Restoring Ethiopia’s watersheds through youth-led beekeeping

In November of 2023 we told you about an exciting new project we had started in the Ibnat district of South Gondar in Ethiopia’s Amhara region. This project uses Nature Based Beekeeping to address youth unemployment in the area.

The watershed area showing the work that has been done

One important part of this project has been the restoration of a degraded area of the local watershed. This area has been degraded as a direct result of youth unemployment. Having missed the 96/97 land redistribution, which only included those over the age of 18 at the time, most of the youth in the area have had little to no access to land and have resorted to attempting to cultivate the marginal land areas (steep slopes, hills, forest lands, permanent grazing lands). This has resulted in the areas becoming overexploited, deforested and unproductive. As a watershed area the lack of plant life caused by the deforestation has also increased flooding in the rainy seasons further washing away nutrients from the soil and causing soil loss. By restoring this area and teaching the youth farmers in the area how to keep bees we are changing the land use to allow it to be productive for the beekeepers while also helping the watershed return to its natural form.

Check dam site selection in the areas of greatest need

Check dam construction underway

The restoration efforts have been a great success, in just two years we have seen much of the 8ha selected for restoration beginning to recover and become productive for beekeeping. 120 young people have been trained to manage the watershed area. Part of this management has included the construction of check dams in order to prevent soil loss. These dams slow down the water run off and allow it to penetrate into the soil where the newly planted seedlings can access the water.

The seedlings that are being used to restore this area are produced by 4 groups of youth seedling producers that have been set up to support the restoration efforts. These groups have been supported in setting up nursery sites that can continually produce multipurpose seedlings (the majority of which are good sources of nectar for bees) to be planted throughout the entire watershed area. So far these nurseries have produced 70,000 seedlings which have been planted within the degraded watershed.

Seedlings ready to be planted

Seedlings being planted alongside the check dams that are showing good vegetation recovery

With only six months remaining for this project phase we are currently assessing the extent of recovery and how the beekeepers have been able to benefit from the restored land. Restoration of a degraded area like this will take many years to complete but the 120 youth members in this project now have the skills and incentive to keep up the restoration work. Look out for further updates as this area continues to return to a flourishing, productive landscape.

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Map of the entire watershed area