Boswellia papyrifera woodland provides considerable economic, ecological and socio-cultural benefits in the drylands of Ethiopia. However, its populations are in rapid decline due to human pressure and environmental degradation. As a consequence, the species is now considered being endangered, demanding an urgent conservation intervention to sustain its existence. This study was carried out in the Abergele district, northern Ethiopia, with objectives to characterize the current population structure of B. papyrifera and prioritize its potential conservation intervention alternatives using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) modelling techniques. The woody species related data were collected from 33 sample plots randomly established in the study area. Data related to the potential intervention alternatives and their evaluating criteria were collected from experts, personal experiences and intensive literature reviews, and then validated using stakeholders’ focus group discussion. Four candidate alternatives were then considered for the AHP: 1) free grazing with no tapping resting period (FGNTR), 2) free grazing with a rotational tapping (FGRT), 3) area exclosure with medium tapping resting period (AEMTR), and 4) area exclosure with long tapping resting period (AELTR). The results showed that the population structure of B. papyrifera is unstable and is characterized by low density (266 trees ha −1 ), absence of regeneration and saplings (DBH<10 cm) due to different interrelated disturbances such as overgrazing, over tapping, pests, agricultural expansion and poor managements. The overall priority ranking value of all stakeholders using the AHP techniques also indicated that AEMTR (with overall rank value of 0.352) and AELTR (0.294) as the best alternatives strategies, respectively, for sustainable B. papyrifera woodland conservation. For the success of these strategies, their economic impacts at their early implementation stages (5–10 years) should be minimized by collecting different non-timber forest products from the woodland. Continuous capacity building training on sustainable utilizations and managements of B. papyrifera woodland should also be provided for all relevant stakeholders.

Ethiopia economy depends strongly on Coffea arabica production. Coffee, like many other crops, is sensitive to climate change and recent studies have suggested that future changes in climate will have a negative impact on its yield and quality. An urgent development and application of strategies against negative impacts of climate change on coffee production is important. Agroforestry-based system is one of the strategies that may ensure sustainable coffee production amidst likelihood future impacts of climate change. This system involves the combination of trees in buffer extremes thereby modifying microclimate conditions. This paper assessed coffee production under: (1) coffee monoculture and (2) coffee grown using agroforestry system, under: (a) current climate and (b) two different future climate change scenarios. The study focused on two representative coffee growing regions of Ethiopia under different soil, climate and elevation conditions. A process-based growth model (yield-SAFE) was used to simulate coffee production for a time horizon of 40 years. Climate change scenarios considered were: representative concentration pathways (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5. The results revealed that in monoculture systems, the current coffee yields are between 1200 and 1250 kg ha -1 year -1 , with expected decrease between 4-38 and 20-60% in scenarios RCP 4.5 and 8.5, respectively. However, in agroforestry systems, the current yields are between 1600 and 2200 kg ha -1year -1 , the decrease was lower, ranging between 4-13 and 16-25% in RCP 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios, respectively. From the results, it can be concluded that coffee production under agroforestry systems has a higher level of resilience when facing future climate change and reinforce the idea of using this type of management in the near future for adapting climate change negative impacts on coffee production.

Introduction: The present work was devoted to assess the awareness and usage of quality control tools with the emphasis on statistical process control in Ethiopian manufacturing industries. Semi structured questionnaire has been employed to executive and technical managers of manufacturing industries of various size and specialism across the country. Stratified random sample method by region was used to select sample industries for the study. The samples used for this study are industries mainly from Oromiya, Addis Ababa, Tigray, Amara, SNNP and Dire-dawa regions proportional to their size of the available industries. Methods: Exploratory method and descriptive statistics was used for data analysis. Available documents and reports related to quality control policy of the selected companies were investigated. Results and Discussions: The number of manufacturing industries involved in this study was 44. Of the sampled manufacturing industries about 60% are from Oromiya and Addis Ababa regions. It has been reported that 100% of the respondents said that the importance of quality control tools is very important to their organizations' productivity and quality improvement (Figure 3). Quality control professionals were also asked the extent to which quality control system is working in their industry and majority of the respondents (45%) have indicated that quality control system is working to some extent in their respective industries (Figure 18). Conclusions and Recommendations: Most of the quality department of the industries did not fully recognize the importance of statistical process control as quality control tools. This is mainly due to lack of awareness and motivation of the top managements, shortage of man power in the area, and others together would make it difficult to apply quality control tools in their organization. In general, the industries in Ethiopia are deficient in vigor and found to be stagnant hence less exposed to a highly competitive market and don't adopt the latest quality control techniques in order to gain knowledge about systems to improve quality and operational performance. We conclude that quality management system has to be established as an independent entity with a real power and hence the quality control department which is responsible for quality can make an irreversible decision with respect to quality of any given product. Moreover, the concerned bodies (government and ministry of industries) should give attention and work together with universities to ensure how these statistical process control techniques could be incorporated in a curriculum of the universities at higher levels in degree and masters programs. Furthermore, different trainings which could improve quality and efficiency of their respective management system should be given as short and long term to the employees including top and middle managers found in various industries relevant to their process.

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