and Community Forestry for Rehabilitation of Degraded Watersheds
on the Ethiopian Highlands
Dr. Badege Bishaw, College of Forestry,
State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, U.S.A.
Dr. Abdu Abdelkadir Wondo Genet College of Forestry
University Awassa, Ethiopia
Despite the efforts
made to develop Ethiopian agriculture over the years, the problems
of hunger, famine, and malnutrition and land degradation still
linger and present the greatest threat to the survival of the
nation. With the new thrust to produce more food using high input
and single crop farming, todays farmers grow only one or
two crops in monoculture systems. The traditional diversification
of farmlands, which arguably has been the source of sustenance
in rural Ethiopia since time immemorial, has largely been abandoned.
Furthermore, deforestation, accelerated soil erosion, and land
degradation are now serious problems in Ethiopia. As a result
crop and livestock yields are generally very low and the recent
drought has aggravated the situation. The land use system is
associated with the decrease in the size of holdings both for
arable and grazing lands. Thus there is a continued trend toward
the conversion of forested and marginal lands to agricultural
lands, resulting in massive environmental degradation and a serious
threat to sustainable agriculture and forestry.
should not be taken as a panacea for land use problems in Ethiopia,
it may be considered as a potential alternative to some of the
wasteful land-use practices in the country. Agroforestry is a
dynamic, ecologically based, natural resources management system
that, through integration of trees on farms and agricultural
landscapes, diversifies and sustains production for increased
social, economic, and environmental benefits for land users at
all levels (World Agroforestry Center, 2003). In this paper we
will present different agroforestry practices and their potential,
as well as research needs on the Ethiopian Highlands based on
a Diagnostic and Design survey conducted by ICRAF and the Technical
Committee for Agroforestry in Ethiopia in 1990. The second part
of the paper will present a case study on rural tree planting
on farm and community lands in the Alemaya Basin, Hararghe Highlands
Ethiopia. This study was conducted by the Alemaya University
of Agriculture in the 1980s and was funded by FAO. If properly
practiced and managed, these agroforestry and community forestry
programs can serve as a means to alleviate problems of soil erosion
and land degradation. They can also provide food, fuelwood, and
fodder for the farm family. Agroforestry can be viewed as a strategy
to overcome the lack of success in past tree planting by providing
opportunities for both food and tree production on the same unit
of land, thus reducing competition for this scarce resource.
Agroforestry can also serve as a model for sustainable agriculture
and forestry practices.
Key words: Agroforestry,
community forestry, land degradation, deforestation, highlands,
watersheds, and natural resource management.
in the horn of Africa with a population of 64 million and annual
rate of growth of 2.9% (WRI, 2001), is overwhelmingly an agricultural
country. Farm products account for over half the countrys
gross domestic product, and 90% of its exports. The majority
of the population is engaged in subsistence farming. While agriculture
is the basis of the economy, productivity is significantly limited
because of severe land degradation.
Reports on forest
resources of Ethiopia are dominated by the alarming deforestation
that goes on unabated and at an accelerating rate. Nationally,
the current deforestation rate of natural forests is estimated
at 160,000 - 200,000 ha per annum (EFAP, 1994). Deforestation
takes place in both forests and farm woodlands and it is recognized
as the most severe environmental problem in Ethiopia. The National
Conservation Strategy of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
(FDRE) identifies deforestation as a major problem not only in
the forest proper, but also as it affects other sectors such
as crops, animal husbandry, water resources, and wildlife habitat.
Ethiopia relies on its diverse biological resources for its socio-economic
development, and these resources are now under severe pressure.
of the Ethiopian population relies on wood-based and biomass
fuel for household energy. Scarcity of firewood has become acute
in many parts of the country causing a continuous rise in prices,
and thus increasing the economic burden on the household budget.
Animal dung and crop residues are increasingly being used for
household fuel rather than being added to the soil to improve
soil fertility, thus further exacerbating the problems of environmental
Poverty and natural
resources/environmental degradation are negatively reinforcing;
that is, as the land is degraded, agricultural productivity is
lowered, resulting in decreasing incomes and food security. This
in turn leads poor people from both rural and urban areas to
engage in activities that further degrade the natural resources
and environment in order to obtain supplementary incomes and
to sustain a living. As a result, the level of poverty in Ethiopia
also worsens and population increases exacerbate the problem.
should not be taken as panacea for all land use problems in Ethiopia,
it may be considered as a potential alternative to some of the
wasteful land-use practices that exist in the country. According
to Raintree (1987) agroforestry is usually viewed as an unconventional
way of raising trees by foresters and unconventional cropping
method by agronomists. Appreciation of the system comes, however,
when we begin to view trees as plants that promote productivity
and we recognize that when trees are grown together with agricultural
crops, forest products can be more accessible to rural people.
Rural Ethiopia cannot afford to put aside land for either agriculture
or forestry alone. Given the unprecedented population increase,
large estates and/or large blocks of plantations may be soon
be a thing of the past. The future holds that both agricultural
and forest products are needed by rural people simultaneously,
not alternatively. There is an urgent need for the increased
diversification of our farmlands. Against this background, we
discuss agroforestry and agroforestry practices within the context
of the circumstances in Ethiopia. The review in this section
focuses on two parts: the first part focuses on defining the
concept of agroforestry along with some of the most common practices
of agroforestry in Ethiopia. The second part briefly describes
a community forestry project conducted as a case study in the
Hararghe Highlands of Ethiopia.
Practices in the Ethiopian Highlands
and Definitions of Agroforestry
is a new name for old set of land-use practices. It is an integrated
approach to solving land-use problems by allowing farmers to
produce food, fiber, fodder, and fuel simultaneously from the
same unit of land. A common characteristic feature of all forms
of agroforestry is that a tree component is deliberately grown
or retained in an agricultural setting. Various definitions for
the term agroforestry have been given through the years since
its advent as a scientific approach to land-use problems in the
early 1980s. The best and probably official definition is the
one that is commonly used by the World Agroforestry Center: "Agroforestry
is a collective name for land use systems and technologies where
woody perennials (trees, shrubs, palms, bamboos etc.) are deliberately
used on the same land management units as agricultural crops
and/or animals, in some form of spatial arrangement or temporal
sequence. In agroforestry system there are both ecological and
economical interactions between the different components"
(Lundgren and Raintree, 1982).
The concept of
agroforestry is based on the development of the interface between
agriculture and forestry. It is a sustainable multiple-production
system whose outputs can be adjusted to local needs. The main
components of agroforestry systems are trees and shrubs, crops,
pasture, and livestock together with the environmental factors
of climate, soil, and landform. Other components (e.g. bees,
fish) occur in specialized systems (Young, 1989). Under this
definition, a variety of combinations of plants may be possible.
But there are two important features that identify agroforestry
from other land-use systems:
- There must be
a tree component deliberately grown or retained in the land use
- There must be
significant interaction, positive and/ or negative, between the
woody and non-woody components of the system.
therefore, involves two or more species of plants and /or animals
at least one of which is a woody perennial and with two or more
outputs. Owing to the variety of mixtures, therefore, even the
simplest agroforestry system is more complex both ecologically
and economically than a mono-cropping system. The aim and rationale
of agroforestry lies in optimizing production based on the interactions
between the components and their physical environment. This will
lead to higher sum total and a more diversified and /or sustainable
production than from a monoculture of agriculture or forestry
and concepts of agroforestry are available in the literature.
Although the many definitions vary in some ways, substantive
similarities are always there. For further reference, please
see the different agroforestry definitions compiled by Nair (1989;
1993) in Agroforestry Systems in the Tropics.
of Agroforestry Systems
The most common
set of criteria used to classify agroforestry systems and practices
are (Nair, 1989; 1993):
- Structural basis--
refers to the composition and arrangement of the components,
both spatial and temporal.
- Functional basis--
refers to the main function or role of the components especially
the woody components as for soil conservation and soil fertility
basis-- refers to the intensity or scale of management and goals
of the system.
- Ecological basis-
refers to the environmental and ecological suitability of systems.
There can be separate sets of agroforestry systems for arid and
semi-arid lands or humid and sub-humid tropics.
systems are characterized by three basic components namely, the
woody perennials (trees/shrubs), the herbaceous plants (crops,
pasture species), and the animals. Based on these three basic
components, agroforestry systems can also be classified for all
practical purposes according to their component composition (Nair,
agroforestry systems can also be defined (for example, apiculture
with trees, aquaculture involving trees and shrubs, and multipurpose-tree
This is an agroforestry
system where agronomic crops are combined with shrubs/trees on
the same unit of land for higher or better-sustained production
of annual crops, fodder, and wood. In any one agroforestry system,
there can be more than one agroforestry practice. An agroforestry
system is identified by certain types of practices that, taken
as a whole, form a dominant land-use system in a particular locality,
characterized by environment, plant species and arrangement,
management, and social and economic functions. Although an agroforestry
practice is a distinctive arrangement of components in space
and time, when the combinations are arranged in time sequence,
such practice is called taungya practice. The combinations can
also be arranged in space, such as the hedgerow/mixed intercropping
This is an agroforestry
system where range crops and/or animals and trees are combined
for better production of grasses and fodder. This combination
can be arranged as a pure stand with fodder trees/shrubs planted
as a protein bank (with cut-and-carry fodder production) and/or
mixed in different configurations such as living fences of fodder
trees and hedges. The trees and shrubs and grass components are
arranged in such a way that their healthy coexistence is not
disrupted. The acacia-dominant system in the arid parts of Ethiopia,
Kenya, and Somalia are good examples of this system.
This system can
be practiced on both range and forest lands for the production
of both feed and woody materials. This system could also be practiced
on sloping ground by growing grasses and trees/shrubs together
for soil conservation purposes. The main objective of this practice
is to supply feed for livestock during the dry season with high
quality tree leaves and pods. This will substantially increase
the productive capacity of poor and scarce pasture lands common
in the Ethiopian Highlands. Fuelwood and construction poles can
also be produced with this system.
This is an agroforestry
practice by which food, pasture, and tree/shrub crops are combined
on the same unit of land for the production of grass and browse
feed, biomass for fuelwood and green manure, and food for human
This system is
practiced when the farmer needs all the benefits that would be
obtained from silvipasture and agrisilviculture systems from
a unit of land. Usually, such a system is practiced on cultivated
land. Alternative rows of hedges, grass strips and/or crops would
form such a system, a form of alley cropping.
is also practiced when the cropland is constrained by slope and
threatened by erosion. These are very common problems of land
use in most of the Ethiopian Highlands; therefore this system
has potential for use in various regions of the country.
The above definition
and discussions of agroforestry systems and practices encompasses
many well-known land-use systems long practiced in the Ethiopian
highlands. Thus, it is apparent that agroforestry is only a new
word for an old practice: it is based on forestry, agriculture,
animal husbandry, land resource management, and other disciplines
that all form the systematic background of land use. Furthermore,
it encompasses an awareness of interactions between humans and
the environment and between demand and available resources in
a given area. Although science can improve agroforestry practices,
an important aspect of the problem of Ethiopia is to mobilize
and implement what is already known.
Common Agroforestry Practices in Ethiopia
included here are just a few among the countless and diverse
agroforestry practices that exist in Ethiopia; by no means do
they represent an exhaustive list of systems and practices. For
in-depth reading of the most common agroforestry systems in the
Ethiopian highlands we refer readers to Hoekstra et al. (1990).
This section will give brief description of the practices we
think are most common in the Ethiopian agricultural landscape.
A short description of each practice is followed by potential
use and possible research needs in Ethiopia.
trees in croplands
involves the growing of individual trees and shrubs in wide spaces
in croplands. Dispersed trees grown in farmlands characterize
a large part of the Ethiopian agricultural landscape. Trees would
be grown in a scattered form over a crop field, usually between
1 - 20 trees per hectare to minimize impact on the companion
crop. In such mixed intercropping, lopping and pollarding of
trees would be practiced. Some good examples of this practice
include Cordia Africana intercropping with maize in Bako and
western Ethiopia; Acacia albida-based agroforestry in the Hararghe
Highlands and Debrezeit area (Hoekstra et. al. 1990).
The system has
much potential for supplying fodder, poles, farm equipment, fuelwood,
and agricultural improvements (Poschen, 1986; Abebe, 2000). Some
possible research needs include soil-plant interactions; soil
fertility and N-fixation studies on wide range of species; crop-tree
yield studies and optimum tree density; socioeconomic studies;
and species selection and screening including seed tests, establishment,
Gardens of the SNNP Region
can be found in many parts of southern and southwestern regions
of Ethiopia. Crops such as coffee, enset, pepper, and numerous
kinds of vegetables are dominant components of the Ethiopian
home gardens (Getahun, 1988). Trees like Cordia Africana, Milletia
fruginea, Albezzia gummifera, Ficus species, and Acacia species
are among the species that form the upper storey of home gardens.
The structural complexity in the Ethiopian home gardens is varied
and ranges from complex and diverse forms containing numerous
species and strata, as in Sidama of the SNNPR, to the less complex
forms, with one or two crop/tree mixtures, as in the Gurage Enset
supply much of the basic needs of the local population and help
reduce the environmental deterioration. The beauty and quality
of the landscapes of Sidama, for example, stand in stark contrast
to the treeless farmlands of much of Ethiopian agricultural lands.
Research on Ethiopian home gardens is at its infancy, with the
exception of a few quantitative and descriptive studies (Getahun,
1988; Abebe, 2000; Negash et. al., 2002). Multi-disciplinary
biophysical studies including soil-plant interactions and socioeconomic
studies on home gardens is needed for better understanding and
use of these ecologically sound agroforestry systems.
This form of
agroforestry is practiced in many parts of Ethiopia. The sorghum/maize
and chat (Catha edulis) hedgerow intercropping in the Hararghe
Highlands of eastern Ethiopia is one such example. The shrub
chat is a stimulant cash crop that generates cash for the farmer.
Although the soil regenerative properties of the system are not
obvious, it has undoubtedly helped in the soil conservation of
the hilly landscapes of Hararghe (Bishaw and Abdelkadir, 1989).
of hedgerow intercropping that has recently been introduced and
has been widely tested in the scientific community is alley cropping.
Experiments with alley cropping have been done at the International
Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Ethiopian Forest Research
Center, and Alemaya University of Agriculture, among others (Hoekstra
et. al., 1990). Alley cropping is an agroforestry technology
suited to humid and sub-humid tropics and entails the growing
of food crops between hedgerows of planted shrubs and trees,
preferably leguminous species. The hedges are pruned periodically
during the crops growth to provide biomass and enhance
soil nutrient status (Nair, 1989; 1993). There is great potential
for use of the system in Ethiopia, particularly to improve soil
and water conservation in the hilly and mountain ranges for which
Ethiopia is known (Hoekstra et. al., 1990)
Research on interaction
at the tree-crop interface, species screening, and socioeconomic
studies are some of the research areas that are needed to verify
and underline the adoptability of the system to the humid and
sub-humid areas of Ethiopia that can support the system (Bishaw
and Abdelkadir, 1989).
There are numerous
perennial and intermittent rivers in Ethiopia. Some of these
rivers and streams do support large numbers of species in relatively
dense vegetation, which to the onlooker gives the appearance
of a seemingly unbroken canopy cover. A case in point is the
vegetation along the Awash and Eliwoha waterways, which contains
diverse and multi-layered species. The most common riparian species
along these rivers are Acacia tortilis, A. nilotica, Balanites
aegyptica, Tamarindus indica, Tamarix spp, and Ziziphus spp.
The riparian vegetation is an important source of fodder for
livestock during the dry season, and is a source of food for
humans, medicinal plants, fuelwood, and wood for utensils. It
is also home to many bird species and other wild animals. Pastoral
people along the Awash River, for example, often rely heavily
on gathered foods from these forests along waterways. The riparian
woodlands also contain numerous browsable fodder and shrub species
that produce dry-season fodder. The Afar nomads protect and highly
revere these wooded lands. Research needs include techniques
for the establishment of special food and fodder reserves in
riparian areas, selection and screening of riparian species,
management and use of riparian areas, water-harvesting techniques,
and socioeconomic studies.
and natural regeneration of species in woodlands and pasture
of enclosures will be a realistic and cheap approach to the improvement
of pastoral and degraded woodlands in Ethiopia. The single most
important approach to improve the woodlands and pastures is to
establish enclosures and provide protection against grazing and
tree felling. Once this is done, trees and grasses will often
regenerate quickly and grow without intervention. Examples of
successful enclosures in Ethiopia include those undertaken by
the Tigray Regional Government on a large part of the inhospitable
Tigray Terrains, and enclosures established by Self Help International
(SHI), Ireland, in the dry lands of the Rift Valley of southern
Showa. Wherever enclosures were established, the impact on regeneration
has been substantial. The enclosures were established with the
consent and involvement of the local community. Research needs
include testing the effectiveness of enclosures under various
plant communities, adoption and scaling up, socioeconomic studies,
species selection, natural regeneration and enrichment planting
studies, and water harvesting.
Forestry Practices in the Ethiopian Highlands
and Definitions of Community Forestry
The term community
forestry was defined in 1978 as "any situation, which immediately
involves local people in forestry activities. It embraces a spectrum
of situations ranging from woodlots in areas which are short
of wood and other forest products for local needs through the
growing of trees at farm and community level to provide cash
crops and the processing of forest products at the household,
artisan or small industry level to generate income, to the activities
of forest dwelling communities. The activities so encompassed
are potentially compatible with all types of land ownership.
While it thus provides a partial view of the impact of forestry
on rural development, it does embrace most of the ways in which
forestry and the goods and services of forestry directly affect
the lives of the rural people (FAO, 1978).
Based on the
definition above, community forestry is perceived as encompassing
all activities that are carried out by individual households,
farmers as well as activities involving the community as a whole.
These activities are not only limited to tree planting on farms
and households, but also include activities such as the use and
the management of natural resources and the supply or provision
of tree products from the surrounding vegetation. Community forestry
also refers to the promotion of self-help management and use
of trees to sustainably improve the livelihoods of the local
sector of Ethiopias forestry has been assigned to strive
for meeting the basic needs of the rural as well as partly the
urban population in both fuelwood and construction poles, including
other small-scale timber. Soil and water conservation through
afforestation and land rehabilitation also were outstanding efforts
of the sector. Despite major problems of deforestation and land
degradation, massive soil conservation and afforestation programs
were undertaken in Ethiopia since the early 1970s (Hurni 1990;
Gamachu 1990). These programs were undertaken by various agencies
of the government through the assistance of international and
bilateral organizations such as FAO. The Community Forestry Department
of the Ministry of Agriculture was the main government agency
involved in the planning and execution of soil conservation measures
and afforestation programs.
The College of
Agriculture (now Alemaya University) was involved in the Afforestation
and Soil Conservation program in the early 1980s. This project
was funded by FAO/UNDP, (TCP/ETH/8904). The main objectives of
the community forestry project were (1) to establish community
woodlots to meet the demands of fuelwood, construction materials,
and fodder from trees planted outside forests; (2) to promote
soil conservation measures to reduce degradation of soil resources
and improve productivity of agricultural lands; (3) to establish
roadside and farm border plantings to serve as wind breaks and
shelter belts, and (4) to reduce the pressure from the remaining
natural forests and to conserve biodiversity (Bishaw 1988; Bishaw
and Uibrig, 1989).
of the study area
the afforestation and soil conservation program, a representative
site in the Haraghe Highlands, Alemaya Basin, was selected. The
Alemaya Basin lies between altitudes of 1,850 and 2,200 m and
has a mean annual rainfall of 850 mm (500-1,260 mm). It has a
mean annual temperature of 7.8°C (with an extreme minimum
of 4°C) and a mean maximum of 22.9°C (with an extreme
maximum of 29°C). The annual mean is about 15.8°C (Hawando,
Farmers Producer Cooperative, one of the project sites,
is about 7 km from the town of Alemaya and is accessible by car.
This cooperative has a total land area of 631.5 ha and had a
population of 1, 557 in 1979/1980 (Bishaw, 1988).
At the time,
the College of Agriculture, with funding from FAO/UNDP tried
to introduce and implement modern technologies and methods into
the rural areas, with special emphasis on afforestation, soil
conservation, and alternative energy sources. For this project
a total of U.S. $35,000, which is 50 percent of the budget, was
offered by FAO/UNDP, the college in the form of technical assistance
and material aid covered the rest.
the different governmental organizations from the Hararghe Administrative
Region and Alemaya Sub-district gave full support in organizing
the project work. Members of the Legeambo Cooperatives were actively
involved in implementing the project.
and Implementing the Afforestation Program
The staff members
of the Forestry Section, in consultation with an FAO silviculturist,
conducted the afforestation program. Dr. Bishaw, who is the senior
author of this paper, was the team leader for the afforestation
program. In addition, 20 students from the Department of Plant
Sciences participated in surveying and mapping the afforestation
site and vegetation cover of the area. Five permanent employees
from the Forestry Section were also involved in seed collection,
nursery preparation, raising seedlings, and in clearing and preparation
of the tree planting site.
of Tree Species
To fulfill the
objectives of the afforestation program, the expert group surveyed
the project area and recommended the most adaptable species to
provide for immediate needs of the farmers. Furthermore, the
group also tried to identify species having more than one of
the required characteristics for fulfilling the afforestation
objectives. Based on the above criteria, the following tree species
were selected: Acacia cyanophylla Lindl.; Casuraina equistifolia
L.; Cupressus arizonica Greene; Eucayptus Camaldulensis Dehn;
Eucalyptus globulus Labill; Eucalyptus saligna SM; and Grevillia
robusta A. Cunn.
Raising and Care of Seedlings
Seed for afforestation
program were collected from the Alemaya College campus and additional
seeds were brought from the Forestry Research Center in Addis
Ababa. Some of the seed were given pre-sowing treatment such
as soaking in hot and cold water to break dormancy.
The college forest
nursery was used to raise the needed seedlings for the afforestation
program. A plastic tube filled with soil was used so that seedlings
would have a ball of earth around the root system and be supplied
with enough soil nutrients and moisture when transplanted into
the field. This is intended to ensure high survival rate of seedlings
when planted out in the field. The seeds were sown directly into
the plastic tubes to reduce transplanting cost. Two to three
seeds were sown per plot and if more than one germinated the
others were removed.
such as watering, mulching, shading, and weeding, was provided
at the nursery to produce healthy and vigorous seedlings for
field planting. Furthermore, hardening and grading of seedlings
was done before field planting. It took 7-12 months, depending
on the species, for the seedlings to reach the required size
(25-30 cm) for field planting. Table 1 shows the species of seedlings
raised during the 1979/1980 afforestation program in the Alemaya
Table 1: Seedlings
raised during the 1979/1980 planting season
Species Number Condition
Acacia cyanophylla 10,000 Potted
Casurainae euistifolia 10,000 Potted
Cupressus arizonica 5,000 Potted
Eucayptuscamaldulensis 25,000 Potted
Eucalyptus globulus 25,000 Potted
Eucalyptus saligna 10,000 Potted
Grevillia robusta 5,000 Potted
and Preparation of planting site
The site selection
for the afforestation program was based on land capability classification
of the project area. Land that is above Class 5 and up to Class
7 was designated for tree planting. In general, sites that were
not used for crop production and grazing were assigned for tree
planting. Farmers did site preparation, such as clearing and
digging holes, with technical advice from the Forestry Section
workers. Different spacing was used for field planting: 2.5 m
x 2.5 m and 1.5 m x 1.5 m.
planting, sites were prepared with different plot sizes from
0.5 to 2 ha. Trees were planted on top of the hills and inside
gullies to control erosion, and on roadsides and farm borders
as windbreaks and shelterbelts. Thus, during the 1979/1980 planting
season about 33,000 tree seedlings of different species were
planted on about 20 ha of land.
Even though trees
were planted by the million in different parts of the country,
there was no follow-up to determine whether the seedlings survived
or not. But the Forestry team in the Legeambo afforestation program
carried out a study on survival of seedlings. It is hoped that
this information will give some idea of the adaptability of some
of the species to the soil and climatic conditions of the area.
The results of the study are shown in Table 2. Seven months after
the initial planting, a survival study showed a relatively good
rate of survival, 58 percent, as compared to the national average,
which is less than 20 percent (Uibrig 1989; Gamachu 1990).
plan for the woodlots was prepared by Bishaw 1985 however there
was no opportunity to initiate trials for its immediate implementation.
The main objective of the management plan was to expand the afforested
area to an extent of self-sufficiency in fuel wood and pole production.
In general, management of the woodlots was based on sustained
yield principles, thus, recommendations were given on necessary
silvicultural treatments, such as on new afforestation and replacement
planting, cultivation and weeding and intermediate cuttings or
thinning. Moreover, planning for final felling was based on principles
of area regulation (Bishaw, 1985).
Table 2: Survival
of six tree species seven months after planting in Legeambo Farmers
Producer Cooperative, Alemaya Basin.
Tree Species Number of Seedlings planted
Dead Seedlings % Surviving Seedling %
Cupressus arizonica 3,985 33 67
Casurainae euistifolia 3,225 46 54
Acacia cynophylla 1,683 48 52
Eucayptus camaldulensis 7,731 48 52
ucalyptus globulus 735 49 51
E Grevillia robusta 206 29 71
Total Mean 16,565
The active participation
of the farmers in the planning, design and implementation of
the afforestation work and their training in forestry techniques,
i.e., on the establishment and management of woodlots helped
guarantee success in the community forestry projects. The first
afforestation, conducted on a relatively good quality site, enabled
the production of harvestable crops within a short period of
time. This was helpful toward convincing farmers of the benefit
of growing trees at the initial stages of a community forestry
weeding is needed at least once before the onset of the small
rains for the newly afforested areas. This reduced the competition
for soil nutrients and moisture and thereby helped improve growth
and survival of seedlings.
One of the many
management factors in community woodlots is that of the intermediate
cutting or thinning. Since the farmers themselves operated most
of the community woodlots, their knowledge of the thinning operation
was of primary importance for the proper utilization of community
forests. Selective thinning is recommended between ages 4 and
6 years to provide a ready supply of wood to the farmers, to
improve the stand quality by removing damaged and cracked trees,
and to regulate intake of light and demands on soil moisture
Once they reach
maturity, trees can be harvested for fuelwood and construction
poles by farmers for household consumption or sale of products.
The monetary value of forest products and the inputs will help
increase understanding of community forestry as an important
sector of the economy.
of cooperatives provided a good opportunity for community forestry
development at that time. However, there was a change of government
in Ethiopia in 1990/1991, which led the country from a socialist-oriented
to market-oriented system. During this time of uncertainty, farmers
were reluctant to wait and see what the results of changes in
ownership, land use rights, and tree tenure might be. Instead,
they cut all of the trees in the Alemaya Basin. For future projects,
therefore, the land and tree tenure policy of the country should
encourage farmers and should provide guarantees concerning planting
and growing trees on their land.
methodology applied and the experience gained from community
forestry development and soil conservation work in the Alemaya
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