The Addis Connexion – June 2007

Home Gardens of Ethiopia project

Ethiopia is one of the world's major areas of biodiversity. Due to the rift valley, two different types of ecosystems exist: temperate and tropical. The wide range of altitudes found in Ethiopia, also gives rise to a wide variety of flora & fauna.

"Home Gardens of Ethiopia" is a four-year project currently underway financed by the French Global Environmental Protection Agency. A presentation entitled "Enhancing the Value of Ethiopian Local Specialties" was recently given by Bernard Roussell, ethno-botanist professor at the National Museum of Natural History of Paris and Francois Verdeaux, anthropologist and director of the Institute De Recherche. Localized Specialties are natural products of a certain area, the qualities and attributes of which are unique to it's environment and community. The issues being addressed by the project are:
(1) Making an inventory of Ethiopia's local heritage.
(2) Finding ways to enhance the value of the local heritage while protecting it at the same time.
(3) Maintaining the right balance between utilization of the resources by the local community & maintaining the area's biodiversity i.e. conservation and sustainability.
(4) Establishing a link between a product's unique qualities and characteristics with its source or geographical origin and identifying the natural and/or human factors which have led to its unique qualities.
E.g. what makes Yirgacheffe Coffee different from other coffees? Is it natural environmental factors or the human element (i.e. the handling/processing of the coffee)? Another example: Debre Brehan Beg provides for higher quality mutton and therefore fetches a higher value.
The term Geographical Indication (or GI's) is used to identify a good from a certain region. The system of GI's is established from the bottom up - the specification of products comes from the local community or the source of the product (not from the buyer or destination). There are two major kinds of protection for GI's:
1) Trademarks
2) Designation of Origin e.g. Bordeaux wine clearly indicates the origin of the product. The uniqueness of such products is due to its natural or cultural qualities specific to its origin & can therefore not be duplicated by products from other origins.
The specific project goal is to identify 10 products that can be classified as localized products or specialties of Ethiopia by October 2007. The next step is to delineate the territories of the products, & study the natural environment and different conditions of production for these products A Home Gardens Project Center will be established to promote the project goals.

Partners for this project are: Ethiopian Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), IBCR, IRD, ABEL, FFEM.