Planting Seeds of Change
By Tim Prewitt, President and CEO, The Hunger Project
Recently, I had the opportunity to walk through a new forest in northern Ethiopia.
The terrain was rich and diverse, with trees of a dozen native and foreign species reaching to the sky. The air was cool and crisp, with lush green undergrowth carrying the scent of wildflowers and earthy vegetation. We navigated the winding paths, through the newly-dense forest, where sunlight filtered through the canopy. The twenty-minute walk was like stepping into a living painting, where each turn revealed a new scene of beauty and gave us a profound connection to nature.
This forest was established by the surrounding communities just seven years ago. Peering through the trees at the edge of the forest, we could see a much different landscape, brown and barren. The soil, dry and cracked, struggled to support any form of life. Instead of lush forests with rich green biomass undergrowth, we could see vast stretches of eroded land. Ethiopia is one of the oldest settlements of the human race, with land use reaching back for millennia, resulting in vegetation loss, land degradation, and soil erosion. Today, a quarter of the total land is degraded in Ethiopia–affecting 40 million people, nearly one-third of the population.
Ethiopia is not alone. Unsustainable management of croplands and grazing lands degrades land, not in a millennia but in a few short years, impacting food security, water purification, the provision of energy, and other contributions of nature essential to people. From the Amazon basin to the plains of the Midwest United States, land degradation has reached critical levels in many parts of the world. Globally, one third of our topsoils are degraded, and at the current rates of depletion, the FAO estimates that in 60 years we will completely run out of topsoil.
Given that 95 percent of per capita calorie consumption worldwide comes from crops that grow directly in the soil or from food sources that indirectly rely on it, this figure is sobering. It calls us to action.
Landscape restoration is at the center of The Hunger Project’s partnership with Ethiopian communities to create a world without hunger. Community leaders, including women leaders, engaged in our Vision, Commitment, Action workshop, and created a plan to restore and protect the landscape. The community leaders chose to focus on cordoning off community-held lands, planting a mix of native tree species to create a more balanced and natural environment, and ensuring protection through new community agreements and forest governance practices. This has led to a long-term and sustainable solution for clean water, protection from floods, and generated a variety of plants and animals. Their leadership and deep commitment to this work has led to a community-wide understanding of its importance and adoption of new practices by all. The work has also created a platform for women to exercise their leadership and elevate their voices in the community, which will have ripple effects on the development of these villages for generations.
Together, The Hunger Project’s work has formed 80 community Forest Associations and planted over one million tree seedlings in degraded areas. We have trained 2,843 households in agroforestry practices, and have witnessed an expansion in growing fruits, coffee, and vegetables in home gardens, beekeeping and creating wood lots for fuel, as well as sustainable livestock practices to support dairy production. We also established three tree seedling nurseries and produced 2,272,653 tree seedlings, contributing to the national agenda of the Ethiopian Government to restore lands.
Community members have expressed gratitude for the positive changes they have experienced, including peace and cooperation among themselves.
“The rehabilitated rangeland will be more productive and give lots of grass fodder and the forests will recharge the groundwater and the dried springs will regenerate and rivers will flow year-round. But you also brought us peace and love. We were fighting, sometimes physical confrontation, over the cows that wander on this unproductive land and transgress into farms due to open grazing. We are now sitting together and amicably discussing how to regenerate and protect the degraded and wasted lands, collect the bounty, and celebrate our achievements.” — Village Elder in Ethiopia
By working with a community-led methodology, The Hunger Project-Ethiopia’s reforestation and livelihood improvement project is making a significant impact, restoring degraded lands and supporting sustainable practices and helping to alleviate poverty, empower communities, and protect the environment. Through community involvement and shared responsibilities, they are achieving remarkable results in improving both the ecosystem and people’s lives.
The Hunger Project is a global development organization that transforms the systems of inequity that keep hunger in place. Learn more about our work at thp.org.
