Household level tree planting and its implication for environmental conservation in the Beressa Watershed of Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Elsewhere in other developing countries, and 85% of the Ethiopian population is living in rural part of the country and more than 90% of domestic energy source is dependent of traditional biofuel. Increase in population is causing more demand for human use and more pressure on natural resources. This adversely affect the increase of multi-purpose and indigenous tree plantation and ago-forestry practice and hence has a vicious circle with food security. However, following the start of community based watershed management practice, households are encouraged to plant trees on their private land, which contributed to the increase of forest coverage. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess household level tree planting, domestic energy consumption, and explore implication for environmental conservation.Results: Fuelwood and dung was major source of domestic energy in the area, consumed on an average 2280 and 1533 kg/year respectively and the total biofuel consumption was 268.06 t/year. The decline in natural forest and increase in demand for wood motivated people to have privately planted trees. Though it was variable among various socio-economic characteristics of farmers, tree planting was encouraged, based on ground reality. Therefore, promoting private based tree plantation should be considered as economic relief and filling the demand gap of fuelwood. Likewise, the opportunity cost of dung available for soil conditioner. The use of fuel saving stove and other alternative source of energy should be encouraged. Conclusion:Local context policy option used for favoring for the allocation of bare land and mountainous topography for community and private tree planting for landless and small holder farmers has to be encouraged.

Rooting the Future; On-Farm Trees’ Contribution to Household Energy Security and Asset Creation as a Resilient Development Pathway—Evidence from a 20-Year Panel in Rural Ethiopia

“…This represents a clear sign of energy insecurity when a household burns a fuel that they prefer to use for another purpose and could potentially be a robust indicator to enhance measurement of household energy insecurity to complement fuel/energy poverty measures. Recent case study research from the highlands of Ethiopia using mixed methods confirmed the continued existence of this chronic household energy insecurity as a negative feedback of biomass removal from the environment leading to less biomass being regenerated and available to the community [56]. Firewood remained overall the most frequently used energy source for the ERHS households but was often collected in open access areas or in communal forests, as well as from on-farm sources.…”

“…In fact the promotion of common environmental assets and on-farm tress may be complimentary, rather than substitutive, goals. Recent research from a watershed management area in Ethiopia confirmed that household level trees were major contributors to achieving project goals by meeting community fuel and fodder needs while relieving pressure on existing forests and at the same time increasing productivity by increasing dung availably for fertilizer [56].…”

“…Biomass collection on farm can clearly save time that can be made available for other activities. Several authors have indicated time saving along with increased fuel availability and land productivity are all pathways to improved food security and diet diversity [56,90]. Here we present correlations of the ERHS households most valuable assets in 1994 and 2009 with common measures of wellbeing including a diet diversity score (Table 7).…”

“…In other words, taking into account fuel requirements, exchange of different biomass products and the range of rural household capacities and assets is essential to accurate characterization of development capacity pathways. A recent mixed methods case study from Ethiopia documented the substitution of dung with firewood from on-farm trees for cooking fuel that, in turn, increased the availability and application of dung as fertilizer, resulting in subsequent crop productivity [56]. A key research challenge remains in further articulation of the pathways that planting on-farm trees' contribution of fuel, food, and income to a broader range of well-being and livelihood outcomes over the mediumand longer-term.…”

Towards integrated water resources management considering hydro-climatological scenarios: an option for sustainable development

“…In the area during the last 35 years, based on the author's observations, the distribution and pattern of rainfall could be classified as uneven, irregular and erratic. Therefore, has considerable contribution to low crop production, food shortage and insecurity (Worku et al 2017b). Therefore, depending on the historical trend of rainfall variability and prolonged increase of surface temperature, optimization of supplemental irrigation from harvested water would be useful during excess rainfall and runoff when rainfall is over.…”