The hills around Arba Minch Zuria Woreda a Chencha Woreda are affected by deforestation and free grazing, which leads to soil erosion and incapacity of soil to retain rain water. Consequently, the rain removes the fertile soils and floods the agriculture land at the base of the hill. The zonal agriculture bureau in Arba Minch identified several watersheds, specifically Hare, Kurpayo and Baso rivers, as areas with insufficient management of natural resources. Mendel University in Brno (Czech Republic) together with Zonal agriculture bureau and MERET project jointly work on innovative plan of landscape management in the above-mentioned areas. The satellite images with explanatory notes from Geotest were translated into landscape plans and have been shared in 2017 with the agriculture bureau for future planning. The inhabitants and farmers of affected areas received series of trainings in soil and water conservation in order to learn and later adopt the required behavior and protect the landscape for the future.

As an example a 30 hectares of the watershed Kurpayo river (Kebele Chano Mile and Chano Dorga) was already rehabilitated with the supervision of trained local experts. The know-how of terracing agriculture was transferred from Konso. Other components of this project include establishment of a Permaculture training center with a living seed bank and various demonstration plots of nutrition-dense crops, vermi-composts, as well as moringa cultivation and processing. Within this project, we work with women cooperatives that process moringa leaves. During this year, the center will launch its training activities and have already a big interest from the side of the representatives of woredas, farmer from surrounding area and international partners.