- Youth groups are restoring the ecosystem in and around Ethiopia’s Abijata-Shalla National Park, once covered with acacia woodlands but stripped bare in recent years as water has been lost to irrigation and a soda-ash factory.
- Spanning 887 square kilometers, the park is a vital refuge for biodiversity, hosting migratory birds and a range of species, making it one of the region’s most important wildlife strongholds.
- Wetlands International staff have trained local youth and community members in sustainable land management, teaching them how to identify and correct unsustainable practices such as overgrazing, deforestation and farming on steep slopes.
- The work relies heavily on consultations with local communities, ensuring solutions align with community needs.
Abijata-Shalla National Park, ETHIOPIA — Under the scorching midday sun in the upper catchment of Ethiopia’s Abijata-Shalla National Park, a local youth group toils along the edges of a deep gully carved into the hills by erosion. The young men shovel soil from the loose edges of the gorge, while women fill sandbags they stack in the gullies, building barriers to hold back the next rains that strike this battered landscape
“The land is healing, and so are we,” says Hamid Belo, chairman of the Mekane Fike Forest Conservation Association.
Once covered with acacia woodlands and fed by steady streams, the land here has been steadily stripped bare. The loss of tree cover has allowed erosion to scar the hillsides and upset the flow of water into the lakes in this closed river system.
Abijata and Shalla — the two lakes that give the national park its name — now receive less water and more sediment — their boundaries have shrunk and the quality of the water has changed, affecting fish and other aquatic life, along with flamingos and other migratory birds that once crowded their shores.
For the past five years, this group of youth has been working to prevent degradation of soil and water in the landscape and begin restoring the ecosystem.
Multiple threats
Spanning 887 square kilometers (332 square miles), Abijata–Shalla National Park is a vital refuge for biodiversity. Its twin lakes and surrounding habitat host seasonal migrants like flamingos and pelicans, black-winged stilts (Himantopus himantopus) and storks, as well as resident species such as ostriches, African fish eagles (Haliaeetus vocifer) and plovers. The park’s forests and grasslands support greater kudu (Tragelaphus strepsiceros), Grant’s gazelle (Nanger granti), jackals and bat-eared foxes (Otocyon megalotis), making it one of the region’s most important wildlife strongholds.
However, over the past two decades, deforestation for firewood, agriculture and charcoal production, along with pollution from the agricultural nutrients used at the farms and flower plantations that have sprung up around the lakes, have severely degraded the park’s ecosystems. Adding to these pressures, a soda ash plant built near the lake extracts large volumes of water from Lake Abijata, while other agricultural and domestic users also withdraw significant amounts, further reducing lake levels.
Exacerbated by summers becoming hotter and drier, and longer winters colder, the area’s wetlands have shrunk, depleting natural resources and biodiversity and leaving the land increasingly vulnerable to erosion and desertification.
Community-based approach
It all starts with consultations with the local community about the need for the restoration work. As the human population in the area has grown to more than 55,000, residents of the villages and settlements near the park have cleared large portions of trees and shrubs in the acacia woodlands in the catchments that drain into the lake system. Since the 1990s, more than 40 km2 (15 mi2) of dry forest have been converted to farmland.
“We have had serious discussions with the local community about the problem and how to reverse this challenge and make the park for the future generation,” says Simeneh Shiferaw, country program coordinator at Wetlands International.
Wetlands International staff have trained local youth and community members in sustainable land management, teaching them how to identify and correct unsustainable practices such as overgrazing, deforestation and farming on steep slopes. The training focused on restoring degraded hillsides and wetlands through soil and water conservation techniques, while local authorities reinforced bylaws to protect restored sites.
“We prioritized engaging local groups — farmers, pastoralists, women, the elderly and youth — to ensure the solutions we implement are effective and aligned with the community’s needs,” Simeneh says.
A significant portion of the growing population around Abijata-Shalla is under the age of 35. There is limited land available to new farmers, and few other income opportunities, so many young people turn to exploiting the area’s natural resources — collecting firewood or producing charcoal, mining sand, fishing — to survive.
“The reality is that these youth depend on these resources for their survival,” Simeneh says. “That’s why the project is designed to create sustainable livelihoods, addressing their immediate needs while ensuring long-term environmental conservation, ultimately benefiting both the community and the ecosystem.”
Youth organizations are at the heart of restoration work. After training, organizations like Mekane Fike have set to work digging ditches, constructing canals and building barriers to manage water flow, as well as working to regenerate vegetation in degraded areas.
Thanks to donor support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, participants receive small cash payments for their labor on the project. Some money is also paid into a collective fund controlled by the youth organization, which they are encouraged to use to make loans to members, allowing them to start small businesses.
Combining this fund with money from elsewhere, some youths here have set themselves up as beekeepers selling honey in local and regional markets; others have made use of fodder harvested from restored grasslands to fatten livestock for sale.
“Thanks to the income we’ve earned and the support we’ve received, we’ve broken free from dependence. We’re now entrepreneurs, building our own success from the ground up,” Hamid says.
“When we first learned about the restoration project after organizing into an association, we had a mix of hope and doubt,” recalls Gutema Mieso, chairman of Fike Lelisa youth association. “How could we possibly bring life back to land that had been so severely degraded over the years?”
Nature-based solutions
Gutema says the results of that group’s effort are clearly visible after two years of work around Mount Fike, the park’s highest point.
“We focused on the most affected areas, conducting research and creating planting pits. Through extensive terracing and protecting the fertile soil from water erosion, the land gradually began to regenerate with grass. This also helped prevent the soil from being carried away by water and the wind,” he says.
Anteneh Worku is a natural resource expert at Wetlands International who has been involved in the restoration efforts. “Our approach to environmental protection stands out because we prioritize natural regeneration,” he says.
“We don’t just focus on planting [trees]; we aim to create the right conditions for nature to heal itself. By stopping erosion and capturing moisture, we improve soil health and let the land recover naturally.”
Protecting soil and water in degraded areas allows dormant seeds that are present in the ground to germinate and sprout naturally. Preventing fresh human and animal disturbance of this early vegetation further supports the revival of native species, such as the acacia tree, which was once abundant in the park and its surrounds.
While natural regeneration is the priority, Anteneh notes that selectively planting new seedlings complements the process, helping restore biodiversity where natural growth is insufficient.
Success story
Surveying the restoration sites across the catchment, the fruits of these joint efforts are clearly visible. There have been significant improvements to tree cover, reduced erosion and higher water levels in the lake. After five years, Abijata-Shalla National Park has seen significant improvements, with increased forest cover, reduced soil erosion and improved water levels in Lake Abijata.
Site surveys are finding declining levels of erosion and siltation and increased flow in the small streams that feed the lakes. Fish species that hadn’t been seen for 30 years are making a comeback, and animals previously driven out by habitat loss are slowly returning to the revitalized forests and grasslands.
“Species that were once thought to be lost have now returned,” says Aschalew Tsegaye, the park warden for Abijata-Shalla National Park. “In fact, most bird species are now seen in greater numbers than before the crisis.”
As well as returning birdlife, Aschalew says park staff have counted more than 200 greater kudu in the park, up from 50 individuals in 2018.
“It is really a surprising result, which teaches us how mother nature is generous to give if we become aware of the burden of an area and work to relieve the problem and do our parts little by little,” he says.
“Our restoration efforts have had a transformative impact, something that was difficult to achieve through protective measures and regulations alone,” says Redwan Mohamed, Wetlands International’s project leader for the Ziway-Shalla River Basin.
He says a key factor in their success is the way the project has produced tangible results that motivate project participants and other residents.
“Many locals were initially skeptical about the land’s recovery,” Redwan says. “But the successful restoration has demonstrated that with the right approach, even the most degraded land can heal, shifting perceptions and proving that the landscape can bounce back.”
The project’s success, experts say, also lies in its ability to bridge divides among stakeholders who once worked in isolation — or even in conflict. By fostering cooperation between government bodies, local communities and institutions involved in development, agriculture, wildlife and environmental protection, the initiative has created a rare model of coordinated action from planning to implementation.
“In the past, these sectors often had competing priorities,” Simeneh says. “Now we’ve built a system that brings them to the same table from planning through implementation — toward shared, more effective results.”
The coordinated restoration efforts around Abijata-Shalla have allowed the recovery of a range of crucial ecosystem services for local communities, Redwan says. He says the restoration program has also created new livelihoods for community members directly involved in the restoration.
Locals also say the restoration is already bringing tangible benefits: reduced erosion; improved soil fertility and productivity; healthier air; a return of fish, boosting livelihoods; and a rise in tourism activities in areas that were once degraded.
Enforcing conservation policies, securing long-term sustainability and ensuring continued responsibility for the restored areas are still pressing concerns. Local government authorities have shown strong commitment to supporting and scaling up the restoration work.
To further consolidate the restoration, the project’s managers have focused on building lasting ownership within the community. By integrating local bylaws and traditional governance systems, it aims to make restoration gains durable and self-sustaining.
Simeneh says the community’s Indigenous knowledge and strong traditional rules are enough to prevent these conservation results from being eroded. He is confident local people will continue protecting the land long after the project ends.
“We’ve built on what the community already knows and trusts,” he adds.
Banner image: Women play an active role in restoration efforts, contributing across various tasks and associations to support the recovery of the landscape. Image by Solomon Yimer for Mongabay.
Holistic care for an Ethiopian lake system: Interview with Redwan Mohammed
Small steps towards larger goal of protecting East African wetlands
FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.
Credits
