AGRICULTURE 38.1 LIVESTOCK The Little Sustainable Landscapes Book | Global Canopy Programme GCP LSLB English
AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPE RESTORATION IN TIGRAY, ETHIOPIA
In the Tigray highlands of Ethiopia, droughts, population pressure, and poor land management
created a crisis of land degradation, hunger and poverty. In 2002, after decades of dependence
on conventional food aid despite numerous small, uncoordinated sustainable land management
efforts, the Government of Ethiopia, the World Food Programme, local non-governmental organisations
and communities began a systematic collaborative programme to restore watersheds, agriculture and
resilience in the region.
Over 48 activities, planned in close collaboration with the community, mobilised local investment in
restoration in exchange for food aid. Most activities focused on erosion control, rehabilitation of degraded
soils, tree planting and water capture and control, implemented in a strategic and spatially coordinated
way. The landless were given rights to use forested land in exchange for their labour. High-quality
technical expertise was provided to communities to design large-scale water harvesting. Once the natural
resource base was stabilised and enriched, diverse agricultural development activities started to bear
fruit
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Since 2002, this integrated programme has had impressive results: 400,000 ha of degraded land
have been rehabilitated in 451 sub-watersheds and 125,000 people have directly beneitted, of whom
40 are female. Crop production increased 200- 400 due to improved irrigation and soil organic
matter. The number of households dependent on food aid during droughts was reduced from 90 to
10. A 2012 impact evaluation found that nearly two-thirds of chronically food-insecure households
involved in the programme reported a signiicant increase of income, largely due to increased
agricultural production and productivity from improved land management. Promoting revegetation,
terracing and communityfarm water harvesting helped to restore vital water services, including
improved groundwater resources, water available for farm activities, and healthy streams, which also
restored biodiversity. The project has also contributed to climate change mitigation, thanks to the planting of
thousands of trees and shrubs at a landscape scale and the steady increase in soil organic matter
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INTEGRATED LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT INITIATIVES