires has reduced. The new phase of the project is being implemented with FARM Africa
(www.pfmp-farmsos.org)
working in different forest sites in Ethiopia to experiment and replicate the new approaches to forest management led by local people and institutions.
Action Research - focussing on the key problem for Ethiopia of soil fertility management and how to mobilise local farmers knowledge. "Farmers Perceptions of Soil Fertility Change and Management" is a book widely used in Ethiopia and outside the country. Critical assessment of the impact of employment programmes to protect poor people’s assets has been published.
Future strategies and the context of Ethiopia
When SOS Sahel began work in Ethiopia in 1989 the country was emerging from decades of upheaval and civil war. Agricultural production had risen and continues to rise but not to keep pace with population. Half of all Ethiopians are short of food for part of the year. Poverty itself prevents farmers from using their land fully and aggravates environmental degradation. Forest cover continues to decline alarmingly. The emergence of democratic government and of civil society organisations presents the opportunity to bring SOS Sahel’s small scale work to address these challenges into the mainstream of Ethiopia’s development.
Immediate plans for new activities are to build on work in soil fertility research and in experimenting with community land management rights, through a study of Land Titling - Can it work for the poor? - a question of huge strategic significance for Africa - carried out with International Institute for Environment and Development
(www.iied.org).
The first steps are being taken to construct a strategy and plan for managing the catchment of Awassa Lake one of the Rift valley lakes which is increasingly silting up. SOS Sahel is leading an initiative to bring together all the actors in government and civil society to address this.
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