Ethiopia has an ongoing very successful and ambitious sustainable land management program, World Bank (WB) Senior Natural Resources Management Specialist Ross Hughes told ENA.
According to the Senior Natural Resources Management Specialist, the program is one of the largest World Bank programs on the environment and natural resources side.
“Ethiopia has an enormous and very successful and very ambitious sustainable land management program ongoing, particularly in the highlands, tackling land degradation, re-greening hillsides, re-greening watersheds, and working with people,” he said.
Hughes explained that this aligns well with what the World Bank is really keen to finance to help people to manage their resources better, and in so doing help build resilience to climate change, reduce emissions, build soil fertility, and improve production.
“We have a very large program. Currently, something like 850 to 900 million US dollars worth of ongoing investments is underway in the region and we work with the government here.”
The specialist appreciated the commitment of the Ethiopian government in putting a very high priority on re-greening.
“As everybody knows, the government here has the very well-known Green Legacy Initiative, which I understand is also going kind of regional now to other countries in the region. Through sustainable land management we support this initiative,” Hughes stated.
Basically, the government has taken a holistic integrated approach working at the watershed level. But that includes, establishing nurseries with very large amounts of reduction of tree seedlings, and supporting the plantation of those seedlings into the watersheds that they support, he elaborated.
“It’s a very large program. All of this is underpinned by support to help improve land tenure security.”
If we can put the investments to get things moving, get the re-greening working and then people take care of the watersheds directly through their own investments, it is a good ingredient and a good approach for sustainability, he stated.
This “is very important. Trees are obviously a very important ingredient for the landscapes; they help to create the conditions for rainfall, protect soils, and bring soil fertility.”
More trees and vegetation are important, Hughes noted, adding that putting trees in the ground is not however enough.
“What is needed is longer term strategies for ensuring that those trees are owned by people,” he stressed.
For him, the investments that the Ministry of Agriculture is doing with support from the World Bank and other development partners are very supportive of those Green Legacy Initiative.
Source: Ethiopian News Agency