Agroforestry for sustainable livelihoods and climate change adaptation in Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Agroforestry, a land management system integrating trees/shrubs with crops or with livestock, has important roles in the provision of diverse outputs per unit area, ecosystem services from the management units, and yet enables adaptation to climate change. Despite this importance, there is still a limitation in recognizing the potential of traditional agroforestry practices’ resilience to changing climate. Some agroforestry practices are more contributive to adaptive capacity or coping strategy for climate change than others. Thus, the present study is aimed at evaluating the traditional agroforestry practices in the face of climate resilience in selected districts of the Amhara Region, Ethiopia. Three districts were purposively selected where systematic random sampling was employed to collect social and biophysical data from 600 households. Socioeconomic data were collected using semi-structured questionnaires. The multistorey and/or homestead agroforestry was the dominant traditional agroforestry practice, followed by parkland and woodlot agroforestry across the districts. About 93% of the respondents perceived climate change in the study sites. The trend for traditional agroforestry land use has increased by 80% in the past 10 years and a range of 50 to 63% of respondents agreed that multistorey agroforestry practice has more demand than woodlots. Overall, the studied agroforestry practices contributed about 46 to 64% of the products for livelihood resilience. The findings underscore traditional agroforestry’s dual role in climate adaptation like diversifying income and mitigation through carbon sequestration. Policy support and capacity-building are recommended to scale up these practices for enhanced food security, energy supply, and climate resilience among smallholders.