Mid-Term and End Review: Piloting REDD+ in the Bale Eco-Region of Ethiopia

This document summarises key lessons learned in the mid-term and end review of the project 'Piloting REDD+ in the Bale Eco-Region of Ethiopia: Strengthening community and regional level institutional capacity for Natural resource governance (2012-2015)'. The project covers an area of 500,000 has of natural forest in varied ecosystems in Bale and Arsi zones with biodiversity of global significance as well as being home to a population of around 1 million people, in Oromia Region of Ethiopia.

This new pilot project was primarily designed to build a Reduced Emissions from a reduced Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) mechanism on the foundations of a 6-year project supporting the development of Participatory Forest Management (PFM). The PFM approach basically devolves forest management responsibilities and rights to local communities to induce forest maintenance and management. The approach is based on almost 20 years' experience in the project area, since the WAJIB project of the 1990s, which was the first PFM attempt in Ethiopia.