Ethiopian Forestry Development (EFD) is an autonomous federal institution, established by Proclamation No. 1263/2021 on 25th January, as referred on article 81-No. 8 and the federal government of Ethiopia council of ministers regulation No. 505/2022. EFD was resulted by merging together (The Ethiopian Environment and Forest Research Institute (EEFRI) and the forestry sector from the then (Environment, Forest and climate change commission) having the following powers and duties.

Powers and Duties

Ethiopian Forestry Development (EFD) shall have the following powers and duties:

1. To formulate and submit for review and approval evidence based policies, strategies, and legal instruments to facilitate the conservation, development, and sustainable use of forests, and implement same when approved;
2. In collaboration with relevant Regional authorities, identifying, demarcating, registering, and securing land use right certificates for forests and forestlands; classifying forests into protection and production forests on their intended uses and making sure that all forests have management plans and are managed accordingly in collaboration with relevant stakeholders; and identifying reserve forests and preparing law to legally designate and fully protect them, and when approved, working with relevant authorities to implement the law;
3. To gather, synthesize, and compile information on the changes in forest types, cover, and health; on forest carbon balance; on forest industries; on the supply and demand as well as on import and export trends of forest products; on the contribution of the forestry sector to other sectors of the economy and to the socio-economic development of the nation; and promote wider use of the information;
4. To prepare extension packages and through its centers and other paths to facilitate sustainable forest development conservation and use by putting in place and supporting efficient extension system and extension service accessible to users;
5. To raise additional funds for forest sector development by working engaging with development partners; to work closely with relevant authorities to establish forest fund, and to make it functional when approved; and to work with relevant entities to improve forest developers’ access to business development, credit, and insurance services;
6. To run and expand existing research centers, sub-center, research fields, lands, seed stands, nurseries, laboratories, and other infrastructure, and to close existing ones and to acquire or establish new ones as found necessary;
7. Using budget that it gets from the government and from development partners, leading and supporting expansion of small and large scale plantation forests, protection of natural forests, and rehabilitation of degraded forests and landscapes when Regions present such request as part of their Regional plan and with land use right certificate indicating the land where such intervention is to be implemented is properly demarcated and legally certified;
8. To work closely with concerned stakeholders in undertaking restoration of degraded landscapes using trees and other vegetations, promoting cluster based tree planting and landscape rehabilitation, and rehabilitating areas around water bodies, around infrastructure, and landscapes susceptible to flooding and landslides;
9. In collaboration with concerned institutions, promoting urban forestry and supporting the expansion of urban green spaces and sustainable development of urban and peri urban forests in ways that enhance their contributions for job creation and for other economic, social, and environmental benefits;
10. To establish and maintain seed sources to produce quality tree seeds and other planting materials; to ensure that seeds are collected, tested, and stored in the recommended ways; to set quality standards and to ensure that seeds meet these standards, have certificates, and distributed to users timely; and to ensure that the required infrastructure to do so is built and the legal and institutional framework to enforce same is put in place and laws enforced;
11. To expand and modernize existing nurseries and to establish new ones; to ensure that all nurseries have land use right certificates; to support them to produce more and quality seedlings that meet the standards; to ensure that these seedlings are planted at the right time, at the right place and for the desired objectives, and that the seedlings receive the care needed to meet planting objectives;
12. To work towards increasing awareness among citizens so that the spirit of the Green Legacy Initiative becomes societal asset, and to propose to the government a designation of a national tree planting date, and implement same when approved;
13. To collaborate with relevant authorities and set standards for inputs used in forestry; for forest establishment, management, and use; and for forest products and services; and to put in place marketing systems; and to ensure that these standards and systems are respected, and laws enforced by collaborates with relevant actors;
14. To set standards for forest industry technologies, machineries and other inputs or products to be imported and for forest products to be exported and collaborate with concerned authorities to enforce them;
15. To support efforts to expand forest industries and to create market links for forest products in view of creating jobs, substituting wood product imports with products produced in the country, and increasing foreign currency earnings by promoting export of forest products;
16. To ensure protection, rehabilitation, sustainable management and use of natural forests significantly contribute to climate change mitigation and minimizing the negative impacts of climate change and variability on ecosystem services, on people and on infrastructure;
17. To build the human, logistical, and infrastructural capacity of the Ethiopian Forestry Development to identify and address causes and to effectively combat deforestation and forest degradation, forest fire, forest pests and diseases, and invasive species, and to coordinate and lead such efforts at all levels;
18. In collaboration with relevant Federal and Regional authorities, preventing and controlling crimes on forests and combating illegal forest products trade and ensure that administrative and legal measures are taken on wrong doers;
19. To ensure that the forest development contributes to economic development in ways that is participatory, socially, and regionally inclusive, and to put in place and operationalize mechanism that ensures equitable benefits to communities from sustaining ecosystem service provisions;
20. To conduct research on agroforestry and forest development; on forest conservation, management, and use; on forests and ecosystem services; on climate change and forests; on forest policy and governance; on forests and their socioeconomic contributions; on value addition and marketing of forest products and services; and on forest industries and to generate evidence, knowledge, and technologies for forest sector development and to facilitate wider use of same;
21. To identify, adapt and promote bamboo, and other fast growing tree species to combat environmental degradation, desertification and loss of forests and biodiversity and to significantly increase the supply of forest products;
22. To work closely with relevant authorities to promote science-based agroforestry on smallholder farms, to have legally defined number of trees on commercial rainfed or irrigated farms being supported with research;
23. To ensure that forestry innovations from domestic and international sources having proven records are compiled and made accessible to users;
24. To work with appropriate agencies to legally protect intellectual property rights for research outputs and technologies generated by the Ethiopian Forestry Development;
25. To hire, assign, promote, train, and incentivize research staff of the Ethiopian Forestry Development following the system used by the agricultural research system;
26. To represent the forestry sector and participate in international, continental, and Regional platforms, notably United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), United Nation Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), United Nation Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), United Nation Forum on Forests (UNFSS), United Nation Reducing Emission from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (UN REDD+), African Great Green Wall, INBAR, African Forest Landscape Restoration (AFR 100), and other forestry related forums and to advance national interests in these platforms;
27. To liaise with international development partners, NGOs and other agencies working on related fields, and mobilize technical and financial support for the forestry sector;
28. To collaborate with industries, research, educational and training institutions, as well as with civil societies, professional and producers’ associations, the private sector, and other non-state actors in the country engaged in forest development, conservation, and use;
29. To issue certificates of qualification in forestry, permits for harvesting and transportation of forest products and for other service; and to request payments for services provided in line with the mandates of the Ethiopian Forestry Development;
30. To undertake all other tasks necessary to execute its powers and duties stated under this regulation, and in the Forest Development, Conservation, and Use Proclamation No 1065/2018.

LOCATION

EFD’s headquarter is located in Addis Ababa, 4 killo, Arada sub-City, behind Abrehot library and at the side of Danu Orthopaedic centre and the federal ministry of industry.

Establishment and History

Organized forestry research in Ethiopia was started by the establishment of Forestry Research Centre (FRC) and the then Wood Utilization Research Centre (WUARC) in 1975 and 1979, respectively under the Forestry and Wildlife Conservation Development Authority (FaWCDA). The centres were incorporated to the then Ministry of Natural Resources Development and Environmental Protection in 1992 and again re-transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture in 1995.

The Federal Government of Ethiopia reorganized the National Agricultural Research System and established the then Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organization (EARO) in 1997 (Negarit Gazeta, 1997). As a result, FRC and WUARC were transferred to EARO as one research centre (FRC) and one of the research sectors of EARO (now Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR)).

Then, the Government of Ethiopia found it necessary to give due attention to activities of environmental protection and forest development, protection and utilization by linking forestry research with environmental protection research at an institutional level for the attainment of the objectives of the Government that resulted in the establishment of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

(back ground history of MEFCC and EFCCC up to EFD will be elaborated here) ……..

 

EEFRI was established on December 26, 2014 by Regulation No. 327/2014.