Research project
Biodiversity Potential for Resilient Livelihoods in the Lower Omo, Ethiopia (BioRes)
- Start date: 1 November 2024
- End date: 31 October 2027
- Value: £750,000
- Partners and collaborators: Arba Minch University, Cool Ground
- Primary investigator: Dr. Jenny Hodbod
- Co-investigators: David Williams
- External co-investigators: Eshetu Ewnetu Tegengne, Tizazu Gebre Alemayehu, Will Hurd
BioRes will elucidate the potential for biodiversity to contribute to and improve livelihood security, adaptation to climate change, and resilience in Ethiopia’s newly formed Tama Community Conservation Area (CCA), where there is a data paucity to manage from. As the local communities hold rich traditional ecological knowledge we will combine systemic biodiversity monitoring, informed by ethnobotany and ethnozoology approaches, with qualitative data to address the data gap and inform CCA management.
Impact
Our impact will be to support social-ecological resilience for the populations dependent on the CCA, but our focus is on the role of biodiversity in supporting adaptive capacity more so than transformative change. This is a region with high biodiversity that was sustainably managed by the indigenous populations prior to the implementation of mega-projects by the Ethiopian state (i.e., National Parks, Gibe III dam, Kuraz Sugar Project). Transformation now means an un-desirable regime shift from the agro-pastoralist or hunter-gatherer livelihoods embedded in the local cultures to wage labourers on the agricultural estates or out-migration. The CCA has been designed to provide a supplemental sustainable livelihood alternative (ecotourism) – adaptation more than a transformation. This project supports that goal by addressing the biodiversity knowledge gaps critical for both food security and ecotourism, so that the CCA regulations can support biodiversity through climate change. Through a participatory process, the communities and CCA stakeholders will develop capacities for biodiversity monitoring, produce the first biodiversity assessment datasets for the region and accompanying knowledge products, be supported in adapting the CCA management plans to be more inclusive and effective to the sustainable use of biodiversity for climate, and as a result, demonstrate greater resilience to future climate change.