Climate-sensitive Innovations for Land Management (CLM)

Agriculture is the main economic sector for more than three quarters of the population in Ethiopia. Soil erosion, frequent drought and heavy flooding coupled with rapid population pressure and a shortage of employment opportunities jeopardize the livelihoods of many people living in the country’s highlands. Almost 50% of the agricultural land is affected by soil erosion and at least 30,000 ha of land – representing the livelihoods of 150,000 people – are lost annually. Water bodies including the rift valley lakes and hydro-dams are at an increasingly high risk of siltation. Fertile crop and pasture lands are shrinking due to the formation of gullies which ultimately channel the sediments into water bodies.

As a result, many ecosystems including hydropower dam catchments and rift valley lakes such as Lake Chamo and Lake Abaya are deteriorating at an alarming rate. In combination with ethnical conflicts and the continuous risk of political unrest, these conditions represent considerable challenges to the country’s rural development efforts. Especially women and young people have limited access to education, markets and financing options and therefore suffer more from poverty than other groups in society. Overall, highland livelihoods are entrapped in a cycle of natural resource degradation and food insecurity.

The Ethiopian Strategic Investment Framework (ESIF) defined the economic, social and environmental priorities for sustainable land management (SLM). It aims at improving the livelihoods of farmers, pastoralists and forest users by combining large-scale land use with measures for remediating degraded land and increasing productivity through enhanced land management and marketing opportunities. Since ESIF was revised in 2019, the updated version focuses on the introduction of innovations and on scaling up SLM as a central task.

The Ethiopian government initially established the Sustainable Land Management Programme (SLMP) for the implementation of SLM measures in the six highland regions of the country. Over time, the latter has developed into a national flagship program, benefitting from broad political support. SLMP is also supported by several high-level donors, including the World Bank and German development cooperation through GIZ and KfW.

As an overall objective, the land management initiative of the Ethiopian government aimed at reaching two million highland households in more than 7,000 micro watersheds. The new project Climate-Sensitive Innovations for Land Management (CLM) is a technical cooperation module of the program Sustainable Land Management and Food Security in Ethiopia within the sectoral focus of Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, Agriculture and Food Security as part of German-Ethiopian development cooperation.

The expected CLM outcome has been defined as "The efficiency of agricultural advisory services delivered by federal, regional and local institutions for planning and implementing sustainable land management measures are enhanced" by 2024. To this end, GFA has been using integrated landscape management and agroecological principles in a holistic and innovative approach that balances the conservation of natural resources with the socio-economic needs of the communities living in or depending on that landscape. For example, soil is stabilized by ecologically and economically useful grasses, shrubs or trees. Measures such as bench terracing, permaculture, water retention or community forest management are based on traditional practices and indigenous knowledge. Hence, respective techniques have been swiftly accepted and replicated by local communities. The GFA team has also promoted additional income generation options such as the production and use or marketing of fodder grasses, fruit or fibers. Steep hills and river slopes have been stabilized with bamboo plantations, parts of which can be harvested and sold or can be used to produce matting for erosion protection.

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