Mitiku Haile
Professor of Soil Science and Sustainable Land Management at Mekelle University.
Ethopia
The Atsbi catchment in Ethiopia is a community that has successfully reversed land degradation in a semi-arid environment over the past twenty years. Unique to Atsbi is the community based land governance structures, where the community both contribute to and benefit from regenerative agricultural practices. Because of their unique governance, they are among the best performing communities of the Tigray region and the country in the restoration and sustainable management of agroecosystems.
The Atsbi catchment in Ethiopia is a community that has successfully reversed land degradation in a semi-arid environment over the past twenty years. Unique to Atsbi is the community based land governance structures, where the community both contributes to and benefits from regenerative agricultural practices.
The Atsbi-Womberta district, located in Tigray, northern Ethiopia, has about 13,050 ha of arable land and 8802 ha of grazing land. About 23,400 households inhabit the district with an average family size of six of which 30% of the households are female- headed households.
The images above show how the community has managed to restore and productively use degraded lands in the dryland agroecosystem.
Unfortunately, the community has faced many challenges since the war broke out in Northern Ethiopia in October 2020. We are working with local partners and hoping to maintain connections.
Director, Natural Resources Research Directorate and Director General, Tigray Agricultural Research Institute (TARI), Ethiopia.
Professor of Soil Science and Sustainable Land Management at Mekelle University.
Tewodros Gebreegziabher Asresehegn, is the Climate Sensitive Innovations for Land Management Project, component manager at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). Tewodros is also PhD candidate at the Farming Systems Ecology group in Wageningen University and Research (WUR) at the Graduate School for Production Ecology and Resource Conservation (PE&RC).
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