Combating Desertification in Tigray, Ethiopia : Field study on the implementation of the UNCCD in the rural region of Tigray

Sammanfattning: In this study a field study on the implementation of the United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD) in Tigray, Ethiopia has been carried out. The objective of this thesis is to study in general the implementa-tion of the UNCCD in Ethiopia. This thesis consequently focuses on how these issues are executed in practice at different levels, thus national, regional, district and community levels. However the focus is on some of the highly prioritised action programs that are presumed to facilitate the implementation of the UNCCD, which are the Action Programs for promoting awareness and participation, Action programs to improve institutional organisation and ca-pacity as well as Action program for empowerment of women. These action programs are studied in how they are presented at the National Action Plan (NAP) and Regional Action Plan (RAP) as well as how they are executed at different levels, i.e. at the Federal, Regional, district and Community levels. For this purpose the region of Tigray is chosen. The result of this study shows that the vast majority of the respondents in the study areas indicated an awareness of desertification in regard to land degradation. The implementation of NAP at this stage, hasn’t reach all the regions around the country however, three regions in Ethiopia, thus the Afar, Tigray and Amhara regions have been chosen as pilot projects in attempt to implement the NAP at regional level and preparation are made to implement the con-vention at different community levels. Officially these regions have been chosen to launch pilot projects since they are situated in the dryland areas and they match the definition of the UNCCD for severely affected areas. At the re-gional level several pilot projects mainly conservation activities that involved the community members are launched in different parts of Tigray. Many opportunities to increase awareness of the land degradation and empower people are created in order to combat desertification, however the success of these activities varies from district to district and community to community and is dependent on the authorities’ intention, ambition, determination and interest as well as the relation they posses with the community members in the society.