 |
|
NEWS
MELCA Staff on SEGNI
SEGNI Celebration |
Melca’s Land Recovery Process |
|
|
|
|
|
MELCA Mahiber is actively engaged in a community centered land recovery process. To this effect MELCA has devised participatory mapping mechanisms such as participatory three dimensional modeling (P3DM), sketch mapping and eco mapping. All forms of participatory mapping are intended to revitalize and mobilize indigenous local knowledge for better natural resource management. Read more |
MELCA's PHE Project |
|
|
Efforts toward sustainable development, poverty reduction, and improved livelihoods, especially in developing countries like Ethiopia, are requiring integration of issues in the areas of population, health and environment.That is so because considering the alarming rate of deforestation, land degradation and rapidly growing population pressure, addressing problems in these areas in a coordinated and integrated manner deserves due attention and the concerted effort of the Government, NGOs and the community at large. Read more |
National Workshop on Sacred Site |
MELCA had organized a national workshop on sacred site to bring the issue for discussion at a national level on March 31, 2010 at Ghion Hotel. The attendees were relevant government bureau decision makers, representatives from Civil Society Organizations, Research Institutes and academia. Read More |
5th Annual General Meeting |
|
MELCA had its 5th Annual General Meeting on February 20, 2010 at Global Hotel. Ato Melese Damtie, the Vice Chairman of the Assembly, led the meeting. 40 members attended the meeting, in which they evaluated the Annual and Audit Reports of 2009. Each project coordinator presneted the activities conducted on their project areas. Ato Bekele Sidelil, the external auditor, presented the audit report. Both reports were well received by members and they appreciated the staff participation on the presentation. See the annual report |
Strategic Planning |
MELCA had a three days strategic development exercise facilitated by Jhon from February 15 - 17, 2010. As MELCA had its 5 years now, it was a good time to reflect back and look at the future. In addition, all the staffs have participated on the process. We were encouraged by what we achieved when we looked back at our history. MELCA's core purpose will be ''to work for healthy ecosystems, vibrant culture and improved lives of communities through developing and spreading innovative methods". |
Story Writing Training |
|
MELCA in colloaboraton with ISD and EthioScop has organized a story writing training for staffs of the 3 organizations from February 12 -14, 2010. John Willson, a volunteer from Zimbabwe, gave the training. It was an eye opener for participants. People had felt that they have no capacity in writinaffs have g and in telling stories. After three days, it was marvelous to see the kind of writing that they were doing. |
Community Mapping at Telecho Village |
|
The women at Telecho will never forget February 10, 2010. They never met as a group to discus about their common issues before as their custom didn't allow woman to participate in public gatherings. But on that day, it seemed they broke their custom. Around 20 women gathered together and shared experiences about how they select, save and store their traditional seed. They all talk about how the traditional seeds are important compared to improved seeds. "Traditional seeds are my grand parents. I don't want to loose them as no one wants to loose his/her parents. Seeds are our life" said Elsa Abate, a farmer who came from Woreilu, Southern part of Ethiopia. more |
Formation of Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA)
|
| |
The Major Networks in Africa brought together in Addis Ababa from November 23-25, 2009.The aim of the three-day meeting is to provide a space to find common ground and developing a strategy for working together on issues including climate change, globalization, sustainable agriculture, indigenous peoples etc. The ‘networks of networks’ meeting resolved to establish an Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), in French; APSA (ALLIANCE PANAFRICAINE POUR LA SOUVERAINETE ALIMENTAIRE). The Alliance made a declaration which focused on climate change. The declaration was also shared with the President of Ethiopia, Girma W/Giorgis. Read the declaration |
MELCA has produced draft EIA Bill |
MELCA Mahiber has produced draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) proclamation to correct the major gaps and limitations of the existing EIA proclamation. This was a step forward in creating credible and functional Environmental Impact Assessment System in Ethiopia. Before drafting the proclamation MELCA, together with Sheka Forest Alliance Members, had organized series of workshops and published a research book entitled “overview of EIA in Ethiopia: Gaps and Challenges” in which one of the outcomes was to undertake a depth research to come up with a generic draft amendment of EIA Proclamation. The draft Proclamation is launched on September 1, 2009 at Hilton Addis Ababa for discussion for all relevant stakeholders. The meeting drew around 50 participants including parliamentarians, officials from five regional states, members of the civic society and concerned individuals.
The existing EIA proclamation has come into force starting from December 2002. However, it has many gaps and is inapplicable because there are no enforcement mechanisms and not strictly implemented. It is believed that the articles added in the amended bill will cover the “holes” in the existing proclamation. The proclamation will be delivered to the Federal Environmental Protection Authority and EPA will send it to the councils of Ministers and then to the parliament for approval. To see the draft law click here.
|
| |
Consultative meeting with elders about sacred sites |
|
Consultative meeting with elders on “Sacred sites and Climate Change” was held on August 9 through 11, 2009 at the Ethiopian Red-Cross conference room, Addis Ababa. A total of 25 Elders from Sheka, Bale and Menagesha Suba area, where MELCA currently operates and are critical biodiversity hotspots of the country, gathered together on August 9, 2009. More |
| |
Inauguration of Participatory 3 Dimensional Model |
|
MELCA Mahiber has built a Participatory 3 Dimensional Model of the historical
Wechecha mountain complex, which is found in Oromiya Regional State, adjacent to
Wolmera and Sebeta Awas Woreda. The model was inaugurated by a Representative of the
President of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Over 500 people participated in the
ceremony including members of the house of people representative councils, different
governmental officials, international organizations, CSO representatives and local community
members. More |
Green Hero of 2009 |
|
MELCA's Bale Project has been awarded by his Excellency Girma W/Giorgis the FDRE
President for its remarkable achievements in the conservation and rehabilitation of
degraded areas around Bale Mountains National Park. This has happened on the
National Green Award Program which was held on July 21st, 2009 at the Hilton Hotel. more |
Beekeeping Training and Support for Farmers |
|
Training on improved methods of bee husbandry and handling of bee products was given for 180 beekeepers and 20 Development Agents. Of which 48 of them were female. In addition to this, 15 of the trainees were from the minority (marginalized) tribe or the Menja people. This people are mainly living in the forest and they are important actors in beekeeping and also natural resource conservation programs. |
The training aims to minimize the degradation of the natural resources through creation of livelihoods options of which beekeeping is one of the potential areas to be integrated. In this aspect creation of awareness and maximizing the outputs of non timber forest products that will economically empower and convince the communities to conserve their ecosystem for economic reasons are very essential. The training is supported by SNV Ethiopia
|
Consultative Workshop on Biofuel with Oromiya Region Officials |
|
Consultative Workshop on Biofuels with Oromia Regional Government Decision makers was held on April 28, 2009 at Ethiopia Hotel, Addis Ababa. The purpose of the workshop was to exchange information on the latest global and national issues concerning biofuels developments and challenges in actual implementation and the associated impacts on food security and the environment. |
| The workshop was organized by MELCA Mahiber with the aim of enhancing the capacity of Oromia Regional Government officials to help them make informed decisions on matters regarding biofuel investments. Participants came from Agriculture, Rural Development, Environment, Energy and Investment sectors; donors; Practitioners from NGO's and CSO's; Government Research Institutes, Universities and academicians. More |
Training Workshop for Print and Broadcast Media Journalists |
|
MELCA Mahiber has organized a Training workshop on the generic issues of Biodiversity, Agricultural Diversity, Industrial Agriculture, Biofuels and GMO's for print and broadcast Media Journalists on March 30, 2009, at Ethiopia Hotel, Addis Ababa. The workshop was attended by representatives of 19 print and broadcast media journalists of both the government and free press including members of the Ethiopian Environmental Journalists Association. |
| The purpose of the workshop was to help the media get a deeper insight of the holistic issues of biodiversity, Biotechnology, GMO's and Agrofuels comparing with the current trends and facts of Ethiopia. Read more |
Training on Environmental Related Laws and Its Implementation |
|
Training was given to 53 judges, prosecutors and justice administrations of Sheka Zone from March 25 - 27/2008 on Environmental related laws and its implementation. The purpose of the training was to follow up and share experiences they have developed after the last training among each other. The participants witnessed that after the last year training, they have started to implement environmental related laws and concern to forest and biodiversity than ever before. |
4th Annual General Meeting of MELCA Mahiber |
|
The fourth Annual General Meeting of MELCA Mahiber was held on Saturday, March 21, 2009, at Axum Hotel in Addis Ababa. Dr. Tewelde-Berhan G/Egiziabiher the chairman of general assembly opened the meeting officially.
The annual activities and financial reports of 2008 are presented by Ato Million Belay the Director of MELCA and Ato Awoke G/silase from external auditors respectively. The Board Chairman, Dr. Melaku Wored presented the newly developed strategy plan for 2009-2012. Read more |
Strategic Planning Development |
|
MELCA Mahiber undertakes strategic planning from March 9 -11/2007 at Debreziet. All the staffs of MELCA were participated in the strategic planning process. The process was facilitated by Paulin Wilson, a volunteer from England. The initiative arose from the need for planning MELCA’s activities so as to engage in effective service delivery in the areas of advocacy, endogenous development and intergenerational learning and for improving MELCA’s programmes and activities in rtion to the changes in the political, social, and economic environments. Read the strategic document |
New Publication: Biofuels Development in Ethiopia |
|
MELCA has published a book called “a rapid assessment of biofuel developments in Ethiopia” regarding the base line study and research on the national biofuel strategy and its implementations in five regions of Ethiopia. The book also incorporates the proceedings of the national workshop on EIA and Biofuels supported by Gaia Foundation and African Biodiversity Network (ABN) |
New Publication: Communal Forest Ownership |
|
Between November 25 and 27, a total of seventy-one representatives from various Non-Governmental Organizations, as well as Parliamentarians, government ministries, and other stakeholders met for a three day workshop under the title of "Communal Forest Ownership: An Option to address the underlying causes of deforestation and Forest Degradation in Ethiopia?" which was held at Chilimo Forest and Ghion Hotel. We have published the proceedings of this workshop. |
The workshop and the publishing is financed by Global Forest Coalition, an international NGO headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Asuncion, Paraguay. Read the book |
Eco-Cultural mapping in Masha Woreda |
|
Eco-cultural mapping was conducted in 15 kebeles of Masha Woreda from May 25-Jun 25 2008 and from Nov 4-Dec10, 2008 in two phases with the support of the local community. Before the actual data collection six consultative workshops held at keble level. Participants were selected based on their age, knowledge and gender including the minority tribes. After each consultative meeting participants elected elders based on their knowledge and capacity to lead the process. |
More than 450 GPS points of; wetland, historical sights, kobo areas, waterfalls, sacred sites, burial places, caves, settlement areas and mineral water were collected. Out of the collected GPS points: 150 sacred sites, 25 waterfalls, 21 mineral water, 4 historical sites, 17 cultural huts, 4 caves, 69 community kobo forests and 8 burial places were collected.
To conduct the ground survey a spot satellite image was used as a base map. Together with GPS data; information on socioeconomic activities, history of the sacred sites, the primary distributions of key plant and animal species were also identified and mapped.
|
 |
