“Ethiopia is yours.
The future is, above all else, yours.”
Aiby Ahmed, Ethiopian Prime Minister, addressing his country’s youth, April 2018
In Ethiopia, small-scale farmers face an intensification of extreme weather events under climate change as rainfall becomes more erratic and temperatures rise. This video shows how researchers supported by the Climate Change Adaptation in Africa program contributed to the identification and implementation of farming techniques (e.g. check dams, drought resistant seeds) that improve yields and protect food security under these conditions.
13 July, 2015 marked the 30th anniversary of the Live Aid concert for Ethiopia organized by Bob Geldof to mobilise funding for famine relief.
What most people probably don’t know is that Ethiopia has made significant progress during the last 20 years in restoring its degraded lands and improving its food and water security. According to Belgian and Ethiopian researchers,” Northern Ethiopia is now greener than it has ever been during the last 145 years,” and “human investments have overridden the impacts of climate change.”
Ethiopia’s Green Revolution
Shortly after the overthrow of the Marxist regime in 1991, the regional government of Tigray launched a major land restoration campaign implemented with the support of village communities and donor agencies such as the World Bank, USAID, German Development Cooperation, World Food Programme and others.
With support from government, farmers stopped using very degraded land for grazing and collection of firewood in order to allow trees and shrubs to naturally regenerate. This effort was combined with tree-planting.
At the same time, farmers also constructed stone bunds and terraces on steep slopes, which forced rainfall and runoff to infiltrate soil rather than rushing down hills and causing erosion and flooding downstream. This helped groundwater recharge in valleys, which allowed people to dig shallow wells that they could use to irrigate crops and fruit trees during the dry season.
More than one million hectares of degraded agricultural and forest land has been restored in East and Central Tigray alone. What makes it even more remarkable is that it’s happened under harsh conditions, such as steep slopes and shallow soils. It is estimated that the people of Tigray have moved at least 90 million tons of soil and rocks by hand to reshape their landscapes.
The Multiple Impacts
Whereas Tigray only had about 40 hectares (99 acres) of irrigated land in the mid-1990s, it now irrigates almost 40,000 hectares (99,000 acres).
In 2007, Tigray became self-sufficient in food production, which can to a significant degree be attributed to the large-scale restoration efforts. In 2000, Tigray was the poorest region of Ethiopia, with 61.4 percent of its population living below the national poverty line. According to the World Bank Ethiopia Poverty Assessment 2014, this percentage had dropped steeply to 31.8 percent in 2011, which is close to the national average of 31 percent.
Ethiopia’s national government committed to restore an additional 15 million hectares of degraded lands by 2025, as part of its Climate-Resilient Green Economy strategy and the international Bonn Challenge.
Ethiopia’s story, which shows what’s possible when communities, governments and NGOs come together to breathe fresh life into village lands.
A new documentary, Ethiopia Rising: Red Terror to Green Revolution, co-funded by WRI and made by award-winning UK filmmaker Mark Dodd, tells the story of how Ethiopia’s people restored vast areas of degraded land to productivity.
This text is a summary of an article from Chris Reij,
World Resources Institute, 28 July 2015
[source: https://www.wri.org/blog/2015/07/how-ethiopia-went-famine-crisis-green-revolution]
Related topics: The Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam and others
2018
Nile Water Conflict: Who owns it? [13.11.2018]
The Nile is synonymous with Egypt and supplies almost 100% of its water. It’s the longest river in the world, rising up out of the eastern Africa region with sources from the Ethiopian highlands. But with the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance dam project almost finished, is Egypt heading for a water crisis?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uEXJL7UBYs
Caspian Report: Renaissance Dam crisis [16.01.2018]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_8X8tbjqjg
2017
Hydro-economics: Egypt, Ethiopia and the Nile 🇪🇬 🇪🇹 |Counting the Cost [22.10.2017]
Water ministers from Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia have gathered last week to discuss how Africa’s largest hydroelectric dam will affect water distribution and access to the Nile.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=y5iLk3NRnQs&feature=emb_logo
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam – A dam draining life in Ethiopia | Eco-at-Africa [17.03.2017]
Construction of the Gibe III dam on the Omo River displaced indigenous groups who had called the area their home for centuries. Now their land, with its delicate ecosystem, is also under threat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFKaL6NIYJw
2015
Ethiopia’s $4.8 billion dam nears completion [5.04.2015]
Ethiopia’s $4.8 billion Grand Renaissance Dam is nearing completion. It is the largest dam in Africa and Ethiopia’s flagship project.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mDIMwed1rw
2014
Ethiopia: Lake Tana at Risk | Global 3000 [21.01.2014]
Thousands of birds that fly south during the European winter migrate to Lake Tana in Ethiopia. It’s the source of the Blue Nile and has a unique ecosystem. More than two thirds of its fish species are unique to the lake. Several of the lake’s islands are also home to ancient Coptic monasteries. But the region’s resources are under threat. A German conservation group is trying to alleviate the situation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tw_qVmfceu0
2013
Ethiopia’s big Nile dam battle | FT World Notebook [10.07.2013]
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will be the largest hydroelectric power plant in Africa when completed, delivering 6,000MW. The cost and the potential impact of diverting the Blue Nile have created controversy in the region. The FT’s East Africa correspondent Katrina Manson reports on the benefits of the project, and the challenges it faces
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8IHmn0Kn68
Ethiopia, Egypt and the Blue Nile | Global 3000 [24.06.2013]
Egypt is casting worried looks towards the south. Ethiopia is currently building the biggest dam in Africa on the Blue Nile River, close to the border with Sudan. The plan is to use the river’s vast masses of water to create energy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voHv0PIDv1U
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