Forestry extension: Contributions and challenges for sustainable forest management in Ethiopia

Ethiopia faces rapid degradation of forest resources. This poses serious threats to environmental sustainability, biodiversity, and the livelihoods of rural communities reliant on forest ecosystems. Hence, sustainable forest management is crucial. However, the implementation of Forestry Extension Programmes remains a significant challenge because of the long-term nature of forestry interventions and the gradual behavioural changes required among stakeholders. Therefore,this review paper aims to analyses the role of forestry extension services and the major obstacles they face. Relevant literature was sourced from Scopus, Web of Science, and Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and Google Scholar, using the keywords "forestry extension, contribution, challenges, and Sustainable forest management ".The findings highlight that forestry extension is key to advancing sustainable forest management. It facilitates knowledge transfer, makes scientific and technological advances accessible to farmers, and supports policymakers with evidence-based strategies. However, the effectiveness of forestry extension in Ethiopia is critically constrained by a complex interplay of systemic challenges. Structurally, these include profound institutional weaknesses, such as a chronic shortage of skilled personnel, irregular funding cycles misaligned with the long-term nature of forestry investments, and frequent, disruptive reorganisations of governing bodies that undermine programme continuity. Moreover, top-down policy frameworks marginalise local and indigenous knowledge, insecure land and tree tenure disincentives’ long-term stewardship, and conflicting legislative priorities between agricultural expansion and forest conservation. These macro-level barriers are compounded at the operational level by limited genuine community engagement, often reducing participation to tokenistic labour, and an over-reliance on narrow technical messages that fail to accommodate diverse socio-ecological contexts, ultimately stifling the transformative potential of extension services. Overcoming these barriers is imperative for enhancing forestry extension and achieving sustainable forest management in Ethiopia. This requires a multi-stakeholder strategy where the government secures funding and enforces stable policies, institutions build robust capacity, and communities actively participate. Moreover, collaborative engagement among all actors is fundamental to translating extension efforts into lasting forest conservation.