Title: Community Forest and Wildlife Conservation project

Project number: B7-5041/93/23/VIII/FOR

Amount: 560.106 ECU

Contractor: FARM Africa (London-UK)

Field: Conservation/social

Country: Ethiopia

Date of signature: ? Contract without date of signature (date of signature EC 01/94)

Duration: 17 months (till April 1995)

Objectives:

The project have five main objectives:

1. To collect and analyse detailed socio-economics, environment and physical data of the project sites;
2. To establish Agreement between local institutions at the respective sites, Ministry of Agriculture/ Ministry of Natural resources Development and Environmental Protection (MoA/MNRDEP), and Farm Africa to protect land rationally utilise the natural forests existing at each site.
3. To provide alternative sources of income to community members of the project sites through an employment programme.
4. To improve the environmental awareness and skills of farmers, women, MoA/MNRDEP through conducting a series of training in management, environmental awareness and related issues.
5. To introduce credit system through a revolving found scheme address the pressing needs of the communities.

Activities:

1. Inventory of species diversity and size; study on species composition and size of the population of the different wild animals of the four project sites; study on potential tourists attraction of the project sites; detailed institutional and socio-economics studies including the land tenure system of the four project sites; study of the present land use and land cover using recent arial photographs at a scale of 1:15.000 accompanied by ground surveys; study the farming systems of the four project sites.
2. Training session for local representatives in public administration and financial management in order to strengthen viable local level institutions.
3. Seedling production and tree planting; construction of access roads; laying soil conservation structures and spring development work.
4. Pilot activities aimed at evaluating, inter alia, use of appropriate technology in awareness raising, management of skills training and the potentials of some off-farm employment options.
5. Loan funds to grain mills and loan funds for pesticides supply.

Results expected:

The project should carry out the above mentioned activities and establish links with the relevant rural institutions, local level administrative bodies and branches of development ministries at regional level.

Beneficiaries:

Government officials at both local, regional and national level, Community based rural institutions, farmers.

Implementation Strategy:

1. Project staff (Community development officer, Forester, Land use planner, Employment officer, family planning/Extension officer);
2. Development Agents
3. Food commodities.

The project staff will be working in close collaboration with the four pilot communities and will keep in close contact with the Ethiopian EC delegation during the implementation of the project.

Final report phase 1 (January 1995). Conclusions:

• Lack of potable water;
• Loss of soil fertility and the exorbitant cost of fertilisers;
• Small size of plots;
• The storage of oxen and seed;
• the high price of herbicides;
• livestock disease;
• shortage of tree seedlings.

Women mentioned as well the lack of health services.

The collapse of private property regimes with the 1975 land proclamation spelt the end of a more or less orderly exploitation of the forests. In practice, government ownership of the forest spelt the end of the forests as a major local resources. The overall result was a rapid destruction of the forest cover. There are 3 strategy options for an organisation like FARM-AFRICA to pursue in this setting:

1. To try to build up the capacity of the local Peasant Associations (Pas) or any other effective community wide organisation, such as the edir, to more effectively control the utilisation of communnally owned natural resources through the institution of agreed community control;
2. To shift the emphasis away from "community" control of these resources towards privatisation of these same resources. In other words to change the basis of local property regimes. The major obstacle in this respect is present government policy, which has enshrined state/community ownership of the land;
3. To concentrate resources where the payback is likely to be greatest, namely to encourage "farm forestry" and the establishment of private woodlots as opposed to "community forestry".