An Overview Of Our Solution
Sustainable Natural Resource Management Association (SUNARMA) is one of the leading NGO operating in conserving biodiversity and enhancing sustainable farming practice at house hold level in its programme areas within three regional states in Ethiopia. Particularly SUNARMA is promoting Participatory Forest Management approach (PFM) in all program areas to conserve biodiversity by increasing the livelihood of the community through forest based livelihood interventions and by focusing on sustainable Non Timber Forest Product (NTFP) so as to minimize high pressure on forest resources. In this approach the community is considered as the primary actor to manage the forest resources along with other stockholders stakeholders leading to utilize the Natural Forest wisely for the benefit of the whole community without affecting the natural base of the ecosystem.
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: Africa
Organization type
Population impacted
Size of agricultural area
Production quantity
People employed
Describe your solution
• Diversification of income source and promote forest based livelihoods through NTFPs enterprise business with particular focus on tree seed enterprise, beekeeping and honey production through establishment of apiary centres , Habitat reclamation through community based forest management approaches, by developing forest management plan, resources assessment and mapping. • Promote awareness of the community on how to manage forest resources and adapt sustainable farming practices at the community and household level. • Promote community centred PFM institutions and strengthen the existing traditional Forest institutions to manage the forest effectively. • Introduce improved soil and water conservation measures such as terracing, check dams, area closure and planting trees. • Promote conservation agriculture and organic farming at household level through introduction of compost preparations, horticultural activities at home garden, agroforestry and apicultural activities.
Describe your implementation
Our main implementation strategy is to realize biodiversity conservation through the introduction of PFM in which the community is the main actor during the process and the government is considered as a main supporter of the process. the project will focus on: • Identifying and organizing forest groups • Training's and exposure visit on PFM to local communities & government partners • Establishing PFM cooperative • Training on Cooperative principles. • Forest Resource assessment & Forest boundary demarcation • Preparing forest map and management plan involving target communities • Implementing the management plan • Provision of high value horticultural seeds • Training on horticultural activities • Establish tree seed enterprise to collect and sale tree seeds of indigenous species that have high demand and market value. • Provide training on seed collection and storage • Establish beekeeping groups to develop honey harvest and marketing • Provide training on modern beekeeping and supply of inputs • Establish women fuel saving group to produce fuel saving stoves with primary objectives to save forests by reducing the amount of trees cut for fire wood, thereby decrease the work load of women and small children’s who devote much of their time on this daily activity. fuel saving stoves have also significant value in protecting the health of rural women who will otherwise being affected by smoke from open fire. Provide training on preparation of fuel saving stoves and market analysis & development Introduction of conservation agriculture, organic farming practices Undertake buffer zone plantation's around natural forest, this will have multiple purpose in setting natural boundary to delineate and protect natural forests from external interference and thereby contribute to the immense need in fuel wood, construction materials and pole for local consumption by thinning from established plantation.
External connections
The main stakeholders in the PFM process are the forest user groups as the primary and the government forest department as secondary we also closely work with agriculture and rural development offices in providing skill training's on compost preparations, farm land management, soil and water conservation activities, work with livestock and fishery office in the area of bee keeping development and cooperatives promotion offices to organize, train and legalize community groups into certified cooperatives. We also work with women and children’s affairs to mobilize women groups, create awareness, and to insure women’s participation in project activities Local kebele administration to mobilize communities and undertake joint planning, monitoring and implementation of activities and we do quarter review meetings with all of above key partners. Other neighboring institutions that are directly or indirectly affected by the forest management will be considered as partners to the PFM cooperative. SUNARMA and Donors will also taking part in the whole process as supporter and facilitators. Other PFM cooperative are also potential partners to collaborate in conserving the environment in a wider scale to form Union in the long term.
What is the environmental or ecological challenge you are targeting with your solution?
The main Environmental and Ecological challenges are: • Deforestation due to searching for income, agricultural and grazing lands expansion. • Soli erosion and land degradation due to deforestation • Forest fire to eliminate wild animals which are regarded as pests for agricultural products • Lack of income source and employment opportunity which as a result largely forced the community to depend on Forest resources. • Lack of awareness of the community on the integrated approach of sustainable land use management and the interconnection of different agro-ecological factors • Lack of community institutions such as PFM to manage forest land in sustainable manner. • Severe soil erosion due to very steep slopes and high rainfall intensity.
Describe the context in which you are operating
About 75% of the Meserete Wegeram kebele land can be classified as rolling to hilly landscape, which is accountable to land degradation hazards. Out of the total 4,800 hectares of the land in the kebele, about 1,575 ha (33%) is highly degraded and barely productive. The natural forest cover use to be about 2,000 ha, currently it is less than 700 ha and is highly disturbed and patchy. Annual crops cover 540 ha and perennial crops about 700 ha. Grazing land covers about 1,000 ha and the remaining 560 ha is for residents and homes.
Due to the removal of natural vegetation and severe soil erosion, more areas are becoming non-productive putting the livelihoods of substance farmer in danger. The effect also has impact on areas outside the Meseret Wegeram kebele. It was noted, that the silt load from the Meserete Wegeram watershed carried by the Meki river is a big threat to the life of Lake Zeway in the Rift Valley area. Lake Ziway constitutes an important biodiversity site that harbours the life immense fish resources and numerous bird species.
How did you impact natural resource use and greenhouse gas emissions?
• Communities attitude towards biodiversity conservation will be enhanced to contribute towards increase in regeneration, decrease in deforestation, & illegal hunting • After the end of the project 1,500 ha of forest will be conserved and as a result principle of sustainable forest management embedded within the society • 50 ha of land will be planted with local and suitable exotic trees within and around the forest areas. • 250 ha of land will be treated with suitable soil and water conservation measures. • 500 ha of land will be cultivated in line with the principle of conservation agriculture and organic farming • 3,000 people will be benefited directly from the PFM cooperative • 50,000 downstream inhabitants will be indirectly benefited from upstream conservation of biodiversity and conservation agriculture as a result attains better farming. • 10 enterprise groups will be established to enhance income generating • Income source of the target groups will be diversified and new enterprise will support food security • The project will tend to establish the link between forest/biodiversity conservation and forest based livelihoods and insure sustainable management
Language(s)
Water
Food Security/Nutrition
Economic/Sustainable Development
Climate
Sustainability
The project considers the community as the primary actor from planning stage to implementation and monitoring and evaluation. To this effect the NTFPs business, livelihood activities and skill training to be offered will have a potential to increase the technical and institutional capacity of farmers and increased ownership feelings leading to sustainability of the project.
Return on investment
The project envisaged to return the investment through increased income from livelihood activities such as beekeeping, tree seed enterprise, fuel saving stoves, horticultural activities, buffer zone plantation. Apart from economic and social benefits the project will have an immense ecologic benefit in improving hydro-logical cycle, contributing towards mitigating the negative effects of climate change and remain as a potential site for tapping into payment for ecosystem services in the future development and contributes to Ethiopia’s green economy policy & the return by far exceeds the investment in many ways
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How could we successfully replicate this solution elsewhere?
The success of the project is imminent due to the growing demand and the policy of Ethiopian government to scale up PFM to manage the existing Natural forests across regional states . The PFM & Livelihoods approaches have been tested and found to be successful. This is among the reasons as why we are determined to scale up the initiative. The project which is anticipated to run planned operations using 30K USD will jointly be implemented by the active participation of local community & key government partners such as Agriculture & Rural development office, Environment & Forest Office, Cooperatives promotion offices.