Farm Africa helps communities sustainably manage 200,000 hectares of Ethiopian forest

19 May 2014

200,000 hectares of forest across Ethiopia’s Oromia, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (SNNP), Benishangul Gumuz and Amhara regions are now under community management. That’s an area of land more than twice the size of New York City.

For the past four years Farm Africa has been working with rural families to help them find new ways to use the forest’s abundant natural resources sustainably and earn a good living. Now that they are no longer reliant on clearing trees to create farmland, or on selling firewood and charcoal to earn money for food, families are working together to protect what forest remains for future generations.

The members of the 76 forest management co-operatives established so far have been given help to set up new businesses producing and selling traditional forest products such as coffee, honey, ginger, bamboo and cardamom. Farm Africa has been helping farmers to establish sustainable production systems as well sell their produce for the best possible price.

These forests in western Ethiopia are now providing families with a sustainable and reliable source of income and local communities are eager to do all they can to care for and protect them. Farm Africa is working in partnership with regional governments to establish formal agreements on how the community will be protecting the forests, and how to manage their right to sustainably use the natural resources within them.