Economic and environmental rehabilitation through soil and water conservation, the case of Tigray in northern Ethiopia

The natural resources in the semi-arid area of Tigray, northern Ethiopia, have been exploited for years. This has caused severe land degradation, which in turn led to recurrent drought and poverty. To recover the degraded lands, soil and water conservation (SWC) interventions were given a policy attention since the 1970s. Starting 1990s, SWC-based integrated catchment management (ICM) implementation programmes, complemented by conservation-based agricultural development strategy, have been implemented. Many studies on ICM interventions and associated benefits have been reported so far. However, as most of the studies were conducted on experimental plots/small catchment scale, none of them have attempted to report the achievements and lessons at large scale. Hence, a comprehensive review is needed to explore and publicize the interventions and associated benefits. This review was conducted through detailed analysis of evidence and facts from literature, field observations and farmers' perceptions. The reviewed literature explicitly showed that ICM interventions have been successful in Tigray. Collective evidence has shown that most of the degraded landscapes are considerably restored, of which the soil fertility, availability of water, and rainfed and irrigated crop productivity have significantly increased over the last two decades. Consequently, environmental, ecological and socio-economic changes have been observed when compared to pre-implementation of ICM. Despite these achievements, some interventions often suffer from over-ambition, upward accountability and a top-down approach. Failures of Horeye and roof water harvesting, mismanagement of fertilisers, low survival of tree seedlings and lack of income from exclosures can be considered pitfalls that may affect the sustainability of the achievements. An important lesson drawn from Tigray is the participation of all stakeholders and the strong commitment and sense of ownership by the people and local government, which many projects lack worldwide. Observed experiences, achievements and implementation pitfalls can provide a lesson to other regions with similar agro-ecological, environmental and socio-economic setups.