FARM Africa/SOS Sahel Ethiopia

Strengthening Sustainable livelihoods and Forest Management

Over view of the program

April 6, 2013 Bahir dar

Background Information of the project Coordinating 4 Regions: Oromia, SNNPR, Amhara and BSG Forest area: 270,000 ha / 84 PFM groups /Beneficiary: 200,000Duration: Jan 2010 – Dec. 2014

•Funding Agency

–European Union (EU)

Overall objective: To secure the sustainable management of Ethiopia’s forests and reduce environmental degradation.

Purpose/Specific objective: 1-To further contribute to the long term conservation and improvement of forest condition in Ethiopia through adoption, expansion and implementation of PFM in four Regions

2-To increase the contribution to poverty reduction and improvement of livelihoods in forest dependent communities through identification and development of viable non-timber forest product (NTFP) enterprises

3-To ensure the adoption of PFM by federal and regional forest policy, regulations and practice so sustainably managing forest resources and protecting the user rights of local communities including indigenous populations

OUTPUTS AND EXPECTED RESULTS

1- By the end of the programme period at least 270,000 ha. of natural forest in four Regions of Ethiopia are under sustainable PFM, safeguarding forest resources and user rights for more than 200,000 people

2- By the end of the programme period, viable non-timber forest product enterprises have been established across 270,000 ha of sustainably managed forest, so improving the livelihoods of more than 200,000 people in four regions of Ethiopia. At least 50% of the beneficiaries will be women.

3- By the end of the programme period, federal and regional forest regulations and practice incorporate PFM approaches to sustainably manage forest resources and protect user rights of local communities including indigenous populations

Forest based livelihood Improvement

By increasing the share of viable non timber -forest products in household income, the programme aims to create incentives for local communities to protect forest resources as a valuable source of income

Purpose/Specific objective: To increase the contribution to poverty reduction and improvement of livelihoods in forest dependent communities through identification and development of viable non-timber forest product (NTFP) enterprises

Output - By the end of the programme period, viable non-timber forest product enterprises have been established across 270,000 ha of sustainably managed forest, so improving the livelihoods of more than 200,000 people in four regions of Ethiopia. At least 50% of the beneficiaries will be women.

Five key interventions to

maximise livelihood income from

non-timber forest products

through small and medium scale

forest enterprise development and

strengthening.

1. Develop field investigation methods and undertake forest-based livelihood assessments and participatory value chain analyses

The program will Adopt FAO’s MA&D Methodology and support communities

Identification of potential & Viable forest products for commercial use to

generate a sustainable income from local and international markets

Conducting market chain Analysis to identity constraints and opportunities in

the market \ value chain system. This will allow community business groups to

set their own business strategies, to tackle obstacles, and take advantage of the

business opportunities.

Developing Business plans

2. Support the establishment of community based NTFP enterprises , provision of business skills and NTFP production & processing trainings

The programme facilitate

The set up of small and medium enterprises

Business skills training for the enterprises to improve production

and value addition processing- such as beekeeping, bamboo

furniture making, seed storage

The programme will support communities through product

development demonstrations, value chain strengthening (such as

product improvement, processing, labelling and packaging) and

linking them to market information.

3 Facilitate the establishment of business start up funding mechanisms for Small and Medium Scale Forest Enterprises This activity is designed to address the main challenges affecting small-scale forest based enterprises -in terms of accessing finance to develop and upgrade their products and businesses,

providing a sustainable mechanism through which forest enterprise members can access financial resources.

1.small-scale forest enterprises will be encouraged to create community level internal financing mechanisms Village Savings and Loans (VSL) sub-groups in order to grow their businesses.

2.Secondly, the programme will work to link the forest enterprises/VSL groups with existing government / private micro finance institutions as well as private sector investors to provide the financial services and investments needed to support enterprise development.

4. Facilitate the participation of forest enterprises from the two programme sites in at least six trade fairs, and product exhibitions

In order to link beneficiaries with market information and local and

international marketing opportunities, the programme will facilitate the

exposure of enterprise members to trade fairs.

The programme will therefore support the participation of forest enterprises

in local, regional and national trade fairs and exhibitions.

Such links to market opportunities will allow communities to exploit the

niche markets available for natural and organic products.

5. Identify business mentors to help improve business growth and innovation for forest enterprises through developing partnerships, market linkages, product improvement, new product development etc

Another main challenge facing small and medium forest livelihoods enterprises is the lack of business management knowledge.

The programme will therefore support business development through setting up a business mentoring scheme.

The scheme will seek to involve natural product sector specialists and businesspeople to provide support to the targeted enterprises.

The mentors will work with programme staff and local partners to identify the gaps that hamper the promotion of natural products and provide technical business advice, coaching and mentoring on a regular basis.

Thank You for Your Attention!!