Environmental policy and administrative management

Gullie village is located in Galla-Nefhi Sub-Region of Maekel region. Gullie is 10 Km east of the capital, Asmara. It is at 15 18 north and 37 56 east and at altitude of 1,827 meters above sea level. The agricultural activity of this area is rain-fed subsistence farming and horticultural activity. Herding of cattle, sheep and goats is also common in the area. The topography of the area is uneven dominated with hilly landscape. It has steep slope that runs from 30% - 40% at the upper catchment. The average rainfall of this zone is around 300mm. the soil is mostly silty loam-sandy soil. The vegetation cover in the area is acacia and cactus. The area to be treated is the upstream catchment of Gullie Dam, which will greatly help to curb the rate siltation. The major causes of environmental degradation in Gullie village area are human induced activities of deforestation to expand agricultural land, selling of forest products to subsidize household income and limited efforts to regenerate/plant trees while cutting for many other purposes. This project, Gullie Catchment Rehabilitation is envisaged to address land degradation problem by engaging local actors in environmental conservation through building their capacities to act and create livelihood options for the target rural poorer community of Gullie. This is 18 months project December 2012 to June 2014, targeting a total population of 2,454 or 615 households. The major components of the project are building the capacities of local environmental actors, physical conservation works, afforestation and addressing livelihood options for the community. The project targets all the 615 households or 2,454 persons in awareness raising, physical conservation of 50 ha of land, encouraging the formation of school environmental clubs, and directly targeting 615 households (mainly women headed households) to improve their livelihood. Total budget of the project is 1,596,782.50 ERN or USD 106,452.17 with a contribution of GEF-SGP of Nakfa 750,000.00, and a contribution from community & government institutions contribution reaches Nakfa 846,782.50. The contribution from the community, local, government and branch ministries includes labor, technical backstopping, administrative support, and provision of seedlings for afforestation. In implementing the project, Development Committees both at the regional and Sub-regional levels of Maekel Region are formed. Both committees are composed of members from regional/sub-regional administration, branch/sub-branch ministry of Agriculture, branch/sub-branch ministry of Land, Water and Environment, and members of the target community. At the project level stands the Gullie Development Committee and forms project groups that undertake the actual planned activities, where women are strongly represented. Members of regional/ sub-regional Development committees, Environment Relevant Ministries and SGP personnel are represented in project monitoring and evaluation process and follow result based monitoring as per the project implementation plan. 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. Moreover, the contribution made by different stakeholders especially by the community and local government reinforces the widely held conviction of project sustainability.

Eritrea