The problem
Soil erosion, deforestation and destruction of grazing lands are damaging ecosystems across eastern Africa.
Widespread land degradation and disruptions to water flow are driving wildlife populations into decline and threatening the livelihoods of rural communities.
Climate change is making the situation worse, as increased temperatures, reduced rainfall and extreme weather events contribute to land degradation and cause crop failures and livestock losses.
Rural communities lack access to the expertise, materials, finance and markets they need to adapt.
The opportunity
Finding ways to make conservation activities profitable helps rural people protect and restore land, forests and water systems while improving their livelihoods at the same time.
Implementing practices that protect ecosystems can enhance soil health and water conservation and reduce dependency on chemical inputs, leading to more sustainable and productive agriculture.
The outcome
Restoring ecosystems in partnership with local communities breaks the cycle of destruction. This approach creates new income-generating opportunities for local communities, such as through ecotourism or sustainable harvesting of non-timber forest products.
Sustainable livelihood opportunities nurture ecosystems. Farms become more productive, water supplies more stable, forests more biodiverse, grazing lands more fertile and wildlife more abundant.
That increases resilience to climate change, not just for people living locally, but for the planet we all share.
How we protect ecosystems
Farm Africa works in partnership with local people to protect ecosystems by:
- Helping communities develop landscape-scale management plans, so that improvements in one area don’t have negative impacts elsewhere.
- Establishing community-led cooperatives to manage local forests and rangelands, with bylaws to back them up.
- Helping people who protect local ecosystems, such as by planting trees on their farms, tap into schemes like carbon credits, so they can earn income from their efforts.
- Developing enterprises for natural products like forest coffee, spices and honey to give an economic incentive to protect nature.
- Providing training on climate-smart agriculture so farmers can earn more while increasing their resilience to erosion, drought and flooding.
- Supporting farmers to boost productivity of their crops and herds of livestock, rather than clearing forests for agricultural expansion and grazing.
- Promoting beekeeping to encourage the planting and protection of trees and help reverse the decline in the number of bees, which play a crucial role in pollination and maintaining biodiversity.
- Supporting people to explore sustainable alternatives to forest-sourced fuelwood and timber.
The latest on protecting ecosystems
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Related resources
Reviving nature’s symphony: the triumph of participatory rangeland management in transforming a degraded landscape
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Reviving nature’s symphony: the triumph of participatory rangeland management in transforming a degraded landscape
This case story describes the success achieved by a community rangeland management cooperative in restoring degraded grasslands at Ethiopia’s Abijatta-Shalla National Park in the Great Rift Valley. The rapid transformation showcases what can be achieved by combining innovative techniques, collaborative effort and community engagement.
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A greener future on a grand scale: a summary of the Bale Eco-region Phase II project
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A four-page summary of Farm Africa’s Nature-based Solutions for Sustainable and Inclusive Development programme in Ethiopia, funded by Sida. The programme, which runs from 2023 to 2026, aims to sustainably manage forests, conserve biodiversity, build communities’ resilience to climate change and develop sustainable livelihoods through holistic nature-based solutions across six river basins in Ethiopia, clustered into three eco-regions.
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Eco-tourism opportunity in Ilu Ababor Ethiopia
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This booklet features 12 stories from the Central Rift Valley Landscape Management project, which ran from 2019 to 2022. Funded by Sida, the project was delivered by a consortium of organisations including Farm Africa (lead), SOS Sahel Ethiopia, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Population, Health, and Environment Ethiopia Consortium (PHE EC), and Sustainable Environment and Development Action (SEDA).
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Farm Africa response to the Core Carbon Principles proposed by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM)
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Farm Africa response to the Core Carbon Principles proposed by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM)
This PDF is the response Farm Africa submitted in September 2022 to a public consultation on the draft Core Carbon Principles (CCPs) and Assessment Framework (AF) being developed by the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market (ICVCM)’s Expert Panel. The CCPs and AF will set new threshold standards for high-quality carbon credits, provide guidance on how to apply the CCPs, and define which carbon-crediting programmes and methodology types are CCP-eligible. The Core Carbon Principles and Assessment Framework will be issued in Q4 2022, following the public consultation, which launched in July 2022.
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