Presented by Habtemariam Kassa, from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), at the 7th Conference of the ASEAN Working Group on Social Forestry (AWG-SF) in Chiang Mai (Thailand), June 12-16, 2017.

1. Forest Landscape Restoration in Eastern
Africa: Progress and Gaps in Engaging
Communities
Habtemariam Kassa
Forests and Human Well-being Research Team
Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
Email: h.kassa@cigar.org
Prepared for the 7th Conference of the ASEAN Working Group on
Social Forestry (AWG-SF)
Held in Chiang Mail, Thailand
June 12-16, 2017

2. Eastern Africa - As per the UN Statistics division, 20 territories constitute
Eastern Africa:
Variably defined by geography or geopolitics
Horn of Africa – Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia
East African Community – Subset of Eastern Africa
IGAD – Horn of African countries and Sudan
COMESA – many more than Eastern Africa
1.1. Eastern Africa
1. BACKGROUND

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1. Background (Contd.)
• It is a region characterized by the diversity of history and
political systems countries follow in the region – Somalia,
Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, etc.
• New countries emerged over the last 30 years
• Affected by severe and more frequent droughts and political
instability – e.g. Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia
• Migration and decades-old refugee camps still prevail
• Efforts are underway to address NRM challenges through
IGAD and serious community mobilsation for NRM in Eth.
• We hope to facilitate experience sharing through collaborative
works where Eastern African countries could learn from the
experiences of ASEAN in managing natural resources in
general and forest management in particular

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1. Background
1.2 Ethiopia
• An important country in East Africa in terms of population
• A rapidly growing population of over 100 million
• Most (over 80%) depend on smallholder mixed farming in the
highlands, and livestock production in the lowlands)
• Over 15 million HHs live on the highlands where farm sizes
are shrinking (average less than 0.5ha/HH)
• Much of the highland area is severely degraded
• Agricultural expansion and fuelwood extraction are major
drivers of deforestation and forest degradation, respectively

5. Wide ranging altitudes, diverse topography and mountainous nature of the country result in 33
major agro-ecological zones (EIAR, 2011) that in turn produce diverse vegetation and forest
types – with different challenges, development and management options
Ranges of temperature (top), rainfall (middle) and altitude (bottom)
Red shows lowest in altitude and rainfall and highest in temperature.
Source: CRGE Strategy (2011)
Most mountainous and diverse country

6. Potential distribution map of major natural
vegetation types of Ethiopia
(Firris et al, 2010)

7. Current national forest cover
(MEFCC and FAO, yet to be published)

8. Consequences of deforestation and forest degradation
 Soil erosion and loss of soil fertility,
 Siltation and its impact on energy production
 Loss of biodiversity and habitats
 Encroachment of desertification
 Increased wood and feed shortage
 Decline in volume and quality of water

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1.4. What is being done?
1.4.1. Historical trends of relevant policies and plans
• Conserving some sites (in the 15th Cen) and introducing new
species (early 20th century)
• 1930s - 1940s – Focus on use of existing forests for timber
• Mid 1940s to mid 1970s - Considering forests as wastelands
to encourage conversion to crop fields
• 1970s – Sahelian drought forced government to focus on
forests
• 1975 – major national land reform, nationalized forests
• 1980s and 1990s – Soil and water conservation works
• 1994 National forest law, revised in 2007

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1. Background
• Mid 2000s – national tree planting campaigns
• Land use certificates improved tenure security and this led to
the expansion of farmer initiated woodlots on landcspes
• In 2011, Ethiopia formulated its CRGE Strategy – and forestry
was identified as one of the four important economic sectors.
• In 2013, a separate Ministry (MEFCC) was established
• Emphasis to forestry research grew – establishing EEFRI
• As part of the Bonn Challenge, the GoE pledged to rehabilitate
15 million hectares of degraded forests and this was increased
to 22 m at the NY Climate summit in 2014

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1. Background
• To achieve those targets, major stated led rehabilitation
initiatives are
– PFM – to reduce D&D in state owned natural forests by
actively engaging communities (so far over 1.5 million ha put
under PFM)
– Area exclosures – to rehabilitate over 3 millions of ha of
communally owned degraded hillsides & grazing lands
– Mass mobilisation of tens of millions of HHs annually for
SWC work and for annual tree planting campaigns (farmers
are asked to provide 30-40 days of free labour annually)
• But the performance and sustainability of these
initiatives are poorly understood

12. Partial view of a forest in Bale put under PFM

13. Before (left) and after (right) status of watershed put
under area exclosure in Tigray Region

14. State led restoration efforts (above) and soil and water conservation
measures on communal lands using mainly community moblisation

17. Smallholder plantations in northwestern Ethiopia with little or no govt. support!

18. In the highland areas where land is individually managed, tenure and participation
of communities in decision making matter to determine restoration outcomes!

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1.4. Forestry targets in the 2016-2020 FYDP
• Improving forest management by putting 2 m ha of natural
forests under PFM
• Demarcate and protect 5 m ha of protective forests using
areas exclosures - Exclosures are areas socially fenced from
cutting, grazing and other agricultural activities
• Identification and demarcation of 4.5 m ha for
afforestation/reforestation by involving communities and the
private sector in tree planting initiatives
• All these are expected to contribute to:
– Increase contribution of forestry to HH income by 5-10%
– Create employment opportunities for one million people
– Increase national forest cover by 4.5% (from 15.5% to 20%)

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1.5. Research Rationale
• Little evidence based information existed on limitations of and
good practices in area exlcousres, PFM & in tree planting by
smallholder farmers and investors
• We also realize that agendas such as climate change,
reduction of emissions and LDN are of major concerns for
global actors, reducing food insecurity through increasing
productivity and employment opportunities is what resonates
with local authorities and communities.
 What can research help the GoE achieve its forestry targets?
 Assess and identify good practices in and limitations of (i) Ex-
closures – to rehabilitate degraded lands; (ii) PFM – to reduce D&D in
natural forests, and (iii) Smallholder plantations and AF by farmers
 By bringing key actors together and Identifying effective
practices and enabling conditions for scaling up
The presentation focuses on the first two

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2. The study, 2013-15
2.1. Study Objectives:
(i) to select effective experiences in rehabilitating degraded
forests and landscapes (PFM and Area exclosures);
(ii) to identify and ex-ante evaluate measures that would
further enhance the socio-economic and ecological
benefits of selected practices in PFM and AE: and
(i) to identify potential areas where these practices can be
promoted and enabling conditions for scaling up these
practices

22. Team establishment
Review of literature
Identify criteria &
indicators
Develop questionnaires
Assess ecological and
socioeconomic impacts of
the selected practices
Identify improvement
measures to enhance
livelihood and
conservation benefits and
conduct ex-ante evaluation
Identify enabling
conditions for scaling up
effective practices
Develop regional
strategy to scale up the
best practices in the
selected regions
Develop a national road
map to scale up selected
practices in the country
Consultative meeting in
regional capital involving
key actors to: (i) refine
criteria and indicators for
selection, and (ii) identify
key practices/sites
Evaluate candidate
practices using agreed
procedure based on the
criteria and indicators, and
select effective practices
Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the processes involved in developing the national road map
for scaling up effective forest management practices (Adapted from Tolera et al 2015).
2.2. Methods - The Process followed

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• Lack of clear strategy to establish and manage forest under PFM and
rehabilitated lands under AE – site selection, objective setting,
management plan, benefit sharing, .
• Positive conservation outcome - Both experts and communities have
positive views on ecological outcomes of ex-closures – (enhance
availability of water, animal feed and wood, and sequester more carbon -
up to 246 t of carbon/ha areas put under exclosure)
• Inadequate participation - Communities felt that their level of
participation was low in objective setting, plan preparation, …
• Poor productivity - Economic benefits from restored landscapes was
much lower than their expectations
• Persisting institutional challenges - Planning and monitoring tools are
lacking to identify sites, set objectives, develop management plans and
assess economic and ecological gains (biodiversity for example)
• Sustainability-Low productivity, and poorly defined tenure and benefit
sharing arrangements lead to conflicts and undermine sustainability
3. Main findings - PFM and AE

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3.1 Main findings (Contd.)
• Improvement measures are needed, mainly on :
– Addressing uncertainties in tenure and use rights (of
rehabilitated communal lands and forests)
– Empowering communities to actively engage in
negotiating and jointly articulating objectives of PFM and
ex closures (mainly protection, production, or both) and
developing corresponding management plans to
maximize gains & ensure continued interest and
engagement of communities
– Increasing productivity by planting economically important
species (trees, shrubs, grasses) and employing SWC
measures to improve survival and growth rates of
seedlings

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3.1 Main findings (Contd.)
– Supporting the development, refinement and endorsement
of community bylaws that are aligned with agreed upon
PFM/exclosure objectives and help facilitate group
dynamics.
– Clearly defined, negotiated and agreed upon responsibility
and net benefit sharing mechanisms (between the state
and communities on one hand and among community
members on the other)
– Building capacity of communities to building teams and
managing conflicts (within groups, and with communities)
– Building capacity of govt. institutions to plan and
implement activities to monitor landscapes and the users

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4. Conclusions
• Ethiopia is engaged in major landscape restoration initiatives
but these undertakings need to be knowledge-based and
measures need to be taken to make them sustainable
• Population pressure, less secure tenure and poorly defined
responsibility and benefit sharing arrangements, low level of
participation/rushing, poor productivity and weak institutions
undermine positive gains and sustainability of community
engagement in forest management & landscape restoration
• Improving participation through negotiating often competing
objectives of FLR and developing corresponding
management plans to maximize economic and conservation
gains is critically needed

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4. Conclusions
• Recommended measures include:
– Mapping out areas for rehabilitation (at different levels) and deciding
on their objectives helps planning FLR initiatives
– Ensuring connectivity across sites is necessary to facilitate gene
flow and maximize biodiversity conservation objectives
– Increasing community participation and total productivity of
rehabilitated forest landscapes to sustain community engagement
– Securing tenure, and devising equitable, negotiated, agreed upon and
legally binding responsibility and net benefit sharing mechanisms
– Building capacity – of CBOs and govt. forestry agencies
• Addressing those challenges helps improve livelihood and
conservation outcomes of restoration initiatives
• If not huge government commitment & grandiose plans and
huge mass mobilsation will have little results to show.

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Acknowledgements – Partners and donors

29. Thank you for your attention!