Regional Innovation Platform for Sustainable Land Management was held

JICA’s project, “Development of Next-Generation SLM Framework to Combat Desertification”, conducted under the SATREPS[1] scheme, held a stakeholder workshop, “Regional Innovation Platforms (RIP)” from May 14-16, 2022 in Amhara region.

Around 50 participants from different fields, including government, research, development and land-users engaged in land management in Amhara region, joined the workshop. The project researchers shared the scientific results and observations from their studies and discussed how to improve the contents of the draft of “Research-Based SLM Guideline” and how to disseminate it effectively to be used in field extensions.

On Day 2, they visited the target watersheds in Guder, and after that, they gave feedback on “alternative future scenarios mapping” developed under the project. In groups, participants discussed different land use scenarios, and the project reviewed the preferences of options evaluated by local entities and land users.

On Day 3, the participants discussed the concept of “regional research-based Sustainable Land Management (SLM) Partnership” which is scheduled to be established by the Amhara Region Bureau of Agriculture (Amhara BoA), Bahir Dar University (BDU) and Amhara Region Agricultural Research Institute (ARARI). To realize the dissemination of research results in the field through extension services, the discussion focused on the roles and responsibilities of partners and what should be done to harmonize policy and science in SLM areas. The project will scrutinize this concept and finalize the concept note toward its establishment in the near future.

Source: JICA Ethiopia