CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION TO DROUGHT THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL REHABILITATION IN ETHIOPIA Abbadi Girmay Reda1 and Nitin K.

Tripathi2
1

RS and GIS Field of Study, AIT and Senior Researcher and Director, NRM Research Directorate, Tigray Agricultural Research Institute (TARI), Ethiopia

RS and GIS Field of Study, AIT, Thailand

ABSTRACT
Ethiopia has a population of 79 million, the second most populous nation in Africa. Agriculture is the pillar of Ethiopian economy but failed to keep up with increasing demands of the growing population. Whilst land degradation has already taken and continues to take its toll, climate change poses another real challenge to the realization of the full potential of Ethiopian agriculture. Ethiopia is expected to be hardest hit by climate change; and the most vulnerable sectors are agriculture, water resources and human health. It is predicted that climate change could lead to increased water stress, overall reduction in agricultural productivity and expansion of spatial ecology of vectors of diseases such as malaria to highlands of Ethiopia. Health GIS studies of malaria have also shown this trend. An option for adaptation to climate change and necessary condition for sustainable agriculture in itself is sustainable land management (SLM) and rehabilitation of degraded lands. Community Based Integrated Watershed Management (CBIWSM) approach was adopted as one of the top climate change adaptation strategies in Ethiopia. Massive sustainable local community based natural resource management efforts have been undertaken to reverse this situation and there are a lot of success stories in the last 20 years which includes: Water harvesting, Irrigation (crop diversification and intensification), Zero grazing , A (re)forestation , plantation, agroforestry, closure areas, protected forests, intensive and integrated watershed management approach/ SWC and conservation agriculture. Land surface is an important part of the climate system. Its interactions with the atmosphere involves multiple and complex processes and feedbacks. Changes in forest cover can affect surface energy budgets, local temperatures, moisture flux to the atmosphere, and regional rainfall. Hence, land degradation is primed to exacerbate climate change impacts. Conversely, SLM practices constitute key adaptation measures by resulting in reduced soil erosion, improved water retention, and improved land productivity. Adaptation is a process by which communities seek to cope with consequences of climate change, including variability involving reactive or anticipatory impacts of changing climatic conditions to reduce or to take advantage of new circumstances. SLM practices are anticipatory adaptation measures. SLM has both adaptation and mitigation significance as it leads to increased above- and belowground carbon stocks.

Key words: Climate change, drought, adaptation, Ethiopia, SLM

1. INTRODUCTION
The croplands, pastures and forests that occupy 60 percent of the Earths surface are progressively being exposed to threats from increased climatic variability and, in the longer run, to climate change. Abnormal changes in air temperature and rainfall and resulting increases in frequency and intensity of drought and flood events have long-term implications for the viability of these ecosystems. Two main types of adaptation are autonomous and planned adaptation. Autonomous adaptation is the reaction of, for example, a farmer to changing precipitation patterns, in that s/he changes crops or uses different harvest and planting/sowing dates. Planned adaptation measures are conscious policy options or response strategies, often multisectoral in nature, aimed at altering the adaptive capacity of the agricultural system or facilitating specific adaptations. Climate change can significantly reverse the progress towards poverty reduction and food security in Africa. The main consequence of higher temperatures and more unpredictable weather was a likely reduction in crop yields. One-third of the African population lives in drought-prone areas. Six of the ten largest cities in Africa are located on the coast. These are highly vulnerable to climate change. Those least able to cope will be hit the hardest (FAO, 2007).

An option for adaptation to climate change and a necessary condition for sustainable agriculture in itself is sustainable land and water management and rehabilitation of degraded lands (NMSA and Bewuket, 2009). Ethiopia is already suffering from variability and extremes of climate. World Bank (2006) asserts that rainfall variability costs the Ethiopian economy 38% of its potential growth rate. Net revenue per hectare will be reduced by UDS 177.62 and 464.71 consequent to a unit increase in temperature during summer and winter seasons, respectively (Temesgen Deressa , 2007).. Climate change is therefore a threat to the Ethiopian economy and livelihoods of millions of the poor. The available option for Ethiopia to reduce the wide-ranging impacts of climate change is to adapt to changing climate. Generally, vulnerabilities are local and require location specific adaptation measures. Ethiopia is heavily dependent on rain-fed agriculture and geophysical location and topography in combination with low adaptive capacity entail a high vulnerability to adverse impacts of climate change. In 2006/07, agricultural production generated around 46% of Ethiopian GDP and employed 80% of the working population. Extreme events like flooding which occurred in Eastern and southern regions of Ethiopia led to destruction of capital stock. This shows that the implications of climate vulnerability are not evenly distributed across the macroeconomic aggregates (C. Arndt etal, 2009). The country remains prone to drought as well as climate-driven health impacts. Climate change vulnerability analyses for Ethiopia suggests that climate change over the coming decades presents a serious threat to various economic and social sectors as the frequency and intensity of drought is likely to increase. Addressing long-term climate change is thus required to reduce the impacts on livelihoods in general and major economic sectors such as agriculture, which is the mainstay of the country (GEF, 2009). Climate change induced drought is a critical issue as it bears directly on ecosystem services. NAPA process is confirming that sustainable land management, drought and agriculture are priority adaptation issues. These comprises increasing water storage facilities, improving water management, diversifying crops, developing irrigation systems, enhancing erosion control, improving and changing crop practices and management, improving pasture and livestock management, increasing sustainable tree and forest products, and conserving forest

2. CLIMATE CHANGE IN ETHIOPIA

Whilst land degradation has already taken and continues to take its toll, climate change poses another real challenge to Ethiopian agriculture. Over the last five decades frequency of occurrence of extreme weather events such as drought and flood show an increasing trend. Particularly since the 1980s, droughts of various intensity have occurred every 4 or 5 years and seem to be more frequent since 1997. Seasonal and inter-annual rainfall variability has increased and temperature shows an increasing trend. Ethiopia is expected to be hardest hit by climate change; and the most vulnerable sectors are agriculture, water resources and human health. It is predicted that climate change could lead to increased water stress, overall reduction in agricultural productivity and yields, and expansion of vector habitats (spatial ecology) of diseases such as malaria.

ecosystems, genetic stocks and wildlife resources etc. Temporal and spatial distribution of rainfall have been varying from place to place and from time to time causing repeated inter-annual climate variability and drought over the past few years. Comparing drought and famine periods with that of El Nino Southern Oscillation (ELSO) events showed a remarkable association, suggesting that the country is vulnerable to occurrences El Nino and El Nina and associated climatic variations. Some droughts coincided while some others just followed the El Nino and El Nina events (NMSA, 2008). Due to Ethiopia's vulnerability to extreme weather events its government has set in place initiatives such as the National Policy on Disaster Prevention and Preparedness, Plan for Accelerated and Sustainable Development to end Poverty (PASDEP) that attempts to directly reduce the impact of disaster. The Government of Ethiopia finalized its National Adaptation Program of Action (NAPA) in 2008 under the leadership of NMSA and is mobilizing financial resources for its implementation (FDRE, 2006). Experiences from elsewhere such as in China have shown that appropriate use and management of natural resources could enhance resilience of ecosystems and improve livelihoods of the poor in the face of climate change. The Ethiopian National Adaptation Program of Action (NAPA) also recognizes the importance of integrated natural resources management as an adaptation measure, where Integrated Community- based watershed Management (ICBWSM) is listed as one out of the 20 selected high priority adaptation projects (NMSA,2008). Hydro-economic modeling of climate change impacts in Ethiopia," study carried out by IFPRI (IFPRI 2010) indicates that the largest impact of climate change on Ethiopia's economy will be due to the increased frequency of extreme events, causing severe losses to agricultural products. It recommends that Ethiopia invest in water control to expand irrigation and improve flood protection. An attempt was made to measure vulnerability of Ethiopian farmers to climate change by Temesgen Deressa and colleagues (IFPRI 2008).This study analyzes the vulnerability of Ethiopian farmers to climate change based on the integrated vulnerability assessment approach using vulnerability indicators. The vulnerability indicators consist of the different socioeconomic and biophysical attributes of

Ethiopias seven agriculture-based regional states. The different socioeconomic and biophysical indicators of each region collected have been classified into three classes, based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes (IPCC 2001) definition of vulnerability, which consists of adaptive capacity, sensitivity, and exposure. The results indicate that the relatively least-developed, semiarid, and arid regionsnamely, Afar and Somaliare highly vulnerable to climate change. The Oromia regiona wide region characterized both by areas of good agricultural production in the highlands and midlands and by recurrent droughts, especially in the lowlandsis also vulnerable. The Tigray region, which is characterized by recurrent drought, is also vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change in comparison with the other regions. Thus, investing in the development of the relatively underdeveloped regions of Somali and Afar, irrigation for regions with high potential, early warning systems to help farmers better cope in times of drought, and production of drought-tolerant varieties of crops and species of livestock can all reduce the vulnerability of Ethiopian farmers to climate change. Results show that temperature increases while rainfall decreases in Ethiopia Wing H. Cheung, Gabriel B. Senay and. Ashbindu Singh analyzed tends and spatial distribution of annual and seasonal rainfall in Ethiopia, They investigated the temporal dynamics of rainfall and its spatial distribution within Ethiopia. Changes in rainfall were examined using data from 134 stations in 13 watersheds between 1960 and 2002. In their regression analysis of seasonal rainfall averages against time, they found a signicant decline in June to September rainfall (i.e. Kiremt) for the BaroAkobo, Omo-Ghibe, Rift Valley, and Southern Blue Nile watersheds located in the southwestern and central parts of Ethiopia (Wing H. Cheung etal, 2006).

3. INTEGRATED COMMUNITY BASED WATERSHED MANAGEMENT (ICB WSM) FOR CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION
Deforestation, accelerated soil erosion, and land degradation are serious problems in Ethiopia. Inappropriate use have led to cyclic drought, environmental degradation, decrease in productivity and deep rooted poverty. Prominent Challenges include: Land resources degradation, recurrent and cyclic drought and declining productivity. Land degradation is manifested in many ways in the region: Vegetation degradation (Deforestation & loss of species richness), habitat destruction, loss of biodiversity. The causes of land degradation in Ethiopia are complex and diverse. These include natural factors such as the rugged terrain, erosive rainfall and inherently fragile soils, and a number of immediate and underlying causes. The immediate causes relate to unsuitable land uses and inappropriate farming and livestock management practices, while the underlying causes relate to the more fundamental issues of land users circumstances such as scarcity of resources, security of tenure over resources, poverty, and functioning policies and institutions, Sustainable Land Management (SLM) requires addressing of the underlying causes to the problem (WoldeAmlak Bewuket, 2009). SLM is a multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder program that brings communities, the government and the supporting institutions on common platform and towards shared results. The overall objective of SLM Program is to improve the livelihood of land users and communities through implementation of SLM activities in the framework of community based participatory watershed development plans. Synergy and coordination, ownership, harmonisation and alignment, capacity development and management by objectives are some of the strategies to ensure program and aid effectiveness. Strengthening institutional set-up for coordination, implementation and elaborating action plans which reflect the community needs are integral parts of the program. Furthermore, utilizing capacities and resources of implementing and supporting agencies efficiently and effectively are critical for the achievement of SLM results and outcomes.

Massive Sustainable local community based natural resource management efforts have been undertaken to reverse this situation in the last 20 years. Community Based Integrated Watershed Management (CBIWSM) approach was adopted as one of the top climate change adaptation strategies in Ethiopia. Community based natural resource management efforts have been undertaken to reverse this situation and there are a lot of success stories in the last 20 years which includes: Water harvesting, Irrigation (crop diversification and intensification), Zero grazing , A (re)forestation , plantation, agroforestry, closure areas, protected forests, intensive and integrated watershed management approach/ SWC and conservation agriculture. Land surface is an important part of the climate system. Its interactions with the atmosphere involves multiple and complex processes and feedbacks. Changes in forest cover can affect surface energy budgets, local temperatures, moisture flux to the atmosphere, and regional rainfall. Hence, land degradation is primed to exacerbate climate change impacts. Conversely, SLM practices constitute key adaptation measures by resulting in reduced soil erosion, improved water retention, and improved land productivity. Main Principles of Community Based Integrated Watershed Management (CBIWSM) approach include: Participatory, Gender sensitivity, building upon local experience and strength, realistic, integrated, productive, manageable, watershed logic respected (ridge to valley), cost sharing/empowerment/ownership, and complementary to food security and rural development.

Efforts of land rehabilitation and their impacts Table1. Land rehabilitation activities in Ethiopia (1979-19990) S.N. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Activities Farm bunds Hillside bunds Terracing Micro basin Cut-off drains Drainage/ diversion channel Area closure Seedling raising Plantation Micro dam River diversion Pond construction Stream development Unit Ha Ha KM No KM KM Total 2,140,898 1,292,164 72,104 40,400,000 11,265 3,772

Environmental rehabilitation

and

ecological

Habitat and biodiversity restoration Feed and livestock water availability for

Overall impacts on household incomes and livelihood outcomes

4. IMPLICATIONS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION

Mitigation of climate change refers to interventions aimed at reducing emissions from the sources or enhancing the sinks of Green House Gases (GHG). SLM, in addition to its role in adaptation, provides a significant potential as a mitigation measure. Globally, agriculture and land use changes are major contributors of GHGs (IPCC, 2007). This means, in other words, appropriate agricultural practices and land use and land cover management offers a great mitigation potential. Sustainable forest management, reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) is one of the recognized mitigation options. Soil carbon sequestration also has a huge mitigation potential with a wide-range of synergies such as improved productivity and soil health (Bewuket 2009). Agriculture and SLM are important domains through which developing countries can contribute to global mitigation efforts as they fall within National Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs). Environmental rehabilitation efforts in Ethiopia have brought about reclamation of waste lands, re-vegetation of degraded hillsides, restoration of damaged pasturelands, and adoption of improved soil and water conservation and management technologies in cultivated lands. In consequence, these efforts have apparently led to enhanced carbon sequestration and both above-and below-ground carbon stocks. SLM practices and climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies are mutually supportive and represent win-win options.

7 8 9 10 11 12 13

Ha No Ha No No No No

398,000 2,500,000,000 918,000 133 4,166 1,988 109,642

Source: MoARD Ethiopia, 2004 Overall Impacts of environmental rehabilitation in Ethiopia Reclamation of gully and degraded lands in to productive lands Enhanced surface and ground water availability Modification of microclimates Increased productivity Soil fertility and moisture availability enhanced use of chemical fertilizers

5. CONCLUSION AND THE WAY FORWARD

The Kyoto period is the lost opportunity for Africa. Ethiopia as one of the hardest hit countries by global climate change, has developed climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies (NAPA and NAMA) and has mobilized its resources and implements different projects. This lead national effort in Africa should be appreciated and be supported by international initiatives such as The Copenhagen Negotiation and other UN based frameworks. This effort is also development pathway for Ethiopia. The following actions should be taken to minimize climate change effects in Ethiopia: Ensuring civil society and community participation both in formulating climate change policies and in integrating climate change into development priorities. Strengthen cooperation of multisectoral, multilateral and all development actors to realize adaptation and mitigation strategy of Ethiopia Investing in livelihood opportunities and risk management strategies for poor farmers and pastoralists Building on what farmers and pastoralists are already doing to adapt to climate variability and change. Investigate these practices further for their sustainability and impact on poverty and inequality, and potential for replication or enhancement. 4. 5. 6. 7.

fisheries: Perspectives, frameworks and Priorities. FDRE. 2006. PASDEP Strategy of Ethiopia GEF. 2006. Ethiopia: Coping with drought and climate change IFPRI. 2010. Climate Change impacts in Ethiopia and south Africa FDRE MoARD . 2004. Environmental rehabilitation activities (1979-1999). Unpublished Report. NMSA. 2008. Climate Change adaption Taskforce and plans. Temesgen etal. 2008. Measuring Vulnerability of Ethiopian farmers to climate change. Wing H. Cheung, Gabriel B. Senay and Ashbindu Singh. 2008. Trends and Spatial Distribution of Annual and Seasonal Rain fall in Ethiopia. International Journal of Climatology. Published online in Wiley Inter science.

8. 9.

10.

6.
1.

REFERENCES
Bewuket WoldeAmlak. 2009. Environmental rehabilitation in response to climate change in Ethiopia. WFP, MERET Project Evaluation report, Ethiopia. C A, H. Ahmed, Sherman Robinson &, D.Willenbekel.2009.Climate change and Ethiopia. Earth and Environmental Sciences: Vol. 6, IOP Publishing. FAO.. 2007. Adaption to climate change in agriculture, forestry and

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SUSTAINABLE MANAGMENT AFRICA

OPPORTUNITIES INCREASING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY GREENHOUSE MITIGATION
SLM increases storage in soil

LAND IN
FOR

AND GAS
carbon

African topsoils are storing 316 billion tons of CO2eq.6 But with 2/3rd of sub-Saharan Africas cropland, rangeland, and woodland already degraded,7 this stored carbon is being returned to the atmosphere. The GHG mitigation potential of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) in agricultural lands is very large. SLM strategies and practices can prevent land degradation, restore degraded lands, and reduce the need for further conversion of natural forests and grasslands. Farmers can, reduce GHG emissions, increase carbon sequestration, and maintain above- and below-ground carbon stocks at relatively low cost, while also improving food production and livelihoods.

TerrAfrica Climate Brief No. 2 UNFCCC Article 4.1(c): Promote and cooperate in the development, application and diffusion, including transfer, of technologies, practices and processes that control, reduce or prevent anthropogenic emission of greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol in all relevant sectors, including the energy, transport, industry, agriculture, forestry and waste management sectors.

Mitigation through sustainable management of agricultural land

SLM uses trees and other perennials that store carbon on farms
Improved agricultural practices can reduce carbon emissions from soil erosion and disturbance, and capture carbon from the atmosphere to store long-term in soils. Practices like cover cropping, applying crop residues, mulch, manuring, reduced tillage, and rotational cropping with legumes increase organic matter in soil, while also increasing crop yields. With better agronomic practices, nutrient and water management, reduced tillage and crop residue management, African croplands could potentially reduce GHG emissions by 2.03.5 million tons of CO2eq per hectare per year8 or a total of 52.391.5 million tons of CO2eq9 equal to 5-9% of annual African fossil fuel emissions in 2005.3 Unlike annual crops, perennial trees and grasses live for years, sequestering and storing carbon in their roots and branches as they grow, as well as in the soil. As part of SLM, farmers grow trees in and around their farm fi elds, to harvest useful products such as fruit, livestock fodder and medicines. This benefi ts the climate as well as ecosystems.

Land degradation and land use change are the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in Africa
Soil and vegetation on the earths land surface store three times the carbon present in the Earths atmosphere.1 Landclearing and degradation turn this valuable carbon sink into a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As land continues to degrade, livelihood options for at least 485 million Africans also dwindle with it.2 43% of Africas total CO2 emissions come from land-clearing for agricultural use, including croplands and shifting cultivation.3 5 million hectares of forest will likely be lost annually in Africa from 2005-2015, releasing nearly 2 billion tons of CO2eq each year4, or 13% of annual global emissions from forestry and agriculture combined.5

In humid zones of Africa, retaining shade and understory trees in cacao can provide vast carbon stores. For example, mature cacao agroforestry systems in Cameroon store 565 tons of CO2eq per hectare.10 Even in semi-arid lands, agroforestry systems like intercropping or silvopasture, with 50 trees per hectare, can store 110 to 147 tons of CO2eq per hectare in the soil alone.11
For more informaiton on the TerrAfrica platform, please visit: www.terrafrica.org. This Brief was prepared on behalf of TerrAfrica by Sara J. Scherr and Sajal Sthapit of Ecoagriculture Partners in collaboration with the World Bank/TerrAfrica team (Frank Sperling, Christophe Crepin, Steve Danyo, Florence Richard and Johannes Woelcke). The opinions presented are solely of the authors alone and should not be attributed to their respective organizations. This Brief complements the TerrAfrica/IFPRI paper The Role of SLM for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in Sub-Saharan Africa by Pender, Place, Ringler and Magalhaes. 2009.

SLM sequesters carbon while restoring degraded lands and watersheds

Expanding SLMs role in climate change mitigation

Unsustainable cropping practices and overgrazing of pastures have led to large-scale degradation of productive land and watersheds, releasing huge amounts of carbon from soils and vegetation. Bringing degraded lands back into productive use through SLM can sequester carbon while restoring critical watersheds. Re-vegetationcan sequester 3.5 tons of CO2eq per hectare in a year in dry environments and up to 4.5 tons in cool-moist ones.8 In rotational grazing, livestock move from one pasture to another at frequent intervals, giving plants time to recover and thus preventing desertification and soil carbon loss. Proper pasture management can potentially store from 110 kg of CO2eq per hectare per year in drylands to 810 kg of CO2eq per hectare in humid lands.8 Farmer-managed natural regeneration in Niger has grown 200 million trees in 5 million hectares of land in two

decades. This sequestered over 100 million tons of CO2eq, while providing diverse livelihood benefits to farmers.12 Afforestation activities are already eligible for the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) is being considered for inclusion in a post-Kyoto climate regime. But the potential contribution of agricultural land management to climate change mitigation is not recognized. Yet this is the critical element to establish landscape-scale mitigation projects that fully account for land use change. The estimated biophysical GHG mitigation potential of agricultural lands in Africa is over 1,000 MtCO2eq per year by 2030.8 To realize this great potential, policymakers can: Promote the development of carbon markets that will eventually include the full range of landuse options that provide real and measurable climate and livelihood benefits. Land-use carbon accounting tools must be advanced that reliably measure those benefits from soils, trees, grasses and other components of the landscape. Including agricultural activities, afforestation and avoided deforestation in future compliance markets for GHG mitigation would increase demand for land-use based emission reductions. Integrate SLM fully into national and international strategies for reducing GHG emissions and enhancing carbon sequestration within landscapes. Land-usefocused research and advisory systems should provide technologies that enhance above- and below-ground carbon sequestration and produce synergies between productivity, climate resilience and carbon sequestration. Scale up investments for land management and climate change by building on existing policy frameworks and platforms. TerrAfrica is a multi-stakeholder platform to upscale and align SLM-related investment in Africa. The platform supports implementation of subSaharan countries UNCCD National Action Programs, and NEPADs Comprehensive

Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) to improve food security and productivity. TerrAfrica provides knowledge-sharing, coalition-building and coordination of country-based investments across sectors. Other existing policy frameworks can also be entry points for mitigation efforts. Support local, national and regional African farmer organizations in overcoming barriers to adopt SLM technologies and accessing the carbon market. Initiatives need to develop cost-efficient methodologies for farmers toaccess carbon markets and their income benefits, and that lower barriers to adoption of sustainable land managementpractices which enhance land productivity and sustainability.