Darwin Initiative funding for CBNRM in Ethiopia

19 February 2009

Researchers from the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute have successfully applied for funding from UK DEFRA Darwin Initiative to help build natural resource monitoring capacity in Ethiopia’s key Afro-montane ecosystems.

Ethiopia’s highlands harbour globally significant biodiversity including flagship species such as the mountain nyala and Ethiopian wolf – all of which are listed by the International Unionfor Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as Critically Endangered or Endangered as well as other endemic plant, amphibian and bird species.

The highlands are some of the last intact afro-montane ecosystems in Ethiopia, as well as vital water towers supplying arid and semi-arid areas in Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and Egypt. 

97% of the original habitat has been lost to human agriculture, grazing and unsustainable natural resource use. With resource-dependent local communities rapidly growing, unsustainable resource use continues to threaten conservation and human well-being in these already impoverished areas.

In order to implement biodiversity conservation and sustainability, local authorities, local communities and international non-governmental organisations are working towards Community-based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM).

As an integral component of this wider programme, the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute and a range of partners will be initiating a project entitled “Building natural resource monitoring capacity in Ethiopia’s key Afro-montane ecosystems” with funding from the UK DEFRA Darwin Initiative. The aim of the Initiative is to assist those countries which are rich in biodiversity but poor in financial resources to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) through the funding of collaborative projects which draw on UK biodiversity expertise.

The project will build the human and institutional capacity of protected area management authorities and community members to monitor community-based natural resource management in four key afro-montane areas – two national parks and two community-managed protected areas.

The project is coordinated by Simon Thirgood from the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute and is a partnership between the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, the University of Aberdeen, the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority, Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resources, Oromia Agricultural and Rural Development Bureau, Amhara Parks Development and Protection Authority, Bale Mountains National Park, Simien Mountains National Park, Guassa Community Conservation Area, Abune Yoseph Community Conservation Area, the local NGO Forum for the Environment and the International NGO Frankfurt Zoological Society.

The project has a budget of £553,991 with £290,768 funded by DEFRA and the remainder pledged as matching funds from the partners, including £40,340 from the Macaulay Development Trust. The project will start in April 2009 with a CBNRM workshop and project initiation meeting in Addis Ababa.