Unlocking livestock development potential through science, influence and capacity
development ILRI APM, Addis Ababa, 15-17 May 2013
Developing capacity Influencing decisions
Climate change adaptation through collective action
in Kabe watershed, Ethiopia
This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Licence May 2013
Strategic lessons:
Training and demonstration of success
stories contributed to benefit sharing
on collective actions.
Communities negotiated and mass
mobilized to protect and wisely use
common resources.
Kindu Mekonnen, Alan Duncan (ILRI) and Tilahun Amede (ICRISAT)
Delivering science
Interventions were both site and
community compatible.
Methodology development for collective
actions contributed to adoption.
Introduction
Landscapes at Kabe are degraded due to climate and anthropogenic factors. Common resources are also
becoming less productive due to the lack of communal joint effort. Proper management of common
resources using soil and water conservation (SWC), tree plantation interventions, and integration of
forage grasses and legumes were tested to improve the environment and enhance land productivity,
water and feed availability, and enable the communities to adapt climate variability.
Methodology
Results
Partners: ILRI, UNEP, Wollo University, ARARI (SARC) and Woreilu woreda Office of Agriculture.
 Grass biomass harvested after closing 82 ha of grazing lands was 2.8 t ha-1 on dry weight basis.
 Stone faced soil bunds covered most of the 247 ha conserved area (Figure 1).
 Survival of indigenous Erica arborea, Juniperus procera and Festuca species in degraded land was
promising (Figure 2).
 Reforestation, SWC, grazing land and spring water management were identified as central issues for
collective action.
 Communities agreed to stop free grazing.
 Communities formulated bye-laws to properly manage and use common resources.
 Novel SWC technologies, niche tree species, grazing land and spring water management practices
were introduced.
Figure 1. SWC employed in the watershed (%) Figure 2. Survival (%) for tree and grass species
0
15
30
45
Stone
terrace
Stone
faced soil
bund
Hill side
terrace
0 20 40 60 80 100
Acacia saligna
Juniperus procera
Erica arborea
Arundinaria alpine
Festuca (Guassa)…
Dinsho splits
Phalaris splits
Coverage(%)
Acknowledgment: We thank researchers, extension staff and farmers who contributed to this piece of work.