Sustainable and Resilient Communities (SRC)

Honey, spice and jams: micro-enterprises to improve livelihoods and protect forests in Ethiopia

Introduction

The University of Huddersfield has been working in southwest Ethiopia for over 20 years, piloting and promoting community management of natural resources.  Focus has been on Participatory Forest Management (PFM) Agreements between communities and local government, providing security of access to the forest for communities and their Forest Management Groups (FMGs).  In addition, through community-led cooperatives those caring for the forest have generated improved income from forest coffee sold through co-operatives.

However, forest-coffee primarily benefits men and is only found in 25% of 100,000 hectares of community managed forest secured to date.  Forest areas also have other resources, notably a range of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs), including honey, spices (cardamom, chillies and long pepper) as well as forest fruits and forest mahogany seeds. These are harvested by men and women for domestic use and limited local sale.

This project aims to build on the success of the forest-coffee work by developing value chains through the community coops for these NTFPs, thereby diversifying the sources of forest-related income, engaging more women and improving the sustainability of the cooperatives. 

The project is supported by funds from the UK Government Darwin Initiative, managed by DEFRA and implemented with Ethiopian project partner Ethio Wetlands and Natural Resources Association (EWNRA) and private sector partners Ethiopian honey company Apinec , fruits company  Ecopia (Ecological Products of Ethiopia) Plc and spice company Nati spices.