Reducing land degradation and carbon loss from Ethiopia's soils to strengthen livelihoods and resilience (RALENTIR)

土地退化是埃塞俄比亚的一个主要问题。最近的估计表明，埃塞俄比亚退化土地的面积超过全国的四分之一，影响到近三分之一的人口。土地退化有多种形式，产生多种不同的影响，对严重依赖自然资源的穷人的影响最为不利。森林、土壤、水、生物多样性以及生态系统提供的经济和社会服务都受到影响。气候变化和极端天气事件，如最近的厄尔尼诺效应，大大增加了土壤侵蚀和土壤养分流失的风险。退化的影响和恢复土地的措施在时间和空间上在人口中的分布本来就不平等。埃塞俄比亚广泛采用通过建立传统社区准入受到限制的“封闭”地区来恢复退化的公共土地。这些限制特别影响到那些无法获得其他木柴和放牧来源的人。如果土壤恢复要长期可持续，就必须考虑到这种不平等和当地的正义观念。该项目旨在改进防治土地退化措施的设计，同时考虑到公平和正义，加强风险管理，造福社区，特别是贫困和边缘群体，提高当地人民适应和改善生活的能力。该项目采用跨学科方法，涵盖人类学、农业和林业科学、经济学、环境建模、水文学、社会学和土壤科学。在埃塞俄比亚南部国家、民族和人民区域内涵盖不同农业和气候带的案例研究地区，该项目将与埃塞俄比亚农业局一起设计干预措施，对选定的符合条件的无地青年和妇女进行培训，并为他们提供获得圈地的机会，使他们能够在1）养蜂或2）牲畜管理方面从事新的生产活动。- 示范和培训当地农民在简单的措施，以解决沟formationThe研究的目的是找出新的干预措施对参与者的影响，如何沟通和促进社区内的干预措施，他们是如何经历的不同群体，以及他们的影响的偏好和态度，以自然资源管理在社区内。该项目将收集土壤、水文和社会经济数据。这将与环境和经济建模一起使用，以衡量干预措施对直接参与者的影响，更广泛社区对自然资源管理的偏好，以及对土地退化的潜在长期影响，从而帮助改进地方自然资源管理的设计。该项目将与当地和区域从业人员、发展代理人和当地社区代表一道，汇集所有研究结果，提出建议，改进规划土地退化措施的框架，使之符合社区的愿望、价值观和正义观念。

Land degradation is a major problem in Ethiopia. Recent estimates put the size of degraded land in Ethiopia at more than one-quarter of the entire country, which affects nearly a third of the population. Land degradation takes many forms and has many different effects, with the most adverse impacts on poor people, who depend heavily on natural resources. Forests, soils, water, biodiversity, and economic and social services derived from the ecosystems are all affected. Climate change and extreme weather events, such as the recent El Niño effect, significantly increase the risk of soil erosion, and losses of soil nutrients. The impact of degradation and measures to restore land are inherently unequally distributed across the population in time and space. Restoring degraded common lands through the establishment of "exclosure" areas where traditional community access is restricted is widely used in Ethiopia. These restrictions particularly affect those without access to other sources of firewood and grazing. Such inequalities and local perceptions of justice need to be taken into account if soil restoration is to be sustainable in the long run. This project aims to improve the design of measures to combat land degradation while considering equity and justice, strengthening risk management and benefits for communities, particularly poor and marginal groups, increasing the capacity of local people to adapt and improve their lives. The project draws on an interdisciplinary approach covering anthropology, agricultural and forestry science, economics, environmental modelling, hydrology, sociology, and soil science. In case study areas within the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region in Ethiopia (SNNPR) covering different agricultural and climatic zones, the project will design interventions with the Ethiopian Bureau of Agriculture to- Train and provide access to exclosures to selected eligible landless youth and women to enable them to undertake new productive activities in 1) beekeeping or 2) livestock management. - Demonstrate and train local farmers in simple measures to address gully formationThe research aims to find out the impact of the new interventions on the participants, how the interventions were communicated and promoted within the communities, how they were experienced by different groups, and their impact on preferences and attitudes to natural resource management within the community. The project will collect soil, hydrology and socio-economic data. This will be used with environmental and economic modelling to measure the impacts of the interventions on the direct participants, and preferences for natural resource management in the wider community, and the potential long-term effects on land degradation, thus helping to improve the design local natural resource management. With local and regional practitioners, development agents and representatives of local communities, the project will draw together all the results of the research to develop recommendations for improving frameworks to planning land degradation measures aligned to communities' aspirations, values and notions of justice.