Gabal Elba Dragon tree (Dracaena ombet)
Mohamed bin Zayed Species project number 212526902
Local stakeholders-based conservation interventions for the endangered Dracaena ombet and its degraded habitats in Ethiopia
Project details
Objectives
1. Provide capacity building training for the local stakeholders on conservation status of D. ombet and its degraded habitats
2. Improve livelihoods of the local woman through different alternative livelihood sources such as poultry, beekeeping and home-gardening
3. Establish soil and water conservation structures (SWC) into the degraded habitats of the species
4. Develop a comprehensive conservation action plan of the species; and handover it to the local stakeholders
5. Share results of the project with different relevant stakeholder through workshops
6. Link interventions of the project (e.g. the trained local woman, established structures) with our well-established local and national partners for their sustainable support and management
7. Disseminate the project results through printed and e-sources media outlets
8. Contribute data to the species' database, based in Egypt, for developing its comprehensive conservation action plan across north-east Africa.
Methods and Activities
To achieve the aforementioned objectives, before starting of the project, we will hold a meeting with the local stakeholders (local community, forest rangers, local experts and NGOs) to receive their feedback about the project. After reaching consensus on importance of the project, the stakeholders will be given a chance to select their four representatives (one from each group mentioned above) to join the project team members.
With the representatives, we will give training for selected 25 key informants from the local stakeholders on use of GIS and GPS technology for conservation and monitoring of the species. We will also train the key informants on different habitat restoration techniques such SWC. In addition, we will offer awareness raising education on conservation of the species for local community, ranges, students, teachers and experts using different awareness raising activities such as video and picture presentations. With the consultation of representatives, we will select 30 poor local women out of 400 women whose livelihoods highly dependent on the species' harvesting. These women will then be trained on different alternative livelihoods like poultry, beekeeping and home-gardening farming (these priorities are made based the women preferences and climatic conditions of the area). They will also be given inputs such as chickens, beehives, seeds and technical support to start their new farming activities properly. Furthermore, we will introduce SWC structures into 30ha degraded habitats of the species for supporting its ecological restoration. Additionally, data of the project will be combined with our previous projects' data to develop a comprehensive guideline manual (containing the tree's ecology, distribution, threats and interventions) for conservation of the species, and handover it to the local stakeholders as to use guide them for their efforts on conservation the species and other threatened plant species. Results of the project will be shared and disseminated with relevant stakeholders (e.g. researchers, policy makers, experts) through workshops, and different printed (e.g. publication) and e-source (e.g. websites, social media) media outlets. Interventions of the project (e.g. the trained women, the established structures) will also be linked without our well-established partners for their sustainable support and management. Data of the project will be added to our existing database of the species (including data from Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan), developed by our Egyptian partner, for developing the species comprehensive conservation action plan across north-east African region.
Project documents
- Published article 4
- Published article 3
- Published article 1
- Published article 2
Project 212526902 location - Ethiopia, Africa