The project intends to qualify selected communities and the forest administration of the BoANR in planning and implementing forestry measures as integrated part of land use systems.

The project acts therefore on two levels:

• at grassroots level by assisting communities and the extension staff in forestry training and development
• at decision-making levels of the BoANR to ensure that sound framework conditions support forestry measures in the field.

A typical homestead in southern Tigray. A live fence of Euphorbia abyssinica and Opuntia ficus-indica borders the house and the private eucalyptus afforestation of the farmer. The project assists the farmer in improving and diversifying his wood production as well as in promoting agroforestry.

An extension agent of the BoANR advises a farmer in managing the natural regeneration on a plot of land protected against cattle (area closure). The project has initiated and supports the management of communal afforestation sites by particulars. Farmers are granted long-term user rights on small plots of land. This "privatisation" approach improves considerably the survival rate of seedlings and therefore the protection and production of the watershed.

(c) DFS Deutsche Forstservice GmbH