Environmental awareness and capacity building for degraded land restoration and biodiversity conservation through education for traditional leaders, women?s groups; farmers, the youth and local environmental groups, in land restoration, sustainable management of community lands, biodiversity, endangered wildlife and indigenous birds and fishes conservation and silk warm farming resource sharing to the other beneficiary as means of loan payments. It will also include establishing environmental protection and advocating committees at kabeles level, environmental film shows to public on documentation and facilitations work; environmental networking- closer information exchanges with environmental related institutions of both Government and Non-Governmental Organizations in the region.

Lake Langano and Abijata, being major tourist attractions, have a wide variety of fauna and flora with significant numbers of endemics with considerable biodiversity value and the project areas has importance in terms economic and genetic value, making the locality unique in terms of biodiversity. The lakes have enormous hydropower and fish farming potential for most of Ethiopia. Such shift to hydropower could substantially reduce green house gas emission and its impact on climate change. The wetlands also provide important environmental functions such as ground water recharge/discharge, flood control, sediment retention and erosion control. Through Sustainable Land Management, GEF funding could complement proposed activities in improving land degradation and biodiversity to bring urgently needed resources to attain global environmental benefits.

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Priorities are given to women for the reasons that in the areas of traditionally livestock rearing and milking cattle and petty trading, women are active in taking care and feeding the family and sell the extra products in the market for increased income. They will be empowered in the course of gaining access to resource and control over it, which has big contribution for improving their status. This slowly will be replicated within the community and out to other communities.

The community have taken over the project and ensures its sustainability.

The community, as part of project financer, will participate in contributions especially with supplying land, local materials and local human power for the execution of the project amounting to US$ 27,891.