Land Rehabilitation and Improved Management: The case of Tigray, northern Ethiopia.
Kiros Meles Hadgu (PhD), Mekelle University
Presented at ICRAF, Nairobi, 3 March 2011 1. Successes in Land Rehabilitation and Management Location Northern Ethiopia
Size Tigray covers an area Of 80,000 square kilometers
Population 4.3 Million 1. Successes in Land (Cont…)
-Possible to reverse land degradation in Tigray (once was one of the most world’s degraded highlands) through exclosures and physical SWC structures, 1975 Photo ©Neil Munro
2006 Photo © Jan Nyssen 1. Successes in Land (Cont…) -Improved land management has become an inherent part of farming systems, - The ‘More People Less Erosion’ Paradigm (Tiffen et al., 1994) is also valid in Tigray (Between the 1984 and 2011 population increased from 40 to 80 million)
1975 Photo © Neil Munro 2006 Photo © Jan Nyssen 2. Roles of Trees in Reversal of Land Degradation and Management Trees in combination with SWC structures provide: - decrease sediment deposition, - reduce down stream flooding - reduce sheet and rill erosion - increase water infiltration - enhance development of new springs 2. Roles of Trees in Reversal of Land Degradation and Management (Cont…) - improve land stabilization - improve fertility of the soil - firewood and construction material - production of grasses for livestock and roof building 3. Roles of Livestock in Reversal of Land Degradation and Improved Management Exclosure: Livestock are forbidden Cut and Carry Systems are allowed
Cut and Carry livestock feeding 4. Investments in land rehabilitation and improved management
-Free community labour (40 free days/year from each HH) for land rehabilitation) 4. Investments land rehabilitation (Cont…) -Local government and NGO’s involvement (e.g., Food- for-work and Safety Net Programmes) 5. Period of the Land Rehabilitation and Improved Management
- It started after the 1980’s drought but was 1980’s with top-down approach (not effective)
- After the 1990’s, rehabilitation 1990’s has become priority agenda in Tigray (local government in consultation with community: In participatory way) 6. Area covered under the Land Rehabilitation and Improved Management
- Roughly 20 to 30 % of Tigray is rehabilitated. 7. People benefited from Land Rehabilitation and Improved Management - More than 1 million people have benefited from the land rehabilitation and improved management in Tigray. 7. Data on Land Rehabilitation and Improved Management
Source: Nyssen et al., 2007 8. Data on Land Rehabilitation and Improved Management
Land rehabilitation Land management
More than 83% improved in land rehabiliation as well as land management
Source: Nyssen et al., 2007 10. Main Drivers for Success - Land degradation caused by deforestation and subsequent soil erosion which led to drought and crop failure, 10. Main Drivers for Successes (Cont…)
-Extreme weather events (changes in rainfall patterns/ shortage of rain water).
Average Annual Rainfall anomaly (1951-2005) Average Annual minimum temperature difference (1951-2005)
National average of standardized annual rainfall anomaly compated to 1971-2000 National average annual minimum temprature differnce compared to 1971-2000 normal normal
1.5 1.5 y = 0.0372x - 1.2835 1 1 0.5 0.5 0 0 -0.5 -0.5 -1 -1 -1.5 -1.5 1951 1954 1957 1960 1963 1966 1969 1972 1975 1978 1981 1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1999 2002 2005
-2 1951 1954 1957 1960 1963 1966 1969 1972 1975 1978 1981 1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1999 2002 2005 10. Main Drivers for Success (Cont…) -Land resources pushed to their limits, ruptures in fragile equilibrium and contributed the drought of the 1980’s, -To end the desertification in Tigray, local government and communities fully involved in rehabilitation of degraded lands, 11. Main Obstacles to progress (biophysical, socio-economic and institutional)
-Highly degraded steep slope areas, -Financial limitation to implement the rehabilitation of the degraded areas, - Top-down approach during the 1980’s
1975 Photo © Neil Munro 12. How obstacles were overcome? -Biophysical: stone terraces, tree planting, trenches 12. How obstacles overcome (Cont…)
-Socio-economic: 40 days free labor/year and food-for- work (Safety Net Program) - Community leads land rehabilitation and management 13. Remaining obstacles
-More pressure on existing grazing lands (unprotected lands) -Increasing demand of firewood and construction material 14. Need for Research or knowledge gap
Biophysical research: -understanding of seed ecology, functional ecology and seed dispersal - appropriate and rapid propagation techniques, and - woodland management Policy development for: -sustainable energy consumption
- stall feeding of livestock -on farm tree planting 15. Failure in land rehabilitation
No failure but the successes are not throughout. 16. Potential for scaling up the successes
- Awareness raising: policy makers, researchers, CBO’s and farmers, - Experience sharing: best practices - Full involvement of community THANK YOU!