Ethiopia

Download the report

The great diversity of Ethiopia's landscapes has led to wide variations in climate, soils and natural vegetation, with 10 ecosystems, 18 major and 49 minor agro-ecological zones. Ethiopia's highlands are the source of major perennial rivers, including the Blue Nile. There is virtually no perennial surface water flow in areas below 1500m.

Ethiopia's forests play a vital role in ensuring food security and sustainable livelihoods for millions of households, notably through the production of honey, forest coffee, natural gums and timber. According to national estimates, Ethiopia has an estimated 6,000 species of higher plants, 10% of which are endemic, 284 species of wild mammals and 861 species of birds. The country is also recognized as one of the world's centers of origin for crops such as coffee, but also a center of diversity for indigenous farm animals - 28 cattle, 9 sheep, 8 goats, 7 camels, 6 donkeys, 8 breeds of horse, 2 mules and 7 breeds of chicken.
As a result of agricultural expansion, a significant proportion of high forest, woodland and wetlands have been converted to tea, rice, sugar cane, biofuel factories and coffee plantations. Ethiopia's NBSAP identifies habitat conversion, unsustainable use of biodiversity resources, invasive species, replacement of local varieties and breeds, climate change and pollution as the main direct threats to biodiversity. Numerous indirect causes also impact on the decline of Ethiopian biodiversity, including population growth, poverty and lack of awareness and coordination.

Ethiopia's Growth and Transformation Plan II (GTP II) places the modernization and sustainability of the agricultural sector as one of its pillars for ensuring growth by 2025. GTP II also identifies the environment and the green economy as a cross-cutting issue, with a number of major objectives such as increasing the contribution of forests to the economy and ecology by increasing forest cover by 20%, or rehabilitating protected areas to increase carbon sinks by 30%.

Access to the IBAT sheet

In Ethiopia, stakeholders in the three targeted sectors were mobilized through national dialogue workshops (one per sector) organized in two stages: validation of diagnosis 2 proposing strategic actions for each sector, and validation of sectoral proposals by region, sector or biosphere.

These workshops brought together representatives from the public and private sectors (umbrella organizations, producer organizations, companies), civil society organizations, research and the banking sector.

Options chosen and scenarios discussed

Solutions identified by stakeholders

Here you can find out more about the Voluntary Service tracks obtained in Ethiopia, in the Bale region and in the South-Western Forests.

Country profiles IPPS

Notes de politiques publiques

After supporting the 15 countries in the identification of priority sectors, and facilitating the commitment of private-sector players in favor of biodiversity, BIODEV2030 is building on the momentum created to roll out the voluntary commitments on a pilot territory scale, and to strengthen the integration of biodiversity into countries' sectoral public policies.

The sectors targeted for Phase II are cereals and coffee, pastoralism and wood energy. In order to identify the most relevant sectoral public policy instruments (IPPS) to be created, abolished or modified, BIODEV2030 has called on Altai Consulting. This support is intended to contribute to the coherence of economic, sectoral (agriculture, mining, fisheries, forestry, etc.) and environmental (particularly biodiversity-related) policies, a key aspect of the mainstreaming approach. This global integration of biodiversity helps to prevent economic and sectoral policies from encouraging actors (producers) to adopt production practices that are harmful to nature, in contradiction with a country's biodiversity commitments.

Altai has developedIPPS sheets for each country. The Ethiopia sheet is available via the button above.

Lors des ateliers nationaux, le lien avec le Ministère de l’Agriculture a été maintenu, ainsi qu’avec l’Institut Ethiopien pour la Biodiversité (Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute) et la Commission pour l’Environnement, la Forêt et le Changement Climatique (Environment, Forest and Climate Change Commission).

Les Ministères se sont fortement impliqués, notamment celui de la Planification et du Développement, des Finances et de l’Agriculture, et du Point Focal National pour la Convention pour la Diversité Biologique (CDB).

Stakeholders agreed on the pressing need to strongly mobilize the private sector and donors (in line with target 19 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Framework), but also to involve political players and the media in order to disseminate the method of mainstreaming biodiversity within society.

Les réformes proposées s’articulent essentiellement autour du zonage pour la production de café, la mise en place de standards d’agroforesterie, l’intégration de meilleures pratiques agricoles, l’amélioration de la traçabilité pour la certification, en s’engageant dans les marchés concernés par la réglementation européenne contre la déforestation importée (EUDR).

Concept Notes

En Ethiopie, le projet pilote a été développé dans l’éco-région de Bale. Il vise à promouvoir des chaines de valeur en faveur de la biodiversité et du climat, à travers des pratiques productives durables dans les secteurs de l’énergie, des céréales, de l’élevage et du pastoralisme.