Forest Landscape Restoration in Eastern Africa: Progress and Gaps in Engaging

Communities

Habtemariam Kassa Forests and Human Well-being Research Team

Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)Email: h.kassa@cigar.org

Prepared for the 7th Conference of the ASEAN Working Group on Social Forestry (AWG-SF)

Held in Chiang Mail, ThailandJune 12-16, 2017

Eastern Africa - As per the UN Statistics division, 20 territories constitute

Eastern Africa:

Variably defined by geography or geopolitics

Horn of Africa – Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia

East African Community – Subset of Eastern Africa

IGAD – Horn of African countries and Sudan

COMESA – many more than Eastern Africa

1.1. Eastern Africa

1. BACKGROUND

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1. Background (Contd.)

• It is a region characterized by the diversity of history and

political systems countries follow in the region – Somalia,

Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, etc.

• New countries emerged over the last 30 years

• Affected by severe and more frequent droughts and political

instability – e.g. Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia

• Migration and decades-old refugee camps still prevail

• Efforts are underway to address NRM challenges through

IGAD and serious community mobilsation for NRM in Eth.

• We hope to facilitate experience sharing through collaborative

works where Eastern African countries could learn from the

experiences of ASEAN in managing natural resources in

general and forest management in particular

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1. Background

1.2 Ethiopia

• An important country in East Africa in terms of population

• A rapidly growing population of over 100 million

• Most (over 80%) depend on smallholder mixed farming in the

highlands, and livestock production in the lowlands)

• Over 15 million HHs live on the highlands where farm sizes

are shrinking (average less than 0.5ha/HH)

• Much of the highland area is severely degraded

• Agricultural expansion and fuelwood extraction are major

drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, respectively

Wide ranging altitudes, diverse topography and mountainous nature of the country result in 33

major agro-ecological zones (EIAR, 2011) that in turn produce diverse vegetation and forest

types – with different challenges, development and management options

Ranges of temperature (top), rainfall (middle) and altitude (bottom)

Red shows lowest in altitude and rainfall and highest in temperature.

Source: CRGE Strategy (2011)

Most mountainous and diverse country

Potential distribution map of major natural

vegetation types of Ethiopia

(Firris et al, 2010)

Current national forest cover

(MEFCC and FAO, yet to be published)

Consequences of deforestation and forest degradation

Soil erosion and loss of soil fertility,

Siltation and its impact on energy production

Loss of biodiversity and habitats

Encroachment of desertification

Increased wood and feed shortage

Decline in volume and quality of water

Increased import bills (wood and wood products)

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1.4. What is being done?1.4.1. Historical trends of relevant policies and plans

• Conserving some sites (in the 15th Cen) and introducing new

species (early 20th century)

• 1930s - 1940s – Focus on use of existing forests for timber

• Mid 1940s to mid 1970s - Considering forests as wastelands

to encourage conversion to crop fields

• 1970s – Sahelian drought forced government to focus on

forests

• 1975 – major national land reform, nationalized forests

• 1980s and 1990s – Soil and water conservation works

• 1994 National forest law, revised in 2007

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1. Background

• Mid 2000s – national tree planting campaigns

• Land use certificates improved tenure security and this led to

the expansion of farmer initiated woodlots on landcspes

• In 2011, Ethiopia formulated its CRGE Strategy – and forestry

was identified as one of the four important economic sectors.

• In 2013, a separate Ministry (MEFCC) was established

• Emphasis to forestry research grew – establishing EEFRI

• As part of the Bonn Challenge, the GoE pledged to rehabilitate

15 million hectares of degraded forests and this was increased

to 22 m at the NY Climate summit in 2014

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1. Background

• To achieve those targets, major stated led rehabilitation

initiatives are

– PFM – to reduce D&D in state owned natural forests by

actively engaging communities (so far over 1.5 million ha put

under PFM)

– Area exclosures – to rehabilitate over 3 millions of ha of

communally owned degraded hillsides & grazing lands

– Mass mobilisation of tens of millions of HHs annually for

SWC work and for annual tree planting campaigns (farmers

are asked to provide 30-40 days of free labour annually)

• But the performance and sustainability of these

initiatives are poorly understood

Partial view of a forest in Bale put under PFM

Before (left) and after (right) status of watershed put

under area exclosure in Tigray Region

State led restoration efforts (above) and soil and water conservation

measures on communal lands using mainly community moblisation

Smallholder plantations in northwestern Ethiopia with little or no govt. support!

In the highland areas where land is individually managed, tenure and participation

of communities in decision making matter to determine restoration outcomes!

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1.4. Forestry targets in the 2016-2020 FYDP

• Improving forest management by putting 2 m ha of natural

forests under PFM

• Demarcate and protect 5 m ha of protective forests using

areas exclosures - Exclosures are areas socially fenced from

cutting, grazing and other agricultural activities

• Identification and demarcation of 4.5 m ha for

afforestation/reforestation by involving communities and the

private sector in tree planting initiatives

• All these are expected to contribute to:

– Increase contribution of forestry to HH income by 5-10%

– Create employment opportunities for one million people

– Increase national forest cover by 4.5% (from 15.5% to 20%)

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1.5. Research Rationale

• Little evidence based information existed on limitations of and

good practices in area exlcousres, PFM & in tree planting by

smallholder farmers and investors

• We also realize that agendas such as climate change,

reduction of emissions and LDN are of major concerns for

global actors, reducing food insecurity through increasing

productivity and employment opportunities is what resonates

with local authorities and communities.

What can research help the GoE achieve its forestry targets?

Assess and identify good practices in and limitations of (i) Ex-

closures – to rehabilitate degraded lands; (ii) PFM – to reduce D&D in

natural forests, and (iii) Smallholder plantations and AF by farmers

By bringing key actors together and Identifying effective

practices and enabling conditions for scaling up

The presentation focuses on the first two

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2. The study, 2013-15

2.1. Study Objectives:

(i) to select effective experiences in rehabilitating degraded

forests and landscapes (PFM and Area exclosures);

(ii) to identify and ex-ante evaluate measures that would

further enhance the socio-economic and ecological

benefits of selected practices in PFM and AE: and

(i) to identify potential areas where these practices can be

promoted and enabling conditions for scaling up these

practices

Team establishment

Review of literature

Identify criteria &

indicators

Develop questionnaires

Assess ecological and

socioeconomic impacts of

the selected practices

Identify improvement

measures to enhance

livelihood and

conservation benefits and

conduct ex-ante evaluation

Identify enabling

conditions for scaling up

effective practices

Develop regional

strategy to scale up the

best practices in the

selected regions

Develop a national road

map to scale up selected

practices in the country

Consultative meeting in

regional capital involving

key actors to: (i) refine

criteria and indicators for

selection, and (ii) identify

key practices/sites

Evaluate candidate

practices using agreed

procedure based on the

criteria and indicators, and

select effective practices

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the processes involved in developing the national road map

for scaling up effective forest management practices (Adapted from Tolera et al 2015).

2.2. Methods - The Process followed

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• Lack of clear strategy to establish and manage forest under PFM and

rehabilitated lands under AE – site selection, objective setting,

management plan, benefit sharing, .

• Positive conservation outcome - Both experts and communities have

positive views on ecological outcomes of ex-closures – (enhance

availability of water, animal feed and wood, and sequester more carbon -

up to 246 t of carbon/ha areas put under exclosure)

• Inadequate participation - Communities felt that their level of

participation was low in objective setting, plan preparation, …

• Poor productivity - Economic benefits from restored landscapes was

much lower than their expectations

• Persisting institutional challenges - Planning and monitoring tools are

lacking to identify sites, set objectives, develop management plans and

assess economic and ecological gains (biodiversity for example)

• Sustainability-Low productivity, and poorly defined tenure and benefit

sharing arrangements lead to conflicts and undermine sustainability

3. Main findings - PFM and AE

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3.1 Main findings (Contd.)

• Improvement measures are needed, mainly on :

– Addressing uncertainties in tenure and use rights (of

rehabilitated communal lands and forests)

– Empowering communities to actively engage in

negotiating and jointly articulating objectives of PFM and

ex closures (mainly protection, production, or both) and

developing corresponding management plans to

maximize gains & ensure continued interest and

engagement of communities

– Increasing productivity by planting economically important

species (trees, shrubs, grasses) and employing SWC

measures to improve survival and growth rates of

seedlings

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3.1 Main findings (Contd.)

– Supporting the development, refinement and endorsement

of community bylaws that are aligned with agreed upon

PFM/exclosure objectives and help facilitate group

dynamics.

– Clearly defined, negotiated and agreed upon responsibility

and net benefit sharing mechanisms (between the state

and communities on one hand and among community

members on the other)

– Building capacity of communities to building teams and

managing conflicts (within groups, and with communities)

– Building capacity of govt. institutions to plan and

implement activities to monitor landscapes and the users

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4. Conclusions

• Ethiopia is engaged in major landscape restoration initiatives

but these undertakings need to be knowledge-based and

measures need to be taken to make them sustainable

• Population pressure, less secure tenure and poorly defined

responsibility and benefit sharing arrangements, low level of

participation/rushing, poor productivity and weak institutions

undermine positive gains and sustainability of community

engagement in forest management & landscape restoration

• Improving participation through negotiating often competing

objectives of FLR and developing corresponding

management plans to maximize economic and conservation

gains is critically needed

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4. Conclusions

• Recommended measures include:

– Mapping out areas for rehabilitation (at different levels) and deciding

on their objectives helps planning FLR initiatives

– Ensuring connectivity across sites is necessary to facilitate gene

flow and maximize biodiversity conservation objectives

– Increasing community participation and total productivity of

rehabilitated forest landscapes to sustain community engagement

– Securing tenure, and devising equitable, negotiated, agreed upon and

legally binding responsibility and net benefit sharing mechanisms

– Building capacity – of CBOs and govt. forestry agencies

• Addressing those challenges helps improve livelihood and

conservation outcomes of restoration initiatives

• If not huge government commitment & grandiose plans and

huge mass mobilsation will have little results to show.

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Acknowledgements – Partners and donors

Thank you for your attention!