Regions where we work in Ethiopia

We are currently active in the following regions:

Ethiopia

TBI in Ethiopia through its partner PENHA works towards restoring landscapes and strengthening livelihoods in the country’s drylands.

The work will focus in two potential identified landscapes, one in northern Ethiopia that includes the uplands of eastern Tigray, the protected remnants of the Desa’a Afromontane forest, to the escarpments of Koneba and lowland pastoral areas of northwestern Afar Region and a second in eastern Ethiopia encompassing parts of Oromia and extending to East Hararghe and Jigigga in the Somali Region. Both landscapes include a range of topographies, vegetation types and livelihood strategies.

Severe land degradation affects all these areas, caused mainly by deforestation for fuelwood and charcoal production, agricultural expansion, and overgrazing. Moreover, the nation as a whole has been affected by climate change, and was still recovering from the exceptional region-wide drought of 2017-18 when the Covid-19 crisis hit. And whereas there have been notable successes in dryland restoration, significant challenges remain.

There is a need to restore the landscapes and strengthen the livelihoods of communities. This can be achieved by developing sustainable livelihoods alongside climate-smart agriculture and to enhancing specific value chains. This will be addressed through the establishment of a comprehensive knowledge base on dryland restoration, improving coordination and collaboration across international, national, regional and local levels, leading to community adoption of participatory approaches and improved practices.

Additional to the work on the focus landscapes we will also address landscape restoration across Ethiopia’s dryland regions, with action at the national policy level.

What we will do

  • Document and disseminate experiences of dryland restoration throughout the country, and in the target landscape.
  • Improve dialogue and knowledge sharing between diverse government and non-government actors, and between federal, regional, district and local levels.
  • Facilitate the development of a national dryland restoration strategy, and its implementation.
  • Prepare a participatory dryland restoration plan for the target landscape, and facilitate its implementation, scaling up successes.

With whom

The Pastoral and Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa (penhanetwork.org) is a regional NGO. It combines grassroots project implementation with research and policy analysis, focusing on pastoralism, rangelands and dry forests, governance and gender. It was established in 1989 by concerned professionals from Horn countries, and has offices in Addis Ababa, Hargeisa (Somaliland) and London.