Enhancing the importance of lowland forests and woodlands for livelihoods and environmental resilience: bridging the research-development divide

1. Enhancing the importance of lowland forests and
woodlands for livelihoods and environmental
resilience: bridging the research-development
divide
Experience sharing forum on food security and agricultural
development in the lowlands,
December 6 -7, 2012, Dire Dawa
Habtemariam Kassa
CIFOR-Ethiopia Office

2. Presentation outline
 Introducing CIFOR
 Importance of forests and woodlands in lowland areas
 Good experience of working with national partners in
identifying and addressing knowledge gaps to
sustainably manage dry forests
 Challenges (research topics) identified as important
 Some of research results on topics jointly identified
 Concluding remarks

3. 1.
CIFOR - mandate and focus
 CIFOR works to generate research based evidence to
inform decision making and influence policy and
practice affecting tropical forests and forest dependent
communities
 Focus in ESA (including Ethiopia) has mainly been on
dry forests – to bring them onto research and
development agenda
 In most of its work, CIFOR attempts to link its research
to education, extension, and policy making and works
with national partners to also build national capacity

4. 2. Importance of forests &woodlands in low lands
 Dominant forms of vegetation where deforestation is high and
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
most of Ethiopia’s above ground carbon is
Over 10 million people and their livestock depend on them
Contribute to local and national economies – Ethiopia exports
about 4500 Mt of gums and resins/year
Are in areas where climate change is likely to have major
impacts (as are prone to both drought and flooding)
Legal, policy, and institutional aspects of governing community
access to forests are rapidly evolving – individualization of the
commons and sedentary livelihoods are taking place
Major land use change & development interventions take place
Are poorly studied & hence greater need for research to inform
policy and practice

5. Above Ground Biomass (Based on global biomass map from
Baccini , 2012)
Note that most of the nations carbon is in the lowlands.

6. Figure . Global distribution of trees (percentage tree s in forests green) and on farm (red)
Source: Composite of FAO’s 2005 Global Forest Resources Assessment and data from the World Agroforestry
Centre. Zomer, R.J. et al. 2009. Trees on farm: analysis of global extent and geographical patterns of
agroforestry. ICRAF Working Paper No 89. World Agroforestry Centre, Nairobi

7. 3
Areas of knowledge gaps – jointly identified
with NARES and the private sector
 The extent of land use change and major drivers
 Dependence of various segments of the population on forests
 Options to increase the types, volume and quality of forest
products marketed and to improving efficiency of marketing
channels for producers
 The siliviculture of key dry land tree species and sustainable
management options of forests for multiple objectives
 Whether and how carbon trade may constitute an other options to
add economic value to the dry forests
 Opportunities and challenges to maximize synergy and minimize
trade-offs between economic development and conservation goals
HOW TO CREATE ADDITIONAL ECONOMIC INCENTIVES
FOR PEOPLE AND THE COUNTRY TO BETTER MANAGE
FORESTS AND WOODLANDS IN LOWLAND AREAS?

8. 4. Some research findings to share in
response to the info needs raised by
national partners

9. 4.1. People, particularly the poor depend on dry forest
products– for about 20% of their cash income
Crop
4.23
2.34 24.4
8.94
6
5.71
13.27
5.63
0.6
Livestock
Forest
Forest
Off-farm
16.32
21.3
48.62
14.71
20.49
Asgedetsimbla
47.5
Yabello 4
25
Aid
Quara
Wealth classes
POOR
20
Income contribution (%)
65.71
MEDIUM
RICH
15
10
5
21.9
9.88
4.68
12.89
11.9
7.32
12.4
7.95
5.13
Yabello
Asgedetsimbla
Quara
0
Note – If the income from livestock (that depend on woodlands for grazing is added, then income
forests and woodlands for communities will be much higher
Implications: - Policies and strategies that aim at improving the welfare of dry land communities
should give attention to the contribution of forest to local livelihoods, especially for the poor

10. 4.2 Major land use change is taking place – the
case of Metema woreda
•Agricultural land increased from 8% in 1972 to 25% in 2007; while the forest cover
declined from 74% in 1972 to 54% in 2007.
•Visible increase in income of farmers over time observed.
 Managing and optimizing land use changes at landscape level for better
economic and ecological outcomes is critically important

11. 4.3 The future of frankincense production is grim
 Forest area is shrinking
 Most forests under concessions are reportedly showing declining
trend in productivity
 Boswellia trees suffer from fungal attack, insect and parasitic
plants infestations
 Lack of recruitment from natural regeneration coupled with nearly
zero survival rate of planted seedlings are core challenges of
sustaining frankincense production
 MoA is developing a guideline to inform farmers and the private
sector on managing forests and the product
Unless we join hands to identify and address recruitment
challenges, getting marketable volume of frankincense will simply
be less likely.
 Options for co-existence of forests and agriculture (crop and
livestock need to be found at landscape level)

12. Yield and income of frankincense and Gum Arabic
(Sources: Natural Gum Processing and Marketing Enterprise, 2012)
Year
Kafta-Humera
Gondar
Assosa
Yield (Tons)
Income (Million
Birr)
Yield (Tons)
Income (Million
Birr)
Yield (Tons)
Income (Million
Birr)
1999
772.72
1.77
151.97
0.35
---
---
2000
856.18
3.73
267.32
1.16
---
---
2001
878.30
4.56
439.18
2.28
---
---
2002
529.29
2.85
575.62
3.10
---
---
2003
229.74
1.81
654.60
5.15
---
---
2004
149.73
0.96
835.53
5.35
---
---
2005
111.44
0.83
686.02
5.14
3.04
0.02
2006
28.35
0.25
360.61
2.29
1.68
0.01
2007
39.91
0.39
714.25
3.90
79.01
0.43
2008
147.46
1.37
613.60
4.31
110.22
0.86
2009
201.61
3.51
557.01
10.41
75.93
1.38
2010
205.64
5.70
764.28
21.89
290.87
7.13
2011
210.16
7.93
243.74
6.50
327.99
12.02

13. 4.4 The current grades of frankincense for the export
market need to be revisited
 Current grading standards do not have scientific basis with
regard to essential oils - do not vary in their contents
 The harvest-resins of Boswellia species from Borena and
Ogaden, exhibit same even better quality frankincense for
similar use & can be processed for international market.
 There is a room to address management challenges and be able
to export frankincense from southern Ethiopia for export
 The State and non-state actors can play important roles in
translating these research results to redefining grades and
improving management options to be able to export also
other types of frankincense will contribute to increasing
farm gate price and hence incentives to responsibly
manage dry forest and woodlands.

15. 4.5 The value chain of gums and resins marketing
are complex and less efficient to producers
 The channels are many (8 in northern Ethiopia) and complex indicating
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huge inefficiency for producers
The current marketing system is not supported by quality standards
which consider product quality and sustainability of the resource
There is uneven distribution of benefit among the value chain actors
Poorly controlled access, production and marketing practices prevail
Strengthening the whole value chain (systemic competitiveness) and
improving governance is key to improving export performance
 Again development agencies and donors can assist communities to
improve access to forests and to put in place SFM and rewarding
marketing practices
 Better governance of access to resources and actors in the
marketing channel will help the export market (e.g. Forest
products certification)

17. 4.6 Tree cover & nutritional security
• There is a statistically significant non-linear relationship between
% tree cover and preferred DDS measure peaking at 61%.
• between forest cover and fruit and veggie consn which peaks at
about 48% tree cover
Dietary Diversity Score & Tree
Cover
0.07
0.06
0.05
0.04
0.03
Dietary Diversity
0.02
0.01
0
0
20
40
60
80
100
Implications – further understanding and enhancement the direct
(through food) and indirect (e.g. cash, feed) role of forests and
woodlands in the lowlands to food and nutrition security

18. 5 Conclusions
 Dry forests & woodlands have important roles to play in local
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livelihoods, national economies & in ecological resilience. These
should be recognized & taken into account in development planning
and in identifying intervention options in the lowlands.
Economic drives are resulting in major land use changes and in some
cases in livelihood diversifications. The development and
conservation objectives need to be managed wisely (to avoid mal
adaptation in the long run in these ecologically fragile areas)
Joining hands of all actors in the
policy/planning, research/education & extension/development is
necessary to come up with a well thought vision and strategy for low
land areas development in the short and long term.
We could begin this by bridging the research-development divide to
inform decision making to better manage land use & livelihood
changes in lowland areas, & options for co-existence of forests and
farming (crop and livestock) at landscape level.
CIFOR is very much ready and willing to contribute and also learn
from by being part of such initiatives

19. I thank you!