Component 2: Integrated Rangeland Management
Building on the success of LLRP I, the project will continue to use rangelands as the entry point for investments. Component 2 aims to improve the absorptive and adaptive capacities of PAP ecosystems by monitoring and improving the health and productivity of natural rangeland resources (improving their soil stability, hydrologic function, vegetation productivity, and biotic integrity) and attenuate community-level conflict in PAP areas. Healthier and more productive rangelands, in turn, will increase livestock productivity, PAP households’ livelihoods, and PAP systems’ overall resilience. They will also increase above- and below-ground soil carbon stocks, contributing to climate change mitigation and resilience. To achieve these results, the component will apply integrated, participatory, nature-based, and climate-smart approaches and leverage renewable and efficient energy sources and technologies. It will also leverage selected research outputs and innovations generated by ILRI’s AICCRA Project on feed, pasture management, and integrated rangeland management in the lowlands. When possible, the project will promote NBS with guidance from the World Bank’s NBS Invest Program.
Subcomponent 2.1: Rangeland Health Monitoring and Institutional Capacity Building (US$4.35 million, including US$3.48 million IDA equivalent and US$0.87 million IFAD)
The subcomponent will support (a) the establishment of a national rangeland monitoring system (RMS) and (b) rangeland monitoring and management institutions, proactively targeting women in capacity-building efforts.
(a) RMS. The subcomponent will finance the establishment and operationalization of a national RMS that monitors the overall health of national rangeland and related trends. In collaboration with the MoA, Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI), Alliance Biodiversity International and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and ILRI, the project will develop the system and ensure its capacity to (i) synthesize remote sensing data and leverage it to generate usable products or reports; (ii) conduct groundtruth analysis derived from satellite-based imagery in ways that draw on communities’ insights (including women’s); and (iii) disseminate rangeland-related information and advisories to different users in a timely fashion by leveraging user-friendly digital platforms and public and private delivery channels. The RMS will facilitate the estimation of baseline GHG emissions in preparation for possible future participation in
carbon market schemes. The latter may help incentivize the adoption of climate-smart rangeland management strategies. LLRP II will coordinate its carbon market readiness activities with the Oromia Forested Landscape Program (Phase II, P151294). The RMS will be linked to the MoA’s existing system for data sharing.
(b) Capacity building for rangeland management and monitoring institutions. The subcomponent will strengthen the capacity of rangeland management institutions, including existing and newly established rangeland management committees and customary institutions. Customary institutions will be supported in the implementation of traditional (indigenous) rangeland management practices such as livestock mobility, herd dispersal, and segregation. The activities to be financed will include trainings, consultative workshops, and visits including cross-border ones.
Subcomponent 2.2: Participatory Rangeland and Pasture Management (PRPM) (US$52.5 million, including US$42.5 million IDA equivalent and US$10 million IFAD)
This subcomponent will support
(a) the preparation of rangeland management plans (RMPs), (b) the implementation of rangeland and pasture development activities, and (c) the production and marketing of forage and feed.
(c) RMPs. The subcomponent will finance the updating of the 28 existing RMIPs prepared under LLRP I and the formulation of new RMPs through participatory rangeland management30 principles to identify additional climate-smart mitigation and nature-based solutions31, validate their feasibility based on indicative land-use planning and characterization and formulate rangeland management bylaws. The project will ensure that all the RMPs have updated maps of livestock mobility routes and that related investments are aligned with livestock mobility and trade corridors.
(d) Rangeland and pasture development. Guided by the RMPs, and privileging inclusive, climate-smart, and nature-based solutions, the subcomponent will finance rangeland and pasture development activities. They may include (i) delineation, mapping, and land-use characterization of the project intervention areas; (ii) restoration of degraded and overgrazed rangelands through physical, biological, and agronomic soil and water conservation measures including sowing, reseeding, and community-based and temporary area closures that enhance rangeland productivity and the availability of pasture, especially during the dry season and droughts; (iii) development of silvo-pastoral and agro-silvo-pastoral systems through the plantation and management of multipurpose trees; (iv) wetland protection and maintenance to buffer the impacts of floods/droughts and enhance biodiversity and food security for agropastoralists relying on receding farming; and (v) management of invasive species using multiple techniques such as prescribed fire (to reduce vulnerability to uncontrolled wildfire, the risk of which is exacerbated by climate change), targeted and selective clearing and de-rooting, and management by utilization (for example, the use of Prosopis juliflora as a source of biomass energy32 and feed). Through these interventions and water infrastructure investments carried out under Subcomponent 1.2, the project will facilitate the sustainable management of water for livestock and human consumption in dry and wet season grazing areas and livestock migration and trade corridors. The subcomponent will also finance technical support, training, and supervision at the federal, regional, and woreda levels.
(e) Production and marketing of forage. The subcomponent will improve the availability and quality of forage with the aim of increasing livestock productivity in normal times and ensuring their survival in times of drought. Guided by the fodder and feed value chain analysis carried out under LLRP I, the subcomponent will support the production and marketing of forage by financing (i) technical support to the fodder producer and marketing cooperatives and micro and small enterprises (MSEs) established under Subcomponent 3.2, with a focus on women, training, and input provision, (ii) the establishment of nurseries and grass and forage seed production and multiplication centers (in collaboration with research centers) and the provision of matching grants in coordination with Subcomponent 3.2, (iii) the development of productive alliances between fodder producers (such as MSEs) and traders, (iv) the facilitation of local and cross-border market links for the offtake of excess forage, and (v) support to pilot of joint management of feed stores through public-private partnerships. The subcomponent will target production of high yielding, nutritive and highly digestible forage species with a potential to lower carbon intensity per unit of livestock product, meat, or milk, produced. The project will not encourage government-led mass production and free distribution of fodder, as this would impede the sector’s commercialization. However, in the event of a drought emergency (forecast with the support of Subcomponents 1.1 and 2.1), the project may facilitate and support fodder production and marketing in drought hotspot areas in collaboration with MSEs through the provision of inputs and advisory services. The subcomponent will be closely coordinated with Subcomponent 1.2, which may finance the construction of feed stores and processing plants, as well as Subcomponent 4.2, under which the project will support the development or updating of policies and strategies on the privatization and commercialization of fodder and feed production in PAP areas.
Subcomponent 2.3: Resource-Related Conflict Management and Mitigation (US$7.63 million, including US$6.18 million IDA equivalent and US$1.45 million IFAD)
This subcomponent will equip PAP stakeholders with tools and capacities to address root causes of resource-related community-level conflict in PAP areas. Strong conflict management governance systems are critical to ensure peace and cohesion in face of climate change related events, amongst others. The project will approach this by updating conflict assessments conducted during LLRP I and assessing new project areas, with a newly introduced focus on the identification of:, (a) stakeholder groups to include in the project’s participatory processes (with due attention to minority and vulnerable groups); (b) the drivers of conflict in PAP areas; (c) conflict hotspots within project-targeted areas; (d) customary and indigenous peace building and conflict resolution institutions and mechanisms; and (e) risks posed by recent geopolitical developments and fragility in proximate highland areas. Based on updated findings, the subcomponent will:, (a) ensure the inclusion and representation of identified stakeholders in project-supported groups and local institutions and their active engagement in the planning and validation of WDRP and DPRSIPs and the selection and implementation of PEI investments, and (b) in identified hotspots, support the development and empowerment of inter-communal peace committees34 to oversee the project activities at local levels, foster consensus, and meet regularly to address and mitigate grievances associated with project interventions.
The subcomponent will also (a) help the Government identify, formulate, and enforce appropriate pastoral land tenure and land-use policies and strategies that legally recognize and certify customary pastoral land ownership and resource rights and enhance conflict resolution and arbitration processes; (b) promote modern, gender-sensitive and climate-smart technologies including fuel-efficient and safe cook stoves and alternative energy sources such as improved eco-design wood stoves with less fuel-wood usage, biogas stoves and solar cooker replacing wood-inefficient traditional stoves that involve lots of tree cuttings and deforestation, and high GHG emission ; and (c) support social cohesion through project messaging and by, for example, organizing sporting events, cultural days, environmental campaigns, project activity inauguration and completion, and other events that convey project messages. Importantly, conflict management and peacebuilding efforts under this subcomponent will be complemented by activities under other relevant subcomponents. The PIM will further describe procedures for ensuring the equitable targeting of project resources across subcomponents and adjusting to security risks if and where they arise, including by pausing or reallocating project resources and using third-party monitoring, as appropriate.