32A History of Soil and WaterConservation in TigrayR. Neil Munro, Teweldeberhan Woldegerima,Berhane Hailu, Amanuel Zenebe,Zemichael Gebremedhin, Abrha Hailemichaeland Jan Nyssen

In September 2017, the World Future Policy Gold Award (Desertification) wasgiven to “the people of Tigray for restoring land on a massive scale”. Yet, in the1960 Tigray, soil and water conservation (SWC) programmes were essentiallyabsent, and land degradation was rampant. The situation would change and today,above 1800 m in the hawsi dogu’a and dogu’a agroecological belts (see Chap. 25),focused SWC interventions have modified a perceived doomed landscape to one thatis under managed land husbandry. This paper describes the chronology of chan-gesthat produced the landscape of today.

R. N. Munro (&) � A. ZenebeInstitute for Climate and Society, Mekelle University, P.O. Box 251, Mekelle, Ethiopiae-mail: neilmunrodirleton@gmail.com

A. Zenebee-mail: amanuel.zenebe@mu.edu.et

R. N. MunroPreviously (1970s–1990s) at Hunting Technical Services, Hemel Hempstead, UK

T. WoldegerimaETG Designers & Consultants, Addis Ababa, Ethiopiae-mail: tewel_42@yahoo.com

Previously (1980s) at Water Res. Dev. & Ethiopian Valleys Authorities, Addis Ababa,Ethiopia

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019J. Nyssen et al. (eds.), Geo-trekking in Ethiopia’s Tropical Mountains,GeoGuide, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04955-3_32

477

32.1 From Prehistory to 20th Century

In prehistoric times, Tigray was uncultivated, covered by montane savanna forestbut post-4th millennium BCE, developing societies cleared land for cereals; tra-ditional cultivation with herding was established by 2nd millennium BCE; startingfrom the 1st millennium BCE, Ethio-Sabaean monumental buildings, and exten-sive agricultural terraces around Yeha and into Eritrea represented techniquesintroduced from South Arabia. The succeeding Aksum city state utilisedwell-watered flatter lands for cultivation. After Aksum’s decline, ca. 650 CE, dueto what Karl Butzer reasoned was a “chance concatenation of mutually reinforcingprocesses” leading to environmental degradation of soils and forests, with a pre-cipitous demographic decline, some 1300 years would pass before SWC conceptswere re-introduced in Tigray.

For long before and during the Zemene Mesafint (Era of the Princes) feudalwars, marauding armies destroyed woodlands and crops, raided what reservespeasants had, respecting only Church forest. By the 16th Century, an agrarianlandscape was well established: Francisco Alvares of the Portuguese Embassy inJuly 1520 described a Tigray very similar to that seen in 1975. The EthiopianRoyal Chronicles recorded nineteen periods of famine from 1540 to 1800, with

B. HailuHelvetas Swiss Intercooperation Ethiopia, Mekelle, Ethiopiae-mail: berhanehailu200@gmail.com

Previously (1980s) at the TPLF’s Department of Agriculture (DoA), Tigray, Ethiopia

Z. GebremedhinAlliance of Civil Society Organisations in Tigray, Mekelle, Ethiopiae-mail: zeche@acsot.org

Previously (1980s) at the TPLF’s Socio Economic Department, Tigray, Ethiopia

A. HailemichaelPreviously (1980s) at the Relief Society of Tigray, Tigray Region, Ethiopia

J. NyssenDepartment of Geography, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281(S8), 9000 Ghent, Belgiume-mail: jan.nyssen@ugent.be

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1611 the most damaging when continuous rainfall and cold weather destroyedcrops. In the late 18th Century, James Bruce of Kinnaird reported that “the defi-ciency of the crop is not from the barrenness of the soils but from the immensequantity of field rats and mice that overrun the whole country and hide in thefissures of the earth”, and “to these plagues may be added still one, the greatest ofthem all, bad government, which speedily destroys all the advantages they reapfrom nature, climate and situation”. Farmers were in a persistent state of povertyalso from locust plagues, famine and drought or too much rainfall, death ofploughing oxen from diseases. It was a tough life when taxes by landlords, feudalrulers and Church took most farm produce, crushing desire for innovation toprotect lands and maybe reforest. It remained much thus until the 20th Century.

32.2 1940s to 1970s—Assessments, Warningsand Action

In 1943–44 British and American advisors touring post-conflict Ethiopia reported,between May Ch’ew and Adigrat, that land was quite well conserved: only onegully was noted, but sheet erosion had removed most of the surface soil, and futuresoil conservation should be coincident with agricultural modernization. Twentyyears later though, Leslie H. Brown wrote of Tigray “never before had I seen afairer land being more brutally ravaged by its possessors”. Others advised that soilerosion as a national problem seemed beyond control, and gave strong warnings ondegradation and lack of SWC. In ‘Conservation for Survival – Ethiopia’s Choice’,Brown advised that Ethiopia could either continue on a downward slide ofdegradation with economic ruin as the end point, or, make positive reform of itsnatural resource polices and conserve. Ethiopia chose to conserve.

32.3 The Period of Change: Conservation Measuresin the 1970s

From 1968 to 1973 Ethiopia was in the grip of Sahel drought phases. In Tigray,donors responded with relief work. During 1970, USAID-Peace Corps startedterracing in Mekelle and Adigrat (and other sites) and also supported the Instituteof Agricultural Research’s (IAR) Mekelle drylands station. Some 4700 ha of steeplands were terraced and forested at 13 sites (Photos 32.1 and 32.2). After the1972–73 drought produced below-normal harvests, Governor Mengesha Seyoumdetermined that a modern approach to SWC was needed, and requested the

32 A History of Soil and Water Conservation in Tigray 479

Photo 32.1 Peace Corps (USAID) terraces under construction on dolerite escarpment eastof Mekelle. Photo Larry Workman (1971)

Photo 32.2 Seedlings for planting on the Peace Corps Mekelle terraces. Photo LarryWorkman (1973)

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Ministry of Overseas Development in London for Technical Assistance in Tigrayto plan for the recovery of agriculture. Hunting Technical Services (HTS), inassociation with consulting engineers Sir M. MacDonald & Partners, was con-tracted, and in mid-1976 delivered the ‘Tigrai Rural Development Study’ (TRDS).

TRDS worked from scratch—there was little appropriate from the past exceptrainfall data and geological maps. Although visual differences between dry-wetseasons in semi-arid drylands, such as the Tigray plateau, are always astonishing,the physical situation in 1974–75 was to experienced eyes, grim: excessively steepslopes cultivated, terracing where present in a poor state, no check dams in torrentbeds, reservoirs absent, ploughing primitive and haphazard, trees cut down withoutpenalty, and livestock grazing anywhere any time. Natural bedrock bench terracingwas utilised in many areas; constructed terraces of unknown age were noted in theImba Alagi area in the south and on the hill lands east of Freweyni (Senqata) in thenorth; elsewhere terracing evolved on slope mantles where erosion at fieldboundaries produced stepped landscapes, from a distance seen as SWC terraces.Such break-in-slope features are now often stone-banked. But indigenous tech-niques that existed were neglected. While a few areas had small scale irrigationfrom springs or base flow, vast areas of rainfed cropland and rangeland wereseriously degraded. TRDS erosion measurements estimated rates four times thecurrent geological rate. That is not to say the region was a desert in any sense, butat the end of the 1972–1973 dry season, when a vicious regional drought washolding sway, Tigray was in a desertification trend: this needed to be stopped in itstracks, and it was.

The TRDS with community support initiated 12 range exclosure plots in Shi-khet (now Aba’ala in Afar region), Giba valley and the lowlands to the west ofDogu’a Tembien. The 1400 ha Quiha Catchment Stabilisation DemonstrationProject was established with check dams placed in torrent beds, stone terraces onsloping arable lands, the Igre Hariba escarpment closed to grazing, and a rapidlyexpanding gully system on edaphic grassland lower down closed to grazing,allowing vegetation to stabilise the gullies. In June 1975 a small area was fencedoff in the grazing area: farmers agreed that the plot would not be a loss, becausenothing would grow anyway. The 1975 rains led to remarkable growth inside thefence. Farmers were flabbergasted. The resilience of the vegetation was there, butlatent, and institutional memory of what could occur if land was rested had beenlost, centuries before. From this, and the other exclosure sites, a model that wouldlater be repeated throughout Tigray (Chap. 16) had been gently initiated.

32 A History of Soil and Water Conservation in Tigray 481

BOX: Revisiting Some of the Historical SWC Sites Around MekelleThe first conservation activities at hillside scale took place in the early1970s on the footslopes of the escarpment that bounds Mekelle on itseastern side, and were well documented by one of the Peace Corpsvolunteers, Larry Workman (Photos 32.1 and 32.2). The undertakingwas important enough to be visited by emperor Haile Selassie(Photo 32.3). Much of the stone walls are still in place and acacias andeucalypts have grown on the site. The place can be accessed by climbingthe hillslope behind the ‘baloni’ football stadium or behind Hilltop hotelin Mekelle.

Another spectacular revisit is to the demonstration sites set up byTRDS in 1975, NE of Quiha (Kwiha) which are intact and functional(Photos 32.4 and 32.5): a stony terrain became level farmlands. Someadditional terraces have been put in since, and where farmers wererequested to close and protect steep land, slopes have dense Acaciaetbaica thickets, with Euphorbia abyssinica on the escarpment. SWCfeatures are maintained by the present generation of farmers, sons andgrandsons of those who TRDS persuaded to conserve. The 1975 site canbe accessed, for some distance by 4WD vehicle if desired and further onfoot, from the main road south of Quiha (13.4681°N, 39.5537°E). At leftof the new engineering campus, go NNE, ascending an escarpment onlimestone with dolerite. On the top, pass a church (13.4746°N,39.5591°). The May Dollo valley appears in front of you, with itsgeology, vegetation, an occasional hare or even hyena. At left,expanding urbanisation and industry. A track leads down from the ridge,still heading NNE. When reaching the flatter lands, with a textile factorywell to the left, take the upper track close to the foot of the escarpmentand reach a viewpoint over the terraces discussed above (13.4791°N,39.5632°E). Figure 32.1 helps for a closer inspection of the more than40 years old conservation structures.

During 1974–76, under the umbrella of the Relief & Rehabilitation Commission,TRDS had close liaison with IAR and EPID (the Extension, Promotion andImplementation Department), also researching and introducing SWC. There was a

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great sense of cooperation and hope as a SWC momentum started. The TPLFstruggle made it impossible to continue activities, and a SWC hiatus occurred inlate 1976. USAID had left in 1974, but from 1982 to 1988 the Government’sMinistry of Agriculture, supported by food-for-work supplied by the World FoodProgramme and others, constructed some 94,000 ha of hillside terracing,18,000 km of bunds and 500 km of check dams.

Photo 32.3 EmperorHaile Selassie on a visit tothe Peace Corps sloperestoration in Mekelle. Viewto the north; at the back theMekelle Fault escarpment isclearly identifiable. PhotoLarry Workman (January1973)

32 A History of Soil and Water Conservation in Tigray 483

Photo 32.4 TRDS Quiha Catchment Stabilisation Demonstration Project. Upper photo:terraces just after completion in July 1975 with runoff water ponding behind walls. Note the“Long Terrace” in foreground. Photo Mike Felton. Lower photo: same location in August2016. The degraded slopes in the valley are regenerated with Acacia thicket. Photo R. NeilMunro

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Photo 32.5 “Long terrace” at Quiha. Upper photo: in September 1975, 3 months afterconstruction. Photo Vernon C Robertson. Lower photo: on 25 Sept 2015. Up to 1 msediment has accumulated behind the wall, flattening the slope, and trees have regeneratedalong terrace, and on adjacent steeper slopes. Photo R. Neil Munro

32 A History of Soil and Water Conservation in Tigray 485

32.4 SWC in the Modern Era: The TPLF Areas Duringthe Civil War

Meanwhile on the other side of Tigray, in the 1980s, the nascent TPLF (TigrayPeoples Liberation Front) had recognised that degradation posed a major problemfor livelihoods in Tigray: the immediate establishment of strong institutions wasrequired to bond environmental rehabilitation with the ongoing guerrilla warfare.Food-for-work was replaced by community participation. The Dept. of Agriculture(DoA), known as Code 054, formed to coordinate Wudibawi Hirsha—literally “theorganisation’s agriculture”—which initiated work in Tahtay Adiabo in WesternTigray. That same year, the Relief Society of Tigray (REST) was formed, withprogrammes linking relief, rehabilitation and environmental protection, and theTigray Agricultural & Transport Consortium coordinated support from NGOs.During the conflict years many foreign NGOs, un-publicised and identified only bycodes, were in Tigray with REST and the DoA, funding equipment and tools, andproviding technical support in the field, for example: Christian Aid (UK), Com-munity Aid Abroad (Australia), Danish Church Aid, Oxfam (various countries),War on Want (UK), Trócaire (Ireland), and several others. The DoA introducedcommunity facilitator farmers (production cadres) for dissemination of a wide

Fig. 32.1 Locations of 1975 terraces, check dams and re-vegetation in TRDS QuihaCatchment Stabilisation Demonstration Project. The “Long Terrace” is below thescarp. Newer terraces, noted mostly by absence of trees, were constructed between 1980and 2000. Google Earth Pro © Image, dated 31 December 2016

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range of extension messages. In Shewata (Tanqua Abergelle district), spate watersfrom catchments were channelled into basin terraces (Photo 32.6). Such infras-tructure was demonstrative of DoA action and long-term intention—the TPLFwanted to be clear it was not another marauding Zemene Mesafint army; on theother hand such schemes were expensive and scaling up was difficult in war-time. By 1984, a strategy change led to community-based terracing efforts.Co-author Abrha Hailemichael recalls the first SWC programmes with manuallevelling on contours (Photo 32.7) were started in areas under TPLF control suchas Merieto near Adwa, and later at Nebri’ed, near Shire. Dr. Solomon Inquai, wholater became parliamentary speaker in the Tigray region, recalls that inspirationcame from the terraces and walls around the Yeha archaeological site. For theDoA, terracing, labour and cost requirements were high and it became clear thatthe upper part of shaped terraces—where topsoil was scraped away to form thelower part—was not productive. Progressive terraces, such as at Quiha, take a fewyears to fill up naturally (see also Chap. 26). Smaller-scale community-basedparticipatory natural resource conservation work gradually became the norm(Photos 32.8 and 32.9).

Photo 32.6 Terraces at Shewata spate irrigation system in the early 1980s. Theinfrastructure was still present in 2018, some 5 km west of Yechila, along the road toTekezze Reservoir. Source Berhane Hailu

32 A History of Soil and Water Conservation in Tigray 487

Photo 32.7 TPLF Department of Agriculture (DoA) surveyors laying out terrace lines inMaybur Semema in central Tigray in the mid-1980s. Source Berhane Hailu

Photo 32.8 DoA SWC trenches (left) and check dams (right) at Edaga Arbi. PhotosBerhane Hailu (1991)

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Photo 32.9 Landscape between Debub & Addi Keyih in Wejirat. Upper photo on 23October 1975, with cereal cultivation on steep slopes. Lower photo on 25 October 2014,with many steep slopes now closed for cropping. The church was rebuilt, and its forestrehabilitated and expanded considerably. Photos by R. Neil Munro

32 A History of Soil and Water Conservation in Tigray 489

The TPLF took over in Mekelle in 1989. Immediately after the downfall of theDergue in 1991, the staff of the DoA and Tigray region Ministry of Agriculturemerged, with some initial difficulty, to form the Tigray Department of Agricultureand Natural Resources (DoANR), later re-named the Bureau of Agriculture andRural Development (BoARD). The Ministry of Agriculture in Addis Ababa, jointlywith the DoA leadership reviewed the lessons of the agriculture policies of theTPLF during wartime. Based on the positive experience, it was recommended tomaintain and scale up SWC activities.

Post-conflict, one of the first interventions was implementation ofTRDS-proposed river diversion schemes for small-scale irrigation development atSeneafti (Hawzen), and Genfel (Wukro). The schemes like Shewata (Photo 32.6),whilst important as eye-catchers in wartime, were gradually abandoned in favourof more practical interventions that reflected modern SWC thinking and resourceuse. A major post-conflict reconstruction programme was the REST-DoANRimplemented ‘Sustainable Agriculture & Environmental Rehabilitation of Tigray’(SAERT), which constructed micro-dams (see Chap. 23) to achieve food securitythrough irrigation development and farm intensification in drought prone areas ofTigray, mainly in Eastern and Southern zones. DoANR helped organise a landdegradation symposium in 1992 that led to an EC-funded degradation study. Sincethen, participatory conservation, environmental rehabilitation, andCommunity-Based Participatory Watershed Development, driven by both BoARDand farmers, has helped formulate the national policy and strategy for SWC. It led,in Tigray, to the 2017 Gold Award. Today the BoARD manages and monitors allSWC interventions in Tigray, whether research, donor funded or national pro-grammes, often with implementation by locally based NGOs and both multilateraland bilateral projects.

32.5 SWC Research Since 1994

Since 1994, intensive SWC and related research efforts have been made in Tigray,largely by Mekelle University, working with Belgian (Ghent, Leuven, Louvain)and other universities (e.g. Wageningen, Oslo, Florence, Ferrara, Bern). Fourconferences (2004, 2006, 2011 and 2013) promoted international cooperation.A large archive of research has been published by many authors of other chaptersin this book. The work includes reviews of SWC efforts, measurements of effi-ciency, and also development activities (Chap. 30).

Repeat photography compared land cover from 1974–75 and 2006 pho-tographs: positive changes to vegetation were shown in 85% of landscapes

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analysed (Fig. 32.2a), while land management resulted in 43% of analysed land-scapes being slightly to strongly improved (Fig. 32.2b). Crucially, soil loss rates in2006 were 68% of the 1975 assessment. Improved land management is commonnow. In addition to cases shown in other chapters of this book, an example SE ofMekelle, near Debub, illustrates change: intensively farmed excessively steepslopes in 1975 are now managed range, with some of the steepest slopes closed tocropping (Photo 32.9).

Vegetation cover in Tigray 1974-2006 (number of landscapes analysed)

16

0

5

27

12Strongly deterioratedDeterioratedSlightly deterioratedSlightly improvedImprovedStrongly improved

Evolution of land management in Tigray 1974-2006 (number of landscapes

analysed)0 3

4

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Strongly deterioratedDeterioratedSlightly deterioratedSlightly improvedImprovedStrongly improved

Fig. 32.2 Repeatphotography assessments1974–2006 for(top) vegetation cover and(bottom) land managementin Tigray. After Munro et al.(2008)

32 A History of Soil and Water Conservation in Tigray 491

Acknowledgements This chapter has benefitted much from discussions with SolomonInquai, Dick Grove, Mengesha Seyoum, Mikael Mengesha, Talahun Woldu, R. TrevorWilson, Fred W. Collier, Mike W. Felton, Graham Edgeley, Keith J. Virgo, Larry Workman,Ian L. Campbell, Peter T. S. Whiteman, David Gibbon, W. James Ramsay, Philippa Ryan,David Needham, and Martyn G. Murray.

Further Reading

Bard K (Ed.) (1997) The environmental history and human ecology of Northern Ethiopia inthe Late Holocene. Studi Africanistici. Serie Etiopica, 5. Naples: Istituto UniversitarioOrientale.

Brown LH (1965) Ethiopian Episode. London: Country Life Ltd.Brown LH (1973) Conservation for Survival: Ethiopia’s Choice. Addis Ababa: Haile

Selassie University.Butzer KW (1981) Rise and Fall of Axum, Ethiopia: A Geo-Archaeological Interpretation.

American Antiquity 46: 471–495.Esser K, Vågen T-G, Yibabe Tilahun, Mitiku Haile (2002) Soil Conservation in Tigray,

Ethiopia. Noragric Report No. 5. Centre for International Environment and DevelopmentStudies. Oslo: Agricultural University of Norway.

Gebremedhin Gebremeskel, Tesfay Gebremicael, Abbadi Girmay, 2018. Economic andenvironmental rehabilitation through soil and water conservation, the case of Tigray innorthern Ethiopia. Journal of Arid Environments 151: 113–124.

HTS (1976) Tigrai Rural Development Study Phase II Report. Borehamwood: HuntingTechnical Services Ltd. Available at: www.wossac.com.

Hurni H, Berhe Woldearegay, Chadhokar P, Daniel D, Gete Zeleke, Grunder M, Kassaye G(2016) Soil and Water Conservation in Ethiopia: Guidelines for Development Agents.Bern: Centre for Development & Environment. Available: https://nrmblog.wordpress.com/category/home.

Mulubrhan B, Mitiku H, Fu C, Liang W (2019) Ecosystem-Based Adaptation in Tigray,Northern Ethiopia: A Systematic Review of Interventions, Impacts, and Challenges. In:Leal W, Handbook of Climate Change Resilience. Cham: Springer.

Munro RN, Deckers J, Mitiku Haile, Grove AT, Poesen J, Nyssen J (2008) Soil landscapes,land cover change and erosion features of the Central Plateau Region of Tigrai, Ethiopia:Photo-monitoring with an interval of 30 years. Catena 75:55–64.

Munro RN (Ed.) (in preparation) Landscape changes in Tigray since the Tigrai RuralDevelopment Study. Monograph in preparation, Institute Climate & Society, MekelleUniversity.

Nigussie Haregeweyn, Tsunekawa A, Nyssen N, Poesen J, Tsubo M, Derege Meshesha,Schütt B, Enyew Adgo, Firew Tegene (2015) Soil erosion and conservation in Ethiopia:A review. Progress in Physical Geography 39: 750–774.

Nyssen J, Munro RN, Mitiku Haile, Poesen J, Descheemaeker K, Haregeweyn N,Moeyersons J, Govers G, Deckers J (2007) Understanding the environmental changes inTigray: a photographic record over 30 years. Tigray Livelihood Papers, 3. MekelleUniversity.

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Nyssen J, Descheemaeker K, Nigussie Haregeweyn, Mitiku Haile, Deckers J, Poesen J(2007) Lessons learnt from 10 years research on soil erosion and soil and waterconservation in Tigray. Tigray Livelihood Papers, 7. Mekelle University.

Pankhurst R (1961) Introduction to the Economic History of Ethiopia from early times to1800. London: Sedwick & Jackson.

Phillipson DW (1998) Ancient Ethiopia. Aksum: Its Antecedents and Successors. London:The British Museum Press.

Virgo KJ, Munro RN (1978) Soil and erosion features of the Central Plateau Region ofTigrai, Ethiopia. Geoderma 20: 131–157.

World Future Council (2017) Tigray Gold Award. https://www.worldfuturecouncil.org/p/2017-desertification/.

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