CADEP-SFM Good Practises

Title: Participatory Forest Management in Oromia Regional National State in Ethiopia

Category: Land Management

Country: Ethiopia

Audience: Forest experts, Extension agents and Policy makers

Introduction

Ethiopia is located in Eastern Africa within the Horn of Africa. The country covers a land area of 1,127,127 km² and has a population 102,836,362 persons. Ethiopia receives rainfall ranging from 250 mm -1600 mm per annum. The temperature varies from 6°C - 60°C. The lowest point, Danakil, is ?125 m below sea level, while the highest point is Ras Dejen at 4,620 m above sea level. Ethiopia is currently promoting three pillars of biodiversity conservation namely; conservation, sustainable utilization, and access and benefit sharing. Although the country is rich in biodiversity resources with over 6000 plant species, these resources are under threat from; deforestation, over-exploitation, climate change, invasive species, overgrazing, population pressure, inappropriate use of chemicals, and theft of genetic resources. Deforestation and the resulting environmental degradation is a major problem in Ethiopia and is a key factor affecting; food security, community livelihood, and sustainable development. Between 1955 and 1979, over 77% of the country’s forests were lost and the country continues to loss 8% of its remaining forests annually. Participatory Forest Management (PFM) has been identified as one of the strategies to protect forests and enhance livelihoods of communities who use and benefit from the forests. PFM was first introduced to Ethiopia 20 years ago, but the approach is expanding to cover larger areas of forests across the country.

Objective

PFM was introduced in Ethiopia to;

  1. Mitigate biodiversity loss, forest degradation, and deforestation
  2. Improve livelihoods of forest adjacent communities by giving them rights to utilize forest resources legally and sustainably.

Approach

PFM in Ethiopia is undertaken in three phases: mobilization, planning and implementation phases.

Impact

Impacts of PFM on forests include:

  1. Improved regeneration of trees
  2. Sustainable use of forest products
  3. Improved biodiversity
  4. Minimized forest fire incidences
  5. Reduced protection costs

Innovation

Sustainability:

Some of the factors that contribute to sustainability of PFM include:

  1. Existence of good practices in the Forestry Sector
  2. Government commitment to scaling up best practices
  3. Existence of strategies and development plans including Climate-Resilient Green Economy ( CRGE) and GTP for implementation of PFM

Constraints

Some of the constraints affecting success of PFM include:

  1. Inadequate skills and knowledge on PFM
  2. Inadequate resources
  3. High staff turnover
  4. Inadequate participation of beneficiaries
  5. Lack of appropriate phasing out or exit strategy for externally funded projects;
  6. Poor forestry extension service.

Lessons

  1. Communities are capable of achieving forest conservation if they are involved through participatory approaches
  2. PFM can contribute to forest restoration and improvement of livelihoods
  3. Communities not only benefit economically from use of forest products, but are also empowered in decision making, thus contributing to good governance
  4. PFM offers great potential for expansion of forest based income
  5. The potential of PFM has not been fully realized.

Conclusion

  1. Forests under PFM are expanding in coverage in Ethiopia. The management strategy has good intentions to sustainably manage forest land and contribute to poverty reduction.
  2. Implementing PFM is a sustainable land management strategy that has been shown to be effective and successful. This management strategy can minimize secondary effects on neighbouring forests.