From famine to forests to climate change

Ethiopia used to be an environmental hard luck story, a country plagued by droughts and food shortages. Now it is a leader in restoring degraded land

When Ethiopia featured in international news, it was invariably in reports on the latest human tragedy. Caught in a seemingly endless cycle of war and droughts, the landlocked country on the Horn of Africa has long been a source of one tale of misery after another.

Yet, with the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris drawing to a close, when eyes are on China and the US, attention should also turn to Ethiopia – for a positive story on how to tackle climate change. The country where devastating famines were once a fact of life has now become a leader in restoring degraded land.

Less than 1.4 billion hectares of land worldwide, a fraction of the planet’s surface, is suitable for agriculture. Deforestation, over-farming, desertification and pollution detract from the quality and amount of land available. How these problems are tackled will determine how we can to continue to feed the planet’s growing population in the 21^st century. The results will also help limit dangerous climate change.

Forests are important in this because they act as barriers in extreme weather events, preventing topsoil run-off in heavy rains. A recent NASA study also showed that forests remove up to 30% of human carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Reduce the amount of forests worldwide and you reduced this effect; increase the amount and you can improve this filter.

Greener than Greece

The most comprehensive agreement on woodlands is the New York Declaration on Forests, signed at the Climate Summit in New York. There Ethiopia pledged to restore 15 million hectares of land – an area larger than Greece.

“The significance of this commitment cannot be overstated,” says Chris Reij, forestry expert at the World Resources Institute. “It positions Ethiopia as a leader in the restoration movement and lays out a plan to bring environmental, social and economic benefits for communities in the country.”

It is estimated that at the beginning of the twentieth century 35% of Ethiopia’s land was covered by trees. Today, the figure is 14.2%, but the country has taken significant steps to re-green the landscape.

In the in Tigray, the northernmost region of Ethiopia and an area often affected by famines, several hundred thousand hectares of degraded land were set aside in exclosures. No cutting or grazing was allowed so natural vegetation could regrow.

The people of Tigray probably moved more earth and stone than the Egyptians did to build the pyramids Chris Reij

Village communities also built tens of thousands of kilometres of terraces and rock walls in the mountainous terrain. “During the past 20 years, the people of Tigray probably moved more earth and stone to reshape the surface of their land than the Egyptians did during the thousands of years it took to build the pyramids,” says Reij.

For more than 10 years, villagers contributed 40 days of voluntary labor per year to land regeneration. Now rainfall soaks into the slopes instead of washing away the fertile soil. This has also led to higher water levels in many valleys, which enables villagers to dig wells for irrigation during the dry season.

There are no sufficiently detailed satellite images to assess the full scale of forest regeneration. “But if you combine all the land use techniques used by the people of Tigray with the support they received from their government and donor agencies then they restored about 1 million hectares of degraded land,“ says Reij. “This is unique in Africa and, given the harsh conditions under which it has been achieved, these restoration efforts are unmatched anywhere else in the world.”

Green grows the root

Other parts of Ethiopia have achieved success that may have even larger long-term impact. In the south, well-developed agroforestry systems now range over millions of hectares.

The technique used is known as Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) and was developed in by Tony Rinaudo in Niger. “At the time the government and NGOs had invested millions of dollars and thousands of hours into conventional tree planting schemes – but with little success,” he recalls.

Locusts, frogs, termites and birds destroyed seedlings in the nurseries. Those that survived faced drought, competition from weeds and destruction by people and animals in the field. Finally French colonial rulers tried to protect trees by turning them into state property, but this meant farmers simply stole rather than cultivated trees.

“We came to a dead end,” Rinaudo, an Australian aid worker recalls. “That’s when I recognised that our solution already lay at our feet.” On a trip through degraded farmland Rinaudo noticed shrubs with the same leaf structure as trees. “I realised they weren’t weeds to be cleared out,” he says, “these were sprouts from old, dormant roots and tree stumps.”

To regenerate trees, it was important to protect the roots and carefully prune the shoots. Rinaudo convinced the local forestry department with his approach and confronted the farmers with a bargain: They would only receive food from his famine-relief program, if they helped look after trees.

About 500,000 trees were protected and farmers soon realised the benefits: More shade for their parched land and extra foliage as fertiliser. “Also women who spent up to two-and-a-half hours per day collecting firewood found they only needed half an hour within a few years.”

The approach caught on both nationally and then internationally. Studies by the Center for Earth Resources Observation and Science show that by five million hectares of degenerated land had been re-greened in Niger. Rinaudo and World Vision, the Christian aid group he works for, are now replicating the approach in countries such as Ethiopia.

Projects in the southern Ethiopian districts of Humbo and Soddo have already revitalized forests and developed agroforestry systems. “I believe Ethiopia could become one of the few countries in the world with net afforestation,” says Rinaudo with conviction.

And the idea keeps spreading. In April the World Agroforestry Centre hosted the second “Beating the Famine” conference to promote FMNR in Southern Africa and beyond. Politicians in Asian countries are also watching as Indonesia and East Timor have started FMNR projects.

Efforts by Ethiopia and other countries are nowhere near enough to counteract the climate impact of American or Chinese emissions. However, they show what developing countries can do to improve not only their own food security but also the health of the planet.

From famine to forests to climate change

Ethiopia used to be an environmental hard luck story, a country plagued by droughts and food shortages. Now it is a leader in restoring degraded land

From famine to forests to climate change

Ethiopia used to be an environmental hard luck story, a country plagued by droughts and food shortages. Now it is a leader in restoring degraded land

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