Project Name: SUCCESS - Sustainable Utilization and Conservation through Compensation for Eco-System Services in Tekeze
Funding: EU RESET plus Innovation –ICCO fund
Partners: WLRC, HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation (Ethiopia Office) and Ministry of Water and Energy
Project duration: 2 years (2020-2023)
Project description: Integrated land management (ILM) practices can foster a better use and conservation of available resources and increase agricultural productivity, while reducing environmental impact from sedimentation of hydropower storage structures and regulating flows serving downstream communities. One of the key barriers to the adoption of practices such as soil conservation, gully protection, area closure, and others, is the high upfront cost associated with their implementation and which act as a disincentive to poor farmers. Most renewable energy sources, such as hydroelectric power, are derived from ecosystems and depend on the nature’s ability to maintain them. Hydropower relies on regular water flow as well as erosion control, both of which depend on intact ecosystems. These ecosystems are equally vital to food production, yet there is pressure to increase cultivated land and agricultural outputs in the short-term at the expense of ecosystems’ long-term capacity for food production. Intensive use of ecosystems to satisfy needs for food and fuel wood can erode ecosystems through soil degradation, water depletion, and biodiversity loss. The gap is sustainable financing of ILM activities. To address such gap WLRC partnering with HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation (Ethiopia Office) and Ministry of Water and Energy developed this project which is entitled as “Sustainable Utilization and Conservation through Compensation for Eco-System Services (SUCCESS) in Tekeze River Basin”. The project will implement its innovative concept in six micro watersheds that will be selected from three woredas in WagHimira Zone of Amhara Regional State.
Major objectives of the project are:
1) To develop, based on cross-sectoral collaboration and negotiation, a system for compensation for ecosystem services (CES) and to formulate an enabling operational and institutional framework for applying a PES-based financing mechanism for enhanced watershed (landscape) management and hydropower in the Tekeze Basin.
2) Implementing environmental rehabilitation and climate change adaptation activities for resilience building and enhanced livelihood improvement in selected (6) pilot micro-watersheds of three woredas of Wag-Hemra zone; Dehana, Gazgibila and Ziquala.

Contact person: Dr Amare Bantider (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)