Ethiopia’s forests protected through landscape-wide collaboration

A new report shows how forest-dependent communities in Ethiopia are collaborating with government, the private sector and NGOs to improve both forest conservation and livelihoods in the country’s ecologically critical Bale Eco-region.

The report charts the progress of the Forests for Sustainable Development (FSD) programme, implemented by the NGOs Farm Africa and SOS Sahel with funding from the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Ethiopia. Launched in 2022, the programme builds on nearly two decades of work to sustainably conserve forests of Ethiopia’s Bale Eco-region and the associated landscapes of East Bale Zone.

The forests of the Bale Eco-region provide globally significant ecosystem services, including biodiversity preservation, climate regulation and water reserves that sustain the livelihoods of nearly 30 million people living in the region and downstream across Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya.

Climate-smart growing techniques are transforming the productivity of existing farmland.

The FSD programme reconciles the urgent need to conserve these vital forests with the region’s growing demand for food and employment opportunities. To achieve this, the programme is taking a cross-sector collaborative approach that includes:

• expanding the number of participatory forest management cooperatives: community-led organisations who commit to conserving the forest in exchange for permission to earn an income from the sale of non-timber forest products such as coffee and also from the sale of carbon credits, which are earned by reducing deforestation
• supporting these coops to invest their carbon credit income to run viable green businesses and implement conservation initiatives
• promoting climate-smart agriculture to improve productivity on existing farmland and reduce the need to clear forests for agricultural use
• introducing fuel-efficient cookstoves and other green energy technologies to reduce pressure on the forest
• facilitating workshops, international learning visits and the development of landscape change tracking tools to improve integrated landscape governance.

By reducing travel time and labour, the construction of grain grinding mills, funded by carbon credit income, has improved quality of life for 1,600 women.

The inclusive and collaborative approach is delivering significant impact, including the following results achieved between the programme’s launch in 2022 and December 2024:

• 35% reduction in deforestation rate
• 35% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions
• 758,700 hectares of forest now protected by community-led cooperatives
• 79% rise in average annual household incomes
• 4,663 jobs secured
• 35 youth and green business enterprises established

For Farm Africa Programme Manager Feyisa Assefa, the future of forests lies in the hands of the communities who depend upon them:

The success of the FSD programme offers a compelling model for forest protection across Ethiopia and beyond. As Live Jacob Sydness, Counsellor, Climate and Forests at the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Ethiopia explains:

The Forests for Sustainable Development programme: stories of impact report can be found here: