Ethiopia: Enhancing Landscape Connectivity Through Agroforests

Agroforests in the Gedeo Cultural Landscape of Ethiopia serve as critical biodiversity havens and landscape connectors, mimicking natural forests to support sustainable agroforestry practices. These systems enhance on-farm conservation, environmental resilience, and livelihoods while acting as buffers against deforestation and fragmentation. They provide habitats for disturbance-sensitive species, conserve native tree gene pools, and facilitate ecological connectivity through corridors and stepping stones. Additionally, the diverse species composition in Gedeo agroforests significantly contributes to biomass and carbon storage, aiding climate change mitigation. Despite their ecological and socio-economic benefits, these agroforests face threats from land degradation, monoculture cash crops, climate change, market limitations, financial constraints, and insufficient technical knowledge.

Tesfay, H. M., & Negash, M. (2025). Ethiopia: Enhancing Landscape Connectivity Through Agroforests. Ecological Connectivity of Forest Ecosystems, 521–534. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-82206-3_28