Forest landscape restoration in Northern Ethiopia

At the end of 2022 we were delighted to see a peace deal agreed in Tigray, and our team and the communities are cautiously optimistic for the rest of 2023 and the hope of stability and peace in the wider region after three years of war.

We are now over one-third of the way to restoring the 38 000 ha landscape in Desa’a. The eleven nurseries supported by WeForest are actively engaged in preparing seedbeds, seedling pots and sowing seeds for the next planting season (June to August 2023). They'll raise more than a million seedlings of eleven different species, of which at least 90% will end up being planted. This margin of error of 10% is absolutely normal, because a 100% survival rate against pests, disease, weather or other hazards is impossible even in the safety of a tree nursery.

Over in Amhara, 669.97 hectares were brought under restoration in our Gewocha Forest project in the 2022 planting season, higher than the original target of 652.9 hectares.  

The communities here are dependent on Gewocha Forest for their livelihoods, and poverty and food insecurity are prevalent in the area. The project promotes several forest-friendly livelihood activities to improve incomes and reduce pressure on the forest, the most important being agroforestry. 

In 2022, 100.02 hectares of agroforestry was established on 1682 homesteads, growing a total of 14 different species. This was well above the target of 1127 homesteads, due to a high interest within the community in agroforestry. These families were also provided with practical training. Other livelihoods here include beekeeping, livestock and dairy and horticulture.

Thank you for helping to make all this possible!