1. What is agroforestry? Have you heard about it?
2. Look at the pictures above carefully. What can you see? What do you understand about integrating agriculture and forestry?
3. What do you expect to learn from the reading passage?

Agroforestry is the intentional integration of trees and shrubs into crop and animal farming systems to obtain environmental, economic, and social benefits. It has been practiced around the world for centuries. Agricultural and forest landscapes have been providing humans with food, fiber and energy as well as a range of other ecosystem services.

There are many benefits to practicing agroforestry, no matter its scale; it can have lasting impacts on local and national economies, environments, and worldwide food growth. Some of the benefits of agroforestry include: improving soil quality, reintroducing nutrients into the soil, increased yields from crops, and increase in local biodiversity.

Agroforestry is a system to manage the agricultural resource land for the benefits of the owner and the long-term welfare of society. While this is appropriate for all land, it is especially important in the case of hillside farming where agriculture may lead to rapid loss of soil. Normally land will be what the farmer owns (farmers that rent land may have little interest in the long-term benefits of agroforestry), and thus farmers must think conservatively about how to maintain the land over long periods of time.

Agroforestry began to attract the attention  of  the  international  development and scientific community in the 1980s as a means for increasing and sustaining agricultural production in marginal lands and remote areas of the tropics that were not benefited by the Green Revolution. Due to the research and development efforts at various local, regional, and global levels, agroforestry is at present recognized as having the potential to offer much toward sustainable land management and environmental integrity in poor  and  rich  nations  alike.  Discussing  the  role of agroforestry in land management in the twenty-first century, food security, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and other ecosystem services are identified as the key areas where the impact of agroforestry could be noticeable in the immediate future.

The practice of growing trees in crop farming provides sustainable farm inputs, improves soil conservation, sequesters carbon, and increases the biodiversity and soil health. The trees involved in agroforestry are multipurpose utility such as for shade, fodder, fuel wood, fruit, vegetables, and medicines. In agroforestry, particular attention is placed on multiple-purpose trees or perennial shrubs. The most important of these trees are the legumes because of their ability to fix nitrogen and thus make it available to other plants.

Brainstorming Questions

Do the following before reading the passage.

1. Work in small groups and discuss what you know about natural resource management in Ethiopia.
2. Before reading the text, look at the meanings of the following words in a dictionary. A. Environmental disaster

Ethiopia is a country which has suffered countless environmental disasters and biodiversity loss. To tackle these disasters and losses, environmental conservation efforts have been undergoing. Humbo carbon sequestration project, community management of Afroalpine highlands, and Lake Tana watershed management are among the natural resource management efforts in the country.

Afforestation and Reforestation project was introduced at Humbo Woreda of southwestern Ethiopia to regenerate 2,728 hectares of previously degraded forestland with the aim of enhancing the local communities’ livelihoods through improved environmental conditions as well as financial inflows to be achieved through linkages with carbon markets. Since its inception, the initiative managed to restore 2,728 hectares of degraded forest by enclosing the land that had long been an open access resource.

Similarly, in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia, there is a small patch of land which has persisted in its current, relatively original state for the past four hundred years. The area, called Guassa by the local Menzi people, ranges from 3200 to 3700 meters above sea level. It is part of the Amhara Regional State of North Shoa. The natural resource management system of the Guassa area dates back to the 17th Century. This makes it one of the oldest conservation areas in sub-Saharan Africa. The area was set aside as a resource for the community, who use it for harvesting the “Guassa” grass for roofing, for grazing livestock, and for harvesting shrubs for fuel wood.

The Lake Tana watershed in Amhara National Regional State is another natural resource management site in Ethiopia. It is important in ecological and economic terms, and it has both local and global significance. The watershed encompasses Lake Tana – the largest freshwater body in Ethiopia and source of the Blue Nile. Its unique and isolated landscape includes forested islands, immense and varied wetlands and high mountain areas. The region is renowned for its biodiversity, and it is also the home of churches and monasteries dating from the 14th to the 16th century. Ninety per cent of the area’s rapidly growing population depends on subsistence agriculture for their livelihoods. The productivity and sustainability of mixed farming practices depend on ecosystem goods and services, which rely on the functional integrity of the watershed’s ecosystems – rivers, wetlands, lake, forests, pastures and soils. The objectives of the watershed management project is to rehabilitate the land and to raise incomes for the community.

To conclude, all the three natural resource managements projects mentioned above are community- based. The major principles of community based natural resource management include being people-focused, being participatory, being holistic, building on strengths, using a partnership approach, being sustainable and being dynamic. Community  based  natural  resource  management  has  become  the  dominant conservation and development paradigm with financial and non-financial benefits.

( Adapted from LEISA MAGAZINE . DECEMBER 2004).

Answer the following questions based on the above text. Write your answers in full sentences.

1. What have been done to tackle environmental disasters and biodiversity loss in Ethiopia?
2. Why was the Afforestation and Reforestation project introduced at Humbo?
3. What makes the natural resource management system of Guassa area the oldest conservation area?
4. Why does the community harvest the Guassa?
5. What were the objectives of Tana watershed management project?
6. What are the non-financial benefits of community based natural resource management projects?