"I have benefited from sheep fattening for two consecutive years," Priest Gashaw Tigab said.

Priest Gashaw Tigab is a resident of Jibasira kebele, Estie woreda, South Gondar Zone,

Amhara regional state. He is 35 years old, married, and has three children. From 2010 to 2022, for twelve consecutive years, Kesise Gashaw immigrated from his resident Jibasira kebele to Wolega, and Humera lives out of the Amhara region and to support his daily labor due to poor economic income.

Priest Gashaw is a subsistence farmer with one ox, one cow, and 0.625 hectares of cultivated land. He also is fattening sheep’s to supplement his living expenses. His wife and three children’s help him with the farm.

ORDA Ethiopia started implementing landscape restoration using the church forest relics project with the fund support of Cartier for Nature (CFN) in South Gondar Zone, Estie, and Dera woreds, with a focus on promoting incentive mechanisms for forest landscape restoration to reduce the negative impacts of forest degradation and deforestation, with integrated alternative means of livelihood improvements for different household beneficiaries, of which Kesise Gashaw is one. During the targeting of beneficiaries of the project, for livelihood support, he was selected for the livelihood component of the project based on the criteria of living place in the targeted area, poor economic income, and positive attitude toward forest development and was selected by multi-sectorial livelihood selection committees. The project trained him on shoat fattening and provided three sheep to engage in shoat fattening to improve the lives of the whole family.

He has benefited from sheep fattening in two consecutive years. From the first and second years of fattening, he earned 42,000 and 51,000 ETB, respectively, and built a new tin or iron sheet house by purchasing different building materials. Kesise Gashaw, now time, has a new tin house and three sheep for fattening and improving his economic well-being.

Kesise Gashaw thanked ORDA Ethiopia and the CFN project for their support and for improving the lives of his family. He said that his family will be happy and get access to education for his children.