Forest landscape restoration in Northern Ethiopia

Recently, several members of WeForest’s HQ were able to visit our projects in Ethiopia for the first time since the conflict began in 2020. They were overwhelmed by the welcome given to them by the communities, who expressed their gratitude not only for WeForest’s efforts to provide seeds and other essentials to ensure the harvest, but also because the organization was one of the only NGOs that stayed in the region during the war. 

In Desa’a, planting season has already begun, thanks to the unusually early rains this year. Check out these inspiring videos of the communities preparing the landscape for planting here. 1 322 526 seedlings have been raised in the nurseries and so far 4463 ha of land has been brought under restoration management – about 50% of the target for this year.

In Gewocha, we finished an important milestone: the forest vegetation inventory. This essential step in any Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) project defines the characteristics of the forest to be restored, its composition, species diversity and regeneration status. As well as providing crucial input to inform decision-making and management of the subsequent restoration, it also provides a starting baseline by which the project’s success can be measured. 

To date, the Gewocha Forest project is supporting 1682 families to adopt agroforestry practices, growing cash crops like Rhamnus prinoides, Coffee arabica and fruit seedlings to boost their household incomes and food security. Habtamu A., a 35 year-old father of two, came back to his hometown of Finoteselam after working in Sudan and struggled to make a living as a masonry worker. With high-value fruit tree and vegetable seedlings and training from the Gewocha Forest project, he instead established this well-planned 0.25 ha agroforestry plot, which is already boosting his income with the equivalent of US $100 every week. He’s planted vegetables and fruit trees like banana, avocado and mango every five metres with coffee at two metre intervals between them, so the trees provide essential shade to the coffee plants. 

Thank you for helping to make all this possible!