Ethiopia is Africa’s second-most populated nation, and its economy is based on agriculture, mainly by smallholder farms. As a result, agriculture puts pressure on land and natural resources, which has led to the deforestation, soil erosion and land degradation.

The Ethiopian government and many communities have invested substantial efforts into restoring degraded landscapes. In fact, the country’s Climate Resilient Green Economy Strategy included forest landscape restoration as a key element. Ethiopia made one of the largest global pledges for restoration under the New York Declaration on Forests and the Bonn Challenge: 22 million hectares.

The workshop was hybrid with Ethiopian facilitators leading the in-person meeting. More than 30 participants gathered on site for the three-day workshop. The group discussed the conceptual framework of FLR, principles and landscape approaches, design, relevant factors in the Ethiopian context, monitoring, adaptive management and much more.

The workshop was supported through IUFRO’s Special Programme for Development of Capacities with funds from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland and the National Institute of Forest Science, Republic of Korea. Ethiopian Forestry Development provided coordination and financial support for local arrangements and participation.