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Ethiopia Humbo Assisted Regeneration
Biodiversity
Little attention has been directed toward environmental protection and enhancement during the communist rule in Ethiopia (1975 - 91). As a consequence of the absence of management, natural resources have been overexploited and most of the forest has been cleared. This process has resulted in serious erosion, lack of clean drinking water, local flooding and loss of biodiversity. Clearing continues although Ethiopia retains only 2.7% of its original forest cover. Ethiopia however still has the fifth largest floral diversity of tropical Africa. Ethiopia is home to between 6500 and 7000 species of higher plants, of which about 12 per cent are endemic. The project, using only locally indigenous plant material, will significantly enhance local biodiversity. The reforestation technique (FMNR) used for the project is not disturbing for the soil and builds on the important indigenous biodiversity. In addition, the project will implement enrichment planting on areas devoid of tree cover, estimated at 20% of the project area. The regeneration of the forest will provide habitat for birds, mammals and other wild animals. The forest will also provide a strategic corridor link between the Nechisar National Park, Lake Abaya and Lake Chomo. The Nechisar National Park has some 73 species of mammals and 342 species of birds. Several threatened species are present in the project area, including the Ethiopian Banana Frog, the Ethiopian Thicket Rat and the Nechisar Nightjar. Finally, the protection of the entire project area will help to protect the fragile aquatic ecosystem of Lake Abaya, approximately 30 km downstream. This ecosystem is currently threatened by the important upstream sediment loads.
A monitoring plan will be developed during the next stage of project preparation. This plan will include monitoring for project performance, overall project impacts, and environmental benefits and risks.
Other Environmental Benefits and Risks
The planned reforestation will help reduce erosion in the region. Given the steep slopes and exposure of the site, heavy rainfalls have provoked severe erosion. The erosion has led to important losses of top soil and to the decimation of farmland and crops, and of local infrastructures. The reforestation will fix the ground, improve soil infiltration and reduce surges of water and peak flow. The presence of trees will also reduce erosion from wind. The reduction of erosion will also help protect Lake Abaya and its ecosystem.
Many springs and streams originate in the proposed reforestation area. Theses sources provide drinking water to as many as 65,000 people in the region. The revegetation of the area will help protect these sources and ensure continued supply of drinkable water. The increase of water infiltration in the soil will enhance water table re-charge, which will in turn help regulate and sustain hydrological flows. Additional measures may be taken where required to slow the movement of water and to trap silt. Such measures would include the construction of hand made contour bunds and micro water catchments.
The FMNR technique used will only require minimal soil disturbance and no heavy equipment. In addition, no herbicides or other chemicals will be used in forest establishment.
A monitoring plan will be developed during the next stage of project preparation. This plan will include monitoring for project performance, overall project impacts, and environmental benefits and risks.
Socio-economic benefits and risks
The region is characterized by frequent droughts, food insecurity and lack of income generation opportunities. The project aims to lift average household income by 10-25%. The Humbo Forest Management Group (HFMG) will serve as a framework for this action. The HFMG will involve representatives from all community interests, both women and men, as well as the forestry department and World Vision staff. Local stakeholders to be included in the HFMG will be identified during an information and consultation phase, which will also assess local needs and expectations. The HFMG will represent the user groups that will be established on the ground. Its role will be to prescribe how the forest is to be managed to generate forest products as well as CERs, and how proceeds from the sale of CERs will be used. User groups will meet on a weekly basis while the HFMG will meet every month.
More particularly, the project will hire up to 20 Ethiopian staff and create self employment for some 3,000 households. Activities will include tree pruning and sustainable collection of wood and non-timber products. Additional local employment will be generated by the transformation process of forest products and local secondary industries. Criteria for the selection of employee will be set by the HFMG and will insist on equality in employment with no restrictions on gender, religion or ethnicity. Depending on the use of the proceeds from the sale of CERs, more employment opportunities could appear for the renovation and construction of local transport and social infrastructures, the establishment of live fences to enclose areas and hand building water diversion channels to prevent erosion, and the implementation of HIV/AID programs. These activities would be contracted to local enterprises.
The reforestation and better regulation of hydrological flows will reduce the accidental loss of crops and flooding of fields and therefore increase food security. Costs of maintenance of local infrastructures will also be reduced. The new production of forest products like honey, firewood, house building material and poles will further participate to enhance food security and livelihood. Increased fodder production will also benefit livestock production. The improvement of local livelihood is ultimately likely to help reduce rural migration.
The project will implement a program of education and training for land and forest management using the FMNR technique. This method of reforestation is applicable on small private farms, and its diffusion can therefore directly benefit local communities. Additionally, Training will be provided on the basic concepts of resource management, how to combine technical skills with indigenous knowledge on forest and coppice management, enrichment planting, wood harvesting and processing, and product marketing. Planned experience sharing visits to similar projects will build confidence and broaden the horizons of community members. The main goal is to build over the project life the capacity of the user groups to increasingly manage project activities and liaise with government offices.
The HFMG will be set up to involve all possible stakeholders, to avoid potential inequalities in the use of the proceeds from the sale of the CERs. This measure will also reduce the risk of conflict with non-community members, such as nomadic herders. Were conflict still to arise from the limitation of the access to forest resources, the control of tree cutting and of grazing, every effort will be made to resolve problems using elders and traditional conflict resolution measures.
A monitoring plan for socio-economic benefits and risks will be developed during the next phases of project preparation. In particular, formal evaluations will be undertaken regularly by an external consultant to measure socio-economic impacts against benchmarks set during the initial social baseline survey.
Leakage
The project area is currently highly degraded, and is only sporadically grazed by livestock. Fuelwood collection is also small. The maximum leakage that would be caused by the project is therefore limited and low.
The restriction of grazing during the first years of the project, before trees reach a height of over 2.5 meters, could potentially lead to leakage. However, farmers will be allowed to practice 'cut and carry' harvesting of the grass rather than direct grazing during that time.
After this period, there will be restriction of access for those community members who are not eligible as per the criteria produced by all stakeholders. However, all stakeholders will determine resource sharing and compensation measures during the first year of project operation. These measures are expected to reduce significantly potential leakage, in particular considering that the FMNR technique will result in increased biomass production per hectare.
Risk of Non Permanence
Once the project will have been completed, communities and forestry department staff will be responsible for the maintenance of various benefits and trees planted. Community members will be strongly involved in the project design and implementation. They will be organized into user groups that will meet weekly to discuss problems and share experiences. In addition, each month user groups' representatives will meet with the local government and WVE staff. This strong involvement will increase support from the local populations. Experience in West Africa has shown that once the initial training in the techniques of FMNR have been realized, permanent changes in farmer behavior have resulted, notably regarding forest management and conservation. It is expected here that as occurred in West Africa, there will be no need to maintain outside input.
At the national level, the government of Ethiopia is very supportive of the project. It is in particular willing to give to the HFMG management rights over a large area of public land for the purpose of carbon sequestration.
The risk of fire will be dealt with through integrated forest fire management approaches. These measures will be adopted and implemented in cooperation with the local communities. In particular, grazing by livestock will be permitted once trees are tall enough to withstand their presence to minimize the danger of wild fire. Finally, it is not anticipated that a net reduction of livestock numbers will be required on the project site to protect it from overgrazing over the project lifetime. A livestock exclusion zone created in 2005 in the vicinity by the Humbo Forestry department demonstrated that given reasonable rains, grasses rapidly return to cover bare ground.
Additionality
The project area is highly degraded. After the forest clearing in 1968, it has been continuously used for grazing and limited fuel wood collection from small shrubs. The area now is bare of any trees, and only some small shrubs remain. High rainfalls have led to flash flooding and significant erosion in the area. Large amounts of topsoil have been removed, reducing potential productivity in higher areas, and leaving large silt deposits on farms in lower areas, destroying roads and bridges.
Since the removal of the communist government in the early 1990s, the country of Ethiopia has been reestablishing infrastructure, and building its economy. However, government funds have never been made available for the reestablishment of native vegetation in this region of Ethiopia. Due to limitations on government funds, there is little chance that this area of public land would be reforested in the foreseeable future. Given the inaccessibility of this site, its steep and rocky topography, it is neither suitable for cropping nor intensive grazing. Commercial forestry is also unlikely due to the lack of proximity to markets for commercial agroforestry products, and the widespread availability of other sites with superior potential. The most likely scenario is the continuation of the erosion and soil degradation process, and sporadic grazing and clearing.
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