Dr. Minale Kassie Addis Ababa, May 17 (WIC) - The Environmental Economics Policy Forum for Ethiopia (EEPFE) urged all stakeholders engaged in sustainable land management endeavors to carry out activities in a coordinated manner. A two day international conference on Sustainable Land Management and Poverty Alleviation will be held next week.  

Dr. Minale Kassie, a research officer at the Gutenberg University, Sweden told WIC that all stakeholders engaged in sustainable land management endeavors should carry out their activities in a coordinated manner so as to effectively translate research findings into practice.   

According to the researcher, though a number of researches are conducted on land management and poverty alleviation in Ethiopia a lot remains in translating the findings to practice in a coordinated manner.     

Since Ethiopia is predominantly an agrarian country sustainable land management is vital to enhance productivity as well as endure sustainable development, Dr. Minale stressed.     

To this end, the researcher said the EEPFE, along with the Ethiopia Development Research Institute (EDRI) is working on  various researches to help policy makers take the necessary measures in the drive to ensure sustainable land management.   

According to the researcher, the conference due to be organized from 18-19 May 2009 by EEPFE, EDRI, Sustainable Land Use Forum (SLUF), the Hawassa University and the Oromia Agricultural Research Institute (OARI) would focus on the existing land management policies and strategies of the Oromia and SNNP states.  

Study papers on sustainable land management and poverty alleviation would be presented on the conference that would bring a number of local and international professional research institutions together.