A recent report ‘Farmer managed natural regeneration in Niger: the state of knowledge’ provides the first comprehensive review of what is possibly the largest positive environmental transformation in Africa. This brief summarizes the main lessons.

The Ethiopian Dryland Restoration Strategy is a landmark document that provides the basis for the development of these vast and previously neglected areas. It opens with messages from H.E. Prof. Eyasu Elias State Minister, Ministry of Agriculture, and H.E. Ato Kebede Yimam, Director General, Ethiopian Forestry Development. Guiding principles, scope and rationale set the scene, before the strategy is laid out under four main themes – (i) natural resource management; (ii) land tenure, community rights and governance; (iii) livelihoods, markets and value chains; and (iv) policy alignment and coordination. This is followed with details on coordination and implementation arrangements, financing mechanisms, and monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning. 

In early 2020, TBI began to work with PENHA to assess key gaps related to dry­land restoration and dry forest management in Ethiopia, identifying the ‘Top 20’ challenges hampering the scaling up of successes. At the outset, we looked to build relationships with individuals and organizations that share a common vision, mission, focus and approach, with a view to knowledge-sharing and potential future partnerships.

An initial national workshop was convened in Addis Ababa in April 2021 to review knowledge on dryland restoration and management of dry forests, and this national review results from that meeting. Experts from governmental and non-governmental organizations, research and higher learning institutions and the private sector deliberated on a compre­hensive range of topics, from national perspectives on dryland restoration to regional and local initiatives.

This book makes an important and timely contribution to the knowledge economy on dryland restoration and management of dry forests of Ethiopia, and constitutes a solid output from these deliberations and a valuable resource for policy makers and practitioners alike. It is also a stepping stone as the PENHA-TBI programme focus on policy, with a view to outlining the essential elements and principles that a national dryland restoration strategy should consist of, while consider­ing the specific and differing needs and priorities of six dryland regions. The contents also show the increasing awareness of the need to reverse the relative neglect of drylands by policy makers, and to address common misperceptions of drylands as being unproductive and resource poor.

Dryland restoration efforts must acknowledge and actively promote the inclusive management and utilization of invasive trees and shrubs, and areas managed should be counted when monitoring achievements towards national restoration commitments. 

The Great Green Wall aims to increase tree cover on 100 million hectares by 2030 and countries have made other pledges to restore millions of hectares of drylands through other commitments. But these will never be met with conventional tree planting or integrated landscape projects alone. This brief presents how communication can be used to catalyze regreening in the African drylands. 

Farmer managed natural regeneration, simple water harvesting techniques and area exclosures have led to the regreening of millions of hectares across the Sahel and Greater Horn of Africa. This brief presents these three principle practices.