Tree Planting in Ethiopia

Generations of unsustainable land-use practices coupled with pressure from increasing population have led to severe land degradation in Ethiopia. This land degradation reduces agricultural productivity and fodder production for livestock, forcing people to farm and graze the land even more intensively to sustain themselves, thereby contributing to a cycle of poverty.

This cycle of poverty in Ethiopia is caused by multiple interrelated factors, and is difficult to escape. The main underlying causes of land degradation consist of socio-economic (e.g. population growth and associated activities including deforestation, overgrazing, agricultural expansion, fuel wood scavenging, etc.), natural (e.g. topography, soil type, drought/rainfall intensity, etc), institutional (e.g. poor coordination and lack of capacity) and political factors.

These situations have a synergistic effect which leads to increased soil degradation, in turn greatly reducing agricultural and other forms of biological production, exacerbating poverty, and leading to the consumption of natural resources to a degree that is beyond their natural and sustainable replacement capacity. This accelerates the rate of land degradation further, thus creating a vicious circle linking human and environmental degradation.

Since 2011 our tree planting partner has worked with 4 community nurseries in Konso and 20 community nurseries in Dimtu.  They have distributed more than 1.5 million trees, to help create sustainable livelihoods.