Our Work In Ethiopia

Although Ethiopia was once known as the Bread Basket of Africa, 30 years of disastrous development strategies and unsustainable land use have left only 3% of the country's forests standing. With more than 80% of the population dependent on wood for their basic energy needs, there is a real crisis in their fuel supply - women and children must walk miles every day to gather a few twigs to cook with, and fuelwood is very expensive!

To Ethiopians returning to their homeland after many years overseas, the most strikingly obvious symbols of all this devastation are the absence of trees, the extensive sheet and gully erosion, and the muddy rivers which carry away hundreds of tons of valuable topsoil annually.