By Yohannes Gezahegn

As the Copenhagen conference on climate deal is approaching, the issue is becoming top on the agenda internationally. Various discussions are being carried out and studies are being presented as part of input to the negotiations. Every nation and everybody is being concerned on the issue which is a cross-cutting.

Climate variability and environmental degradation caused by Climate Change have become serious challenge to the existence of humanity.

The world is experiencing rising temperature, highly variable and intermittent rainfall, frequent drought and flooding due to climate change. Farmland degradation and decrease in the level of ground water caused by the negative impacts of climate change is posing fatal effects for farmers and pastoralists. 

Moisture stress and flood erosion are some of the major climatic challenges predicted to adversely impact agricultural production and rural livelihood. Poor households and communities whose livelihoods and food security depend on traditional agriculture will greatly be affected because of the climate change challenges.

African governments and their development partners have made adaptation to the impacts of climate change by poor households and communities a priority and are actively looking for comprehensive support to implement adaptation programs.

The heads of state and government have nominated a negotiating team that includes Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Algeria, Mauritius, the Republic of Congo, Libya and South Africa. The negotiating team is led by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi.

The negotiations at the Copenhagen conference on climate change will emphasize the need for commitment from the developed countries to support developing countries in their efforts to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on the livelihoods and food security of their populations. For the first time that African leaders have agreed to have a common position on Climate Change and negotiate with one voice on future agreements.

With a view to collecting substantial input for Africa’s climate change negotiations in Copenhagen the coming December, a delegation of Rome based African Ambassadors working with the three Rome based UN Agencies WFP, IFAD and FAO have paid eight days visit to Ethiopia from 17-24 October, 2009. The Ethiopian government jointly with WFP has organized the high-level study tour.

The delegation which included Ambassadors of Nigeria, Mozambique, Congo Republic, Libya, Uganda and Ethiopia visited the Managing Environmental Resources to Enable Transition or better known as MERET project sites in Tigray and Southern Nations, Nationalities and People’s states. MERET is a community-based approach developed by the government, WFP and other stakeholders.

The visit of the delegation was aimed at getting first-hand impression of the success stories and share experience of how rural communities supported by the government and development partners are rehabilitating degraded lands and managing fragile ecosystems.

The visit was particularly focused on the MERET initiative which is anchored on community-based micro-watershade approach to land management, combined with consumption support to poor rural households.

The project focuses on improving food security through rehabilitating degraded lands, promoting water harvesting schemes, promoting soil and water conservation activities over the farm lands and intensifying and diversifying income generating activities like production of high land fruits, vegetables, fast growing grasses and compost making around homesteads. A number of development activities including gulley rehabilitation, farm land terraces, nursery and homestead development activities are being carried out to rehabilitate the areas.

The project is currently benefiting up to 1.5 million people in 72 woredas of the country including 23 in Amhara, 17 in Tigray, 16 in Oromia, 12 in SNNP, three in Somali states and one in Diredawa city administration. Thanks to the MERET project, degraded lands which were barren, devoid of any vegetation and rocky were converted into productive lands and green environment.

The development project which mainly focuses on soil and water conservation, forestry, water resources development, and infrastructure development has become a substantial intervention carried out by involving the entire community with special focus to vulnerable people.  Drought hit farmers in one of the most depleted areas in the northern part of the country who had been sitting tight and waiting for food ration to be delivered by aid agencies are now becoming food self-sufficient as a result of the project which has been operational for two decades in some parts of the country.

The people left to lean on foreign food aid due to inadequate rain fall and infertile land are getting diverse benefits through active engagement in the project. Through out the years of implementation, the project has been highly recognized for its achievements in mitigating land degradation problems, enhancing resilience to shocks, and livelihood improvement.

The project has enabled to boost productivity using various soil and water conservation interventions, improved access by constructing roads, gully rehabilitation, water harvesting structures, irrigation schemes, hillside terracing, and micro-basin and other interventions which largely reduced soil erosion, decreased flood hazards, and increased value of cultivated and range lands.

All the direct and indirect benefits from the project interventions have supported the communities to make significant steps towards achieving sustainable food security.  Reforestation and area closure interventions helped in sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere which is a mitigation measure of climate change and has both local and international environmental benefit. These are the positive and tangible achievements that attracted the Ambassadors’ delegation to come to Ethiopia to share the success stories.  

Apart from the changes on the natural resources management and utilization, the communities engaged in the projects are empowered through the participatory approaches introduced by the project at all stages of problem identification, planning, implementation and performance measurement. 

The major changes which are visible in the many MERET project sites after the implementation of various technologies included increase in water availability for both supplementary and regular irrigation activities during dry periods, area closure from any people and livestock contact which has helped the area to be fully rehabilitated and make it more productive.

Substantial increase in land value and the starting of farmers to grow high value vegetable crops and diversifying their income, high ground water recharge which helped many shallow wells to flourish as well as gully reshaping and re-vegetation activities made farmlands more productive.

Focus was put on measures that could ease the negative impacts posed by scarcity of land in one hand and land degradation on the other hand through reversing topography related situations like steep slopes and others. Bio-physical conservation measures are also been undertaken in some areas to cope with the eroding nature of farm plots due to the fragile nature of the soil, increasing deforestation in connection with the making of charcoal and expansion of farm land.

Reclaiming of degraded lands caused due to steeply sloping topography, over cultivation and erratic nature of rain and soil factors, soil fertility improvement packages, and intensification and diversification of income generating activities were given due emphasis in the project. A number of interventions such as gabion check dams, gully reshaping and re-vegetation with grasses and forage trees have been planned and implemented following detail analysis of the problems. Fruit trees like avocado and mango are also among the biological measures promoted. Soil bands are as a result stabilized by legumes such as Pigeon Pea, which is believed to tolerate moisture stress besides fixing nitrogen in the soil and providing nutritious food for the community.

Throughout the years of implementation in the Tigray state, the project has been highly recognized and appreciated at all levels for its achievements in mitigating land degradation problems, enhancing resilience to shocks, and improvement of livelihoods. The communities in highly drought prone and severely deforested districts with high land degradation are benefiting from increased food production, forage availability and the ecological change that made significant step towards achieving sustainable food security.

The federal and state governments, the local community and development partners have been planning, coordinating and implementing relevant policy directions to avert the dire situation in arid parts of the country. Regional governments are also undertaking successful activities in this regard through mobilizing the local community in restoring the ecosystem.

After their visits to the various MERET sites in both Tigray and SNNP states, the Ambassadors’ delegation said the MERET project can transform the whole of Africa and the developing nation. It is the best African response for global warming.

“This is a hope in reality,” said Dr Yaya Olaniran, member of the delegation and Permanent representative of Nigeria to the UN Rome-based agencies. According to the delegation, the project will enable the African team of negotiators to have a clear message that Africa can defend itself from the negative impacts of climate change.

“The experience of MERET shows us that it is possible to defend from the effect of climate change,” said Carla Luis, permanent representative of Mozambique to the UN Rome-based agencies. “If we are as committed as Ethiopia in responding to climate change, we can really make a difference,” she added. Members of the delegation commended the efforts being made in the Tigray regional state in restoring the ecosystem and its effective use of soil and water resources. They said the developing world should replicate Ethiopia’s experience in the sector so that it can contribute to the reduction of the adverse effects of climate change.

The delegation also said they will present what they observed to the international community, donors and development partners as a best example where money can be effectively utilized. They also pledged to encourage others to come and see the developments in Ethiopia in the sector.

“I visited many countries; this is one of the most productive. The memory will last with me for a long time,” Dr Yaya further noted. “The efforts of the Ethiopian government and the community in turning marginal lands to lands of great productivity are impressive. This is something we learn as Africans, multiply such kinds of experiences,” said Robert Sabiiti, Ugandan representative.  The delegation commended the role of the Ethiopian government in mobilizing the community to move the country forward through sustainable agricultural practices as well as its continued efforts in responding to the negative impacts of climate change.

“We are going back very well informed, very well illuminated about what is happening here in Ethiopia. We saw really a very strong leadership, a very committed leadership,” Carla Luis said. Sharing the idea, Dr yaya also said “More importantly we find the heads of governments giving their support and backing to the issue.”

The visit aimed at sharing success stories of the country in reducing the consequences of climate change would serve as an input for the Africa’s team of negotiators in Copenhagen, Denmark. As it was given emphasis by the delegation, the MERET experience should further be up scaled with a view to broaden the benefit of communities and adapt to the negative impacts of climate change.