Area Closures: A Climate Smart Approach to Rehabilitate Degraded Lands and to Improve Livelihoods

Abstract

Ethiopia has been implementing Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) and Household Asset Building Program (HABP) that are important as complementary food security programs that involve establishment of area closures to rehabilitate degraded lands. Forest inventory using systematic random sampling was conducted in 9 PSNP area closures and one agroforestry system located in six National Regional States of Ethiopia to provide up-to-date and reliable information/data on existing growing stock, woody biomass resources and the actual quantities of carbon stored.  The above ground biomass and carbon stock and carbon sequestration potential of PSNP area closures were estimated using existing allometric equations and conversion factors, respectively. The above ground biomass at the PSNP area closures ranged between 2.09±0.83tone/ ha and 22.21±1.86 ton/ ha. The aboveground biomass of woodlots, Enset and Coffee based agroforestry system and scattered trees on farm at Damote Gale agroforestry system was 33.27±3.33, 12.92 and 1.93±0.57 tone/ha, respectively. The above ground carbon stock and carbon sequestration potential of PSNP area closures ranged from 1.045 to 11.105 tones/ha and from 3.83 to 40.72 tones/ha, respectively. The difference in the amount of above ground biomass, carbon stock and carbon sequestration potential might be attributed to the difference in site characteristics, climatic conditions and age of area closures. The present inventory work showed that rehabilitation efforts brought positive response in most of the PSNP area closures and most area closures qualify for carbon projects. The output also presented the current stock to measure the difference in carbon stock over years.

Keywords: Area closures, aboveground biomass, carbon fund, food security