Protection and sustainable management of forests in West Amhara through PFM approach!
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By Esubalew Dires
ORDA, the strategic partner of ANRS, is fruitful in filling developmental gaps in relation to managing sustainable natural resources, delivering potable water supply, developing irrigation schemes, supplying improved agricultural technologies and livestock resources.
The organization has conducted soil and water conservation and planting indigenous and exotic species of trees which played a significant role in maintaining ecology of the environment. Furthermore, ORDA has been carrying out protection and sustainable management of natural forests.
The former Biodiversity Program has changed the attitude of farmers and put its developmental achievements in lowland (Metema & Quara) and highland (Farta, Lay Gayint & Estie) districts. However; organized cooperatives are getting weakened in those areas. This needs serious attention of the government & sectors who took over from ORDA.
The natural forest cover of lowlands of West Amhara is catastrophically diminishing ever more than before. Studies revealed that Ethiopia rapidly losses 200000 hectares of forest cover annually and for this the Amhara Region is high in rank. The rapid loss, degradation and fragmentation of forests in the region is due to unregulated grazing, illegal logging, charcoal production, uncontrolled forest fires and the steadily increasing conversion of forest to agricultural land mainly for sesame & sorghum production, a rising population pressure, legal illegal settlement, improper incense and rubber (arabic) extraction, fire clearance for the growing of sesame and cotton, improper management of communal forests are to be mentioned forefront. The flora and fauna including varied species of birds of the area are endangered. The dry forests of the semi-arid west Amhara lowlands along the Northern and Southern Sudanese border form a "green belt" and build a buffer zone against the expanding Sahara and Sahel. This "Green Belt", comparatively to other areas in the country, is a relatively intact system that is home to species of trees, animals and birds which has a significant meaning in restoring and conserving the ecosystem. Hence, protecting and sustainably managing the remaining natural forests is a priority concern to the government, various sectors and NGO’s.
Since 2014, ORDA launched a new project called Protection and sustainable management of forests in West Amhara in Alefa woreda-Shahura town. The project delineated 16,172.8 and 9¸195.8 hectares of forest land in 4 and 2 kebeles of Quara and Alefa woredas respectively in North Gondar Zone. Moreover, 9¸719.5 hectares of land are being closed in 4 kebeles of Jawi woreda in Awi Special Administrative Zone. In general, the project planned to manage 123,000 hectares of land including the previous intervention. Currently 35088 ha of forest land have been delineated newly and 45088ha of forest land were delineated from the previous intervention of biodiversity conservation and totally 80176 ha of forest land have been managed by the project through PFM approach in collaboration with the local communities and other stakeholders. The primary objective of the project is Protection and sustainable management of forests in West Amhara through PFM approach for ecological restoration and biodiversity conservation and improvement of the livelihood of beneficiaries through different income generation activities.
The four year project secured 17 million birr from German Agro-action, BMZ and the regional government which benefits 17,600 households (8.8 % women).
Participatory Forest Management (PFM) is an approach of the project. The approach considerably creates a sense of ownership which results in sustainable protection and management of natural forests in West Amhara. By its very nature, the project needs active involvement of various actors from agriculture, cooperatives, justice, security and administrative bodies from top to bottom. In this case, training has been given to aware farmers and concerned bodies. Ssustainable forest management provides a fundamental foundation for climate change mitigation and adaptation and contributes to food security and livelihood improvement through various means.
According to Ato Mequanint Dagnew, manager of the project, Protection and sustainable management of forests in West Amhara project has two major concerns. These are protection of forests for ecological restoration and biodiversity conservation and livelihood improvements. Consequently, beneficiaries form a legal entity called natural resource, tourism development and marketing cooperatives in order to protect degradation and fragmentation of forests. The project established 9 legally registered cooperatives and 6 are on process to be legalized.
Beneficiaries have started enjoying success of the project having engaged in non timber (incense and gum) productions, construction of fuel saving stove, apiary, and production of improved crop varieties and fruits. Landless youths and women are also energetic developmental actors and beneficiaries. To reduce the predominance traditional biomass energy use, the project has been undertaking trainings on the production and use of fuel saving stoves to the producer group. Generally, a total of 12 producers groups of fuel saving stove established and job are created.
The project trained 348 beneficiaries and assisted them to be engaged in apiary. Hence, 402 members (7% women) formed 22 apiary groups. 219 traditional beehives are transferred to modern in order to maximize honey production both in amount and quality. Due to the impact of El Niño, most apiary groups didn’t produce honey this year. Only an apiary group found in Jawi woreda Dir Mariam kebele extracted a starter50 kg of honey.
A lowland area of West Amhara is a potential to Boswellia species for incense and Arabic gum production. However, unscientific tapping destroyed species of trees in the area. The project trained 468 (9% women) beneficiaries who are organized in 52 groups and started production. Hence, 9 cooperatives produced 2,890 quintals of incense and earned 8.5 million birr in Metema and Quara woredas last year. However, for longer years, Boswellia papyrifera trees have been poorly harvested or misused and professionals recommended that it has to be paused for few years for giving chance to recover.
The project also delivered a 40 quintal of improved sorghum varieties namely Girana & Gobeye and a 5 quintal of sesame (Humera-1). Thus, farmers covered 426 hectares of land and earned 8,432 quintals of production.
More than 280 (16 women) beneficiaries have taken 971 mango and 481 avocado seedlings to advance the production of horticulture in the area.
In general, it is really important to protect, maintain and support beneficiaries for proper use of the remaining natural forests in western Amhara. Due to the intervention of ORDA, good results have been achieving against forest clearance. But it still requires a series attention. It requires the concerted efforts of sectoral offices from regional and district structures to kebele level to make it more effective. Especially concerned bodies such as agriculture, cooperatives promotion, environmental protection, justice, security and administrative higher officials and experts must collaboratively work to wisely manage natural resources before it is irreversibly altered to a barren land.