Presentation by Dr. Gemedo Dalle at OECD side-event ‘Mainstreaming Biodiversity and Development’ at CBD COP 13: Experiences with mainstreaming biodiversity and development in Ethiopia

1. Experiences with mainstreaming
biodiversity and development in
Ethiopia

2. Introduction
• “Improving the quality of human life while
living within the carrying capacity of
supporting ecosystems.”
• Sustainable human development is about
living on Earth without taking more than can
be naturally replaced.
– It is about good health, good living conditions and
long-term wealth creation for everybody.

3. Mainstreaming in Ethiopia:
• Constitution (Article 44)
– Environmental Rights
• All persons have the right to a clean and healthy
environment.
• Biodiversity policy
• In order to plan, develop and reorient biodiversity
conservation and development-related activities in the
country and create an integrated national biodiversity
program, a functional national biodiversity networking
system will be created

4. • Ethiopia has developed and started
implementation of the Sectoral Climate
Resilience Strategies for Green Economy
• climate resilience strategies for the
agriculture, forestry, water, irrigation and
energy sectors

5. CRGE
• Follow a green growth path that fosters
development and sustainability
• The ambition is to build a green economy
• Pillars
– Agriculture
– Forest
– Power
– Transport, industrial sectors and buildings

6. Pillars
• Agriculture
– Improving crop and livestock production practices
for higher food security and farmer income while
reducing emissions
• Forestry
– Protecting and re-establishing forests for their
economic and ecosystem services, including as
carbon stocks

7. Strategic Plan
• The strategic plans are a part of the Ethiopia’s
strategic vision
• to build a Climate Resilient Green Economy
(CRGE) in response to the challenges of
climate change and environmental
degradation and
• to leverage the opportunities of green
growth while reaching middle-income
status by 2025.

8. NBSAP: IMPLEMENTATION
ARRANGEMENTS
• EBI overall responsibility for coordinating
implementation of the agreed upon actions by
all the stakeholders
• For every target and action lead agency and
collaborating institutions have been identified

9. Ethiopian experiences in
mainstreaming: Ministerial level
• Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
– Forest sector development plan
• Ministry of Agriculture and Natural resources
– Watershed management (SLM Programme) and
rehabilitation/restoration of degraded ecosystems
• Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries
– Included many targets that address conservation and
sustainable use of local breeds (e.g. controlled cross
breeding and selection and improvement of local breeds)
• Community based animal breeding

10. Ethiopian experiences in Institutional
setups: Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute
• EBI is nationally mandated for the
implementation of:
– Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD),
– International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources
for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA),
– Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources
and the Fair and Equitable benefit Sharing Arising
from their Utilization and
– IPBES.

11. Major achievements - Conservation
• 112,266 accessions of 1021 species
conserved in National Gene Bank
– Crop: 69, 547 accessions of 52 species -
cold room (-10 and +4 OC) (cereals, pulses,
oil crops)
• 7564 accessions of 660 species – in
Field Gene Banks
– 6680 accessions - coffee, root and tuber
crops, spices -field gene banks.

12. Major achievements - Crop
On-farm conservation
• 23 community seed banks have been
established + crop conservation associations
are established (legal certificates).
• Five additional CSBs are under construction
• Farmers’ varieties of 21 crop species have
been conserved in the CSBs and on-farm
conservation sites.
• Farmers’ varieties - lost from the hands of the
farmers were restored from the national gene
bank.

13. Major achievements - Crop
• 51150 accessions have been multiplied
• 15000 accessions have regenerated
• 7250 accessions of field and horticultural crops have been
characterized using morphological traits.
• More than 4000 accessions have been analysed for nutrient
content (protein, fiber, fat, total mineral, and water content)

14. Crop type Variety EBI accession
Barley Agegnehu Acc. 218950
Shire Acc.3297
Estayish Acc.218963
Dimtu Acc.3369
Emmer wheat Commesso Acc-224881-2
Sinana Acc-216074-1
Sorghum Chare Acc.222880
Raya Acc.22287 x kat369-1
Miskir Acc.69441 x p-9401
Field pea Urji Acc.32615-1
Tullu-Dimtu Acc.32640-1
Tulllu-shenen Acc.2121-1
Noog Ginchi-1 Acc.227187
Shambu-1 Acc.228423
Linseed Kassa-2 Acc.10306 X Chilalo14/3
Tolle CI2698 x Acc. 13611/B
Berene Acc. 013627
•177, 470 accessions have
been distributed to
different users - Research,
Breeding
Major achievements - Crop

15. Extension packages
• Extension packages for agrobiodiversity
species developed

16. Market linkages
Cooperative's Fiber Marketing-
new income

17. Farmers field day

18. Conclusion
• Living in Harmony with Nature
• People depend on healthy ecosystems for the
very fundamentals of life: clean air, fresh water,
healthy soil, and crop pollination to name just a
few.
• Conservation must be a common agenda for all
nations to ensure healthy future generations
and sustainable long-term development.
• Participatory conservation, new products from
biodiversity to improve livelihoods of local
communities

19. Thank You For Your Attention