Producing and marketing forest products

Despite being seen as the preserve of the poor, forest products, such as honey, gum and incense, are a potentially profitable source of income for farmers. Women, young people, refugees and displaced people are the main groups that harvest wild forest products.

Along with the Assosa Environmental Protection Association, Farm Africa worked with forest management committees, which empower farmers to set up sustainable enterprises producing and selling products like honey and incense.

The committees helped farmers build better markets, access finance for their businesses and incentivise them to conserve forests. This project helped broker agreements between forest users and the government on using the area’s natural resources sustainably.

This project was funded by The German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ). It built on previous project success with Comic Relief, who funded the establishment of 23 forest management cooperatives and 106 Village Saving and Loan Associations, reaching a total of 5,381 people from June 2016 to July 2019.

The GIZ strengthened these 23 cooperatives and funded the setting up of new forest management cooperatives in six new areas in Benishangul-Gumuz, directly working with 3,912 families.