PROG2017-2021-DGD: Environmental management of strategic forest areas on a sustainable, inclusive and particip

General

The overall aim is to improve household livelihood for rural communities in a set of communities in the north-Ethiopian Tigray region, by supporting community-based woodland restoration and woodland ecosystem services development. The major objectives are (i) to boost woodland ecosystem restoration on large and highly degraded areas by management of exclosures and forest relicts; (ii) to improve resilience to land degradation and store carbon in the restored woodlands; (iii) to support ecosystem services development (a.o. increased availability of fodder, firewood provision and grassy biomass; erosion reduction; honey and/or frankincense production). The interventions will lead to the following specific (quantifiable) targets: (1) Increased area of better managed community woodlands; (2) Increased inclusive and participatory established woodland area with increased water infiltration, soil moisture and reactivation of springs1, less land degradation (desertification) activity and water runoff – which will create resilience against the effects of recurrent droughts; (3) A social shift towards stable feeding, as fodder can be derived from grass harvested from the exclosure; and (4) Sequestration of carbon, mainly through increases in above- and belowground biomass.