Environmental policy and administrative management

Project site is located about 60 Km from Barentu, the Capital of Gash-Barka Region. Land degradation is the most severe environmental concern of the project area, and is also a wide spread issue spanning throughout the country. To larger extent, land degradation is caused by inappropriate land management, unsustainable agricultural practices, and overgrazing and deforestation resulted in clearing of vegetation cover and soil erosion. From the study which was conducted in Gash-Barka Region, the principal source of energy for over 95% of the residents in the region is firewood. This project, Rehabilitation of Degraded Catchments in two Kebabis of Lalay- Gash Sub-region is envisaged to address degradation problem by engaging local actors in environmental conservation through building their capacities to act and create livelihood options for forest dependent poorer communities in two Kebabis of Shelalo & Maykokah. This is a two year project of January 2013 to December 2014, targeting a total population of 78,931 or 38,114 households. The project targets all the 38,144 households in awareness raising and hardware activities of Soil & Water Conservation practices of 40 ha of land supporting 200 poor households (mainly women headed households) in income generating activities to improve their livelihood. The project intervenes in soil and water conservation using feasible approaches of area closure planting of drought resistant tree species and other tree seedlings of commercial purpose. Moreover, training of trainers on improved traditional stove to selected women so that these women will transfer their knowhow to every household in the communities. Hence, its impacts are eco-friendly that will sustain after the project life. The project s budget need is Nakfa 1,501,306.60 or (USD 100,087.11) with a contribution from GEF SGP Nakfa 750,000.00, community contribution Nakfa 479,528.60 and from others Nakfa 271,778.00. The contribution from the community, local government and branch ministries includes labor, SWC equipment, technical backstopping, administrative support and provision of tree seedlings. In implementing the project, development committees both at the regional and Sub-regional levels are formed. Both committees are composed of members from regional/sub-regional administration, branch/sub-branch ministry of Agriculture, members of the NUEW and members of the target community. At the project level, the community forms a project committee that undertakes the actual planned activities, where women are strongly represented. Members of the regional and sub-regional committees, and SGP personnel are represented in project monitoring and evaluation process and follow result based monitoring as per the detail plan presented in the body of this document. The knowledge gained from the project is also carefully documented and communicated to concerned organizations and offices. The sustainability of the project results is seriously taken into account by focusing on building the capacity of stakeholders and creating benefit sharing mechanism. The contribution made by different stakeholders especially by the community and government reinforces the widely held conviction of project sustainability.

Eritrea