Ethiopia Invests Big in Restoring Degraded Land

May 29, 2025 

By Tsion Issayas and Yigremachew Seyoum Lemma 

Cover Image by: Mike Goldwater / Alamy Stock Photo

Commentary

Topic

 Forest and Landscape Restoration 

Region Africa

Amid global climate-action promises, many countries have pledged to restore degraded land and expand tree cover. Ethiopia has taken that commitment one step further.

In a landmark move, Ethiopia’s government launched the Green Legacy and Landscape Restoration Special Fund, allocating 0.5% to 1% of its annual federal budget — about $40 to $80 million — to restoring degraded landscapes. Approved by the House of Peoples’ Representatives on Dec. 24, 2024, the fund positions Ethiopia as a pioneer in using federal resources to advance large-scale restoration, setting a powerful precedent for other nations across the world to follow. 

The fund forms part of Ethiopia’s broader Green Legacy Initiative (GLI), a national program launched in 2019 to combat environmental degradation and build a greener, more climate-resilient country. By establishing a dedicated financing mechanism, the country aims to scale up its restoration efforts with sustainable public investment.

The GLI recognizes that land restoration is more than just planting trees — it can improve food security, enhance air quality, increase water availability, boost climate resilience and create jobs. Ethiopia’s approach offers a promising model for how stable public financing can drive large-scale restoration in climate-vulnerable countries. 

Ethiopia Builds on Its Reputation as a Restoration Leader

Ethiopia has emerged as a global leader in landscape restoration in recent years, driving change through bold action and ambitious targets. Through its GLI, the country exceeded its initial goals by planting over 25 billion trees in just four years, including a reported 350 million trees in a single day in August 2019, a feat believed to have set an unofficial new world record. 

To date, the initiative has planted more than 32 billion seedlings, with a goal of reaching 50 billion trees by 2030. It has already generated significant social benefits, including the creation of more than 767,000 jobs in areas such as nursery management, seedling production, agroforestry and sustainable land management throughout the country —  many of them for women and youth. 

Ethiopia has also made the most ambitious commitment under the African Forest Landscape Initiative AFR100, pledging to restore 22 million hectares (84,942 square miles) of degraded land. This aligns with its broader international commitments under the Bonn Challenge and the New York Declaration on Forests, both of which aim to combat deforestation and promote large-scale land restoration.

Restoration Brings a Host of Benefits

After decades of severe deforestation, Ethiopia is beginning to reverse forest and land degradation through coordinated national efforts.  Between 2013 and 2023, the annual deforestation rate fell from 92,000 hectares (355 square miles) to 27,703 hectares (107 square miles), according to a report. Meanwhile, forest cover increased from 15.5% in 2013 to 23.6% during the same period. 

But there’s still much work to do. Between 2000 and 2013, Ethiopia lost an average of 92,000 hectares (355 square miles) of forest each year. A growing population and rising demand for land continue to fuel deforestation. Land degradation costs Ethiopia an estimated $4.3 billion per year due to reduced agricultural productivity and loss of ecosystem services such as food production and water availability. The long-term economic losses from inaction are estimated to be four times higher than the cost of restoring degraded land.

Ethiopia is among the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations. Increasingly severe droughts, floods and landslides have taken a devastating toll in the country. In 2024, landslides in the southern Gofa region caused by heavy rains were the deadliest natural disaster in the history of the country, killing at least 250 people and displacing more than 14,000.  

Degraded and deforested landscapes increase the risk of climate-related disasters. Events like the Gofa landslides underscore the urgency for Ethiopia to build climate resilience, and land restoration is increasingly recognized as part of the solution.  

But restoration is about more than just planting trees. Delivering on the country’s restoration commitments could bring widespread environmental, social and economic gains, including: 

• Food security. Restored land can help Ethiopia improve agricultural productivity, ensuring a stable food supply for its growing population, especially in rural areas.
• Water access. Restoring watersheds and forests can improve Ethiopia’s water resources, essential in a country vulnerable to droughts and seasonal variability. It helps ensure more reliable access to water for communities and agriculture.
• Climate resilience and carbon sequestration. The country’s updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and Long-Term Low Emission and Climate Resilient Development Strategy (LT-LEDS) recognize forest protection and landscape restoration as key pillars of its climate action.  
• Livelihoods. Programs like the GLI have already created thousands of jobs and will continue to provide sustainable employment opportunities in restoration activities and related industries.
• Economic development. Landscape restoration in Ethiopia presents an opportunity to mitigate the billions of dollars in annual economic costs of land degradation. It also helps long-term sustainable growth and reduces the need for costly disaster relief efforts.

World Resources Institute (WRI) provided critical scientific support in shaping Ethiopia’s landscape restoration ambitions.  

In 2018, a national study using the Restoration Opportunity Assessment Methodology (ROAM) — a tool that helps nations work out where and how to restore degraded land in a way that benefits people and nature — provided essential data to inform national strategies and programs. This included, most notably, the 10-year Forest Sector Development Program, as well as helping to create the Green Legacy and Landscape Restoration Special Fund.  

The findings, published in the report National Potential and Priority Maps for Tree-based Landscape Restoration in Ethiopia, co-authored by WRI, identified 82 million hectares (316,604 square miles) of land suitable for tree-based restoration. Of this, 54 million hectares (208,495 square miles) were prioritized for integrated, cross-sectoral interventions due to the complex drivers of land degradation. These insights into the scale and severity of degradation were key to demonstrating the need for a dedicated special restoration fund.  

Stable Financing: The Next Step in Ethiopia’s Restoration

The new Green Legacy and Landscape Restoration Special Fund marks a significant step in Ethiopia’s restoration journey. Until now, the Green Legacy Initiative relied on regular federal and regional support without a dedicated budget. By institutionalizing the special fund, Ethiopia aims to ensure the long-term sustainability of its landscape restoration efforts while creating opportunities to mobilize additional resources and scale up restoration initiatives nationwide.

The government aims to leverage these resources to attract investment in restoration beyond federal contributions — including from regional governments, development partners, civil society organizations and private sector actors. This could help scale efforts even further, far beyond what public funds alone can support.

By demonstrating how national resources can be mobilized and institutionalized to support long-term landscape restoration, Ethiopia is setting a precedent that others could follow. This new model of restoration financing not only strengthens regional collaboration, but also accelerates collective progress toward land restoration and climate resilience in Africa’s most vulnerable landscapes.