Exclosures for Landscape Restoration in Ethiopia: Business Model Scenarios and Suitability | IWMI

Land degradation is a critical problem around the world. In many places, the practices associated with intensive rain-fed and irrigated crop and livestock systems have contributed to the degradation of land and natural resources. Degraded land makes it difficult for farmers to achieve the level of intensified agricultural production necessary to meet projected food demand, particularly in developing countries.

Numerous institutional and socioeconomic challenges complicate attempts to reverse land degradation, including the lack of short term incentives for investment; low investment by communities in natural resources management that offers little immediate financial reward; failure of public sector institutions to invest sufficiently in natural resources management because of low, immediate political rewards; and sectoral fragmentation, among others. Thus, investment in land and natural resource restoration requires a balance between short-term economic returns and longer-term sustainability and environmental goals.

The complex challenge requires an integrated approach to effective, sustainable investments in land restoration that go beyond current public investments. This report proposes and applies an adapted business model to explore the feasibility of exclosures – areas that are excluded from woodcutting, grazing and agricultural activities – for land restoration.

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