Ethiopia launches Sustainable Land Management Platform

By Kirubel Tadesse (Capital)

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD) together with a number of partner organizations, has launched a Sustainable Land Management (SLM) platform that targets to alleviate land degradation and food insecurity problems of the nation.

Stating land as a critical resource in Ethiopia with agriculture production accounting for about 50% of the GDP, 90% of export revenues and 80% employment, Ahmed Nasir, State Minister of MoARD, said that the resource faces critical environmental problems such as soil erosion, deforestation and land degradation.
“About 85% of our land surface is considered prone to moderate to very severe soil degradation, about 28% severe or very severe,” explained Ahmed, “it is estimated that about 30, 000 ha are annually lost from water erosion with more than two million already severely damaged, one billion ton of topsoil is lost each year from soil erosion, and 62,000 ha of forest and woodland are cleared annually.”

According to the State Minister, past efforts have failed to comprehensively address the problem and a more programmatic approach is a must. “The government has formalized the decision to develop and implement a National Programmatic Framework for sustainable land management in a program-based approach,” added Ahmed, at the press conference held at German House on February13, 2008 to launch the platform.
The World Bank, German Development Cooperation, FAO, World Food Program, USAID, and UNDP are some of the partner organizations behind the platform. Dr. Andrea Bahm, GTZ Director of the Ethio-German Program for Sustainable Utilization of Natural Resources for Improved Food Security (SUN), stated that the national SLM framework is paving the way to direct efforts and resources, the public, government and donor organizations in an efficient and timely manner.

At the platform launching ceremony, Seleshi Getahun, MoARD head of Forest, Land use, Soils Development and Conservation, explained that the first step of the action plan will be the establishment of regional platforms which will be responsible for the establishment for Woreda watershed development technical committees. “The Woreda technical committees will further establish Kebele watershed development committees,” explains Seleshi, “at the initial stage of program implementation, more attention will be given to awareness raising campaigns on SLM.”

In connection with launching the SLM platform, a documentary film entitled “The Lessons of the Loess Plateau, China” was shown. The opening was marked with the presence of President Girma Wolde-Giorgis and senior government officials.