Analysis of Policy and Legal Framework Affecting Sustainable Forest Management in Ethiopia

Forest resources in Ethiopia provide multiple goods and services including food, medicine, energy, shelter, clean water, land stabilization, erosion control, maintaining biodiversity, and regulation of climate change. However, these resources have been facing numerous challenges and are increasingly under threat for quite a long time. This study adopted the Governance of Forests Initiative (GFI) framework to assess the impacts of policies and legal framework on sustainable forest governance in Ethiopia. The GFI framework is a comprehensive tool used to diagnose and assess strengths and weaknesses of legal and policy arrangement governing forestry sector. Ethiopia has formulated and implemented various forest policies and legal instruments to address the persistent challenges of sustainable forest management and to fulfill the economic and societal benefits expected from the sector. However, our analysis shows a huge gap between legal and policy design and implementation. The existing efforts have focused on developing policy and legal instruments, while little has been done to implement them at the local level. Implementation instruments such as regulations, directives and guidelines have not sufficiently developed to translate the broader policy intents into practice. Lack of proper implementation instruments not only undermine forest management but also hinder national efforts to halt deforestation and achieve the country's ambitious plan for fast and sustainable development. Therefore, it is crucial to translate policy and legal provisions regarding forest governance into implementation instruments such as regulations, directives, and guidelines. Accurate and up-to-date information and records that contain comprehensive legal and spatial information about forest conservation areas should be maintained centrally both at regional state and federal level and freely accessible by the public. Keywords: policy impact; legal framework; Governance of Forests Initiative; implementation, forest management; Ethiopia DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/10-4-02 Publication date: April 30th 2020

Impacts of Policy and Legal Framework on Sustainable Forest Governance in Ethiopia

Forest resources in Ethiopia provide multiple goods and services including food, medicine, energy, shelter, clean water, land stabilization, erosion control, maintaining biodiversity, and regulation of climate change. However, these resources have been facing numerous challenges and are increasingly under threat for quite a long time. This study adopted the Governance of Forests Initiative (GFI) framework to assess the impacts of policies and legal framework on sustainable forest governance in Ethiopia. The GFI framework is a comprehensive tool used to diagnose and assess strengths and weaknesses of legal and policy arrangement governing forestry sector. Ethiopia has formulated and implemented various forest policies and legal instruments to address the persistent challenges of sustainable forest management and to fulfill the economic and societal benefits expected from the sector. However, our analysis shows a huge gap between legal and policy design and implementation. The existing efforts have focused on developing policy and legal instruments, while little has been done to implement them at the local level. Implementation instruments such as regulations, directives and guidelines have not sufficiently developed to translate the broader policy intents into practice. Lack of proper implementation instruments not only undermine forest management but also hinder national efforts to halt deforestation and achieve the country's ambitious plan for fast and sustainable development. Therefore, it is crucial to translate policy and legal provisions regarding forest governance into implementation instruments such as regulations, directives, and guidelines. Accurate and up-to-date information and records that contain comprehensive legal and spatial information about forest conservation areas should be maintained centrally both at regional state and federal level and freely accessible by the public. Keywords: policy impact; legal framework; Governance of Forests Initiative; implementation, forest governance; Ethiopia DOI: 10.7176/JESD/11-5-03 Publication date:March 31st 202

Comparative Economic Analysis of Three Competing Land Use Types in Southern Ethiopia: Tools for Informed Decision-Making on Land Use Choices

Land is a scarce natural resource and increasingly being constrained by competition among mutually exclusive uses. Ethiopia has experienced serious challenges to allocate this limited resource to socio-economically efficient uses. By using economic performance indicators such as Net Present Value (NPV) and Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR), this paper compares the socio-economic value of three major competing land use types in southern Ethiopia over three investment time horizons (5, 10 and 15 years). The study aims to provide empirical evidences for rational decision-making in allocating scarce land resources. We applied descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and econometric model to analyze and present the results of these three land uses. Wood Based Mono-Cropping (WBMC), Tree Cereal Mixed Cropping (TCMC), and Cereal Based Mono-Cropping (CBMC). Our results reveal that the economic values of WBMC is significantly higher than CBMC and TCMC as shown by the two performance indictors (NPV and BCR). Our study also finds labor, product price, land, tenure security, and rainfall variability significant to explain factors that determine farmers’ land use choice in the study area. The study concludes that WBMC is economically feasible compared to the two-competing land uses and is a lucrative enterprise in the study area. The outputs of this study can give useful insights for smallholder farmers and investors who like to engage in forestry enterprise; and assist decision-makers and practitioners to improve the current practices in land use planning. Keywords: Net Present Value; Benefit Cost Ratio; WBMC; TCMC; CBMC; Southern Ethiopia.

Continuum Electromechanical Modeling of Protein-Membrane Interaction

A continuum electromechanical model is proposed to describe the membrane curvature induced by electrostatic interactions in a solvated protein-membrane system. The model couples the macroscopic strain energy of membrane and the electrostatic solvation energy of the system, and equilibrium membrane deformation is obtained by minimizing the electro-elastic energy functional with respect to the dielectric interface. The model is illustrated with the systems with increasing geometry complexity and captures the sensitivity of membrane curvature to the permanent and mobile charge distributions.Comment: 5 pages, 12 figure

Rural-urban linkage in market oriented dairy development in Ethiopia: lessons from the Ada'a District

Addis Ababa, with an estimated human population of over 3 million, has a high demand for cereals, pulses, fresh vegetables, fruits, milk and milk products and meat and eggs. The Ada’a Woreda is one of the important areas that supply the well known ‘maja’ teff, chickpeas, fresh vegetables, eggs and chicken, meat and milk. The Woreda capital, Debre Zeit town, is only 45 km southeast of Addis Ababa and has a very good road and railway connection. The Ada’a Dairy Cooperative was established in 1998 in Debre Zeit based on its comparative market advantage, the conducive agro-ecological conditions for dairy production and the available support services. The cooperative was established with 34 members and an initial capital of 3,400 Birr. The main objectives are to minimize transaction costs, reduce price fluctuations over seasons, increase production efficiency, improve incomes and create job opportunities. Milk collection and marketing started in January 2000, with a daily total of 308 liters. The association has made significant progress so far and currently has over 850 members (about 50% female) who individually own over 3000 dairy cows. The current capital of the association has increased to USD 138,029. The number of milk collection sites has increased to 10 and job opportunity has been created for 62 staff. Daily milk collection has increased to over 8,000 liters and is mainly sold to the Dairy Development Enterprise (DDE) in Addis Ababa. The cooperative has established a small processing unit for the production of butter, yoghurt and cottage cheese during periods of excess supply. Members use mainly crossbred animals and the management level is relatively intensive with limited land area. Most animals are stall fed. The cooperative supplies inputs such as grass hay, concentrate feeds, veterinary drugs and services, and artificial insemination service to members at reasonable prices. Rural dairy farmers are joining the cooperative, taking advantage of market access for their milk. Inputs required in dairy production include feeds and water, labour, veterinary drugs and services, artificial insemination and equipment and utensils. The largest input in terms of volume and financial requirements is feed. These involve roughages and concentrate feeds. The main rural areas that provide roughage feeds (grass hay and crop residues) include Selale, Ada’a and adjacent Woredas, and Arsi. Concentrate feeds such as bran, middlings, oil seed cakes, molasses are supplied by ago-industries around Addis Ababa, Debre Zeit and Nazareth, but the row materials come from various parts of the country. Molasses is supplied from Wonji and Shoa Sugar Estates. Another major input is water which is used for animal consumption, washing and cleaning purposes. Most dairy farmers use expensive municipal water supply. Most of the milk collected is supplied to DDE. Pasteurized and processed products are mainly sold in Addis. Some fresh milk is also sold directly to hotels and restaurants in Addis Ababa, Debre Zeit, Dukem and Nazareth towns. In addition, milk collected from Ada’a by the Sebeta agro-industry is processed and supplied to urban centres as far as Bahir Dar. Manure produced from dairy farms is also supplied to a limited extent to rural areas, particularly to horticultural crops producing farms. A strong and organized rural-urban linkage is evolving informally at the moment and this should be recognized and strengthened to benefit both rural and urban dwellers in taking advantage of the value chain. Although urban and peri-urban dairy production system plays important role in the national economy, the system has been marginalized and there is limited research and institutional support addressing this issue. This paper presents the activities and achievements of the Ada’a dairy cooperative and also highlights the rural and urban linkages through the value chain of milk production, processing and marketing

Assessment of environmental-livestock interactions in crop-livestock systems of central Ethiopian highlands

The study was done in Adaa district which is one of the 12 districts in East Shoa zone in Oromia regional state of Ethiopia. It is located southeast of Addis Ababa at 38o51’ 43.63’’ to 39o04’ 58.59’’ E and 8o46’ 16.20’’ to 8o59’ 16.38’’ N, on the western margin of the Great East African Rift Valley. The altitude ranges from 1 500 to ≥ 2 000 meters above sea level. The district has a high potential for mixed livestock and crop production systems. The purpose of this study was to make up for the paucity of information on livestock and environment interaction by assessing the relationship of livestock, soil, water, land, climate and crops under mixed crop-livestock production systems in central Ethiopian highlands. The objectives of the study were: (a) to assess the effect of change in land management on carbon storage and the contribution of livestock to carbon storage; (b) to examine the impact of livestock on natural resources and the environment; (c) to assess the effects of the change in traditional agricultural practices, expansion of factories, slaughter houses, greenhouses and flower farms on water and soil quality; (d) to evaluate the effect of climate change on livestock production under small-scale agriculture; and (e) to recommend options for mitigation and adaptation to environmental changes. The research design was non-experimental and did not involve the manipulation of the situation, circumstances or experiences of the interviewees. The design was comparative research that compared two or more groups on one or more variables, such as the effect of agricultural land use management, tillage type etc. on carbon storage in the soil. This research also applied a longitudinal design that examined variables such as the performance exhibited by groups over time. Purposive sampling was often used to measure the effect of agricultural, industrial effluent and human interferences on the environment by measuring nutrient contents at sources in the soil, water and manure. Biological data were complemented by key socio-economic survey by interviewing individual farmers and focus groups from sampling sites. Secondary data were also reviewed to measure soil degradation and run-off attributed to livestock. Results showed that animal waste and farmyard manure had the highest contribution in the addition of carbon in the soil. This implied that for most of carbon inputs livestock products and by-products had a greater place in the carbon sink. Therefore, livestock production could be considered as one of the major agricultural production systems in soil carbon storage. Similarly, livestock production systems also play an important role in maintaining the eco-system balance through nutrient recycling. On the average, the number of livestock per household for most species increased during the Derge regime in the 1990s compared to the Haile Sellassie regime in the 1970s when people did not own land; and then the number declined in the 2000s except for equines, crossbreeds and oxen. The change to crop intensification led to the change in the purpose for livestock keeping. Farmers started keeping certain types of animals for specific purposes unlike before when livestock was kept for prestige and economic security. The major drive for the change of attitude towards the purpose of keeping livestock was scarcity of resources, mainly feed and water. Equine ownership has significantly increased due to their low off-take rate and their feeding habits which allowed them to survive in harsh environments where feed resources were extremely scarce. There was a significant difference in crop response to manure application. Vegetables produced higher yields with manure than chemical fertilizers. Cereals on the other hand responded more to chemical fertilizers than to manure. Therefore, combining manure and chemical fertilizers was the best option for the sustainability of crop production in the study area. Some of the limitations to the use of manure as an organic fertilizer were inadequate manure production, high labour cost, bulkiness and high cost of transport to the fields and weed infestation. Manure management systems in the study area were affected by livestock husbandry practices. Only crossbred cattle (5%) were zero-grazed and used; and manure was stored in pits as slurry. Indigenous cattle were grazed outdoors in the fields during the day and at night they were kept in kraals near homesteads. There was a substantial loss of nutrients during the day when animals were grazing in the fields through leaching and trampling of dung and urine patches. Indoor or zero grazing of livestock could reduce nutrient losses. The use of manure as fuel in the study area had no significant effect on CO2 emissions at household or local level, but had a negative impact on soil organic carbon storage and soil fertility. Therefore, for improved yield and balanced eco-systems manure burning has to be replaced by other alternative energy sources such as bio-gas and kerosene. The largest carbon equivalent emissions were from CH4 (72.6%), N2O (24%) and CO2 (3.4%) which indicated the need to improve livestock and manure management systems under smallholder agriculture. Overall, there was an indication of a decline in water resources on per capita basis. The major contributing factors were combined pressure of human and animal population on natural resources that led to excessive deforestation, loss of biological diversity, overgrazing, soil degradation and various forms of pollution and contamination. The global climate change also played a role in the decline in water resources due to the decrease in annual precipitation and increasing temperatures. Urbanization and economic growth increased the demand for milk and meat, which required additional water use for each unit of increased animal protein. The demand for milk and meat is expected to double in the next 20 years with an annual growth rate of between 2.5 to 4%. From the sixty-year meteorological data (1951-2009) there was an established increase in rainfall by 2% per annum; and maximum and minimum temperature by 0.08oC per decade, which amounted to a cumulative temperature increase of 0.5oC in the last decade. The increase in precipitation and temperature favoured the adaption of lowland crops like maize and sorghum to highland agro-ecology. Climate prediction models forecasted that most of the highlands in Ethiopia will remain suitable for cereals like wheat and Teff for the next 50 to100 years. However, the perception of farmers indicated that they felt more heat and warm weather than they have experienced before. They reported that rainfall is now more erratic or comes late and stops earlier before plants completed their vegetative growth