Restoration and conservation of globally endangered Cordeauxia edulis woody species in the drylands of Ethiopia’s Somali Region

Overview

Cordeauxia edulis is a multi-purpose wild crop and native to Ethiopia and Somalia. It is drought-resilient and “climate-smart”, with significant potential for ecological sustainability, food security, and income generation. However, C. edulis faces multiple combined threats such as habitat loss, overexploitation, overgrazing, prolonged drought, lack of on-the-ground conservation interventions, lack of land management systems, and lack of evidence-based species conservation action plans. C. edulis is currently listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

The overall objective of the project was to restore and conserve C. edulis and its habitat by implementing the following activities:

• A two-day training workshop for stakeholders on the importance of species conservation
• Three levels of capacity-building training for stakeholders, administrators and experts, and local communities, respectively, at the project site
• Surveys to identify and map C. edulis ecosystem services, distribution, and threats
• In-situ site, field gene bank, and nursery establishment
• Seed collection and planting of seedlings

Key achievements

• Raised awareness of the importance of species conservation and increased capacity of multi-sectoral stakeholders, including local institutions, local communities, practitioners, and landscape managers to collaborate and mainstream nature-based solutions (NbS) in restoration and conservation.
• An OECM of 504 hectares was established.
• A 2.2-hectare field gene bank was established, including a nursery site in which to produce more than 170,000 seedlings of C. edulis.
• A website (http://geo.portal.ebi.gov.et/sdm/activities/) was created to access and update important information related to the project.

Lessons

• The capacity building, awareness-raising, and the strengthening of institutional frameworks is important for restoring and conserving threatened species and preventing extinction caused by human activities.
• Integrating scientific research, taking proactive measures, and forming partnerships with stakeholders plays an important role to achieve sustainable species conservation, maximize value, improve conservation status, and restore threatened species and their habitats.
• Financial support is necessary to halt and reverse the loss of threatened species and biodiversity, emphasizing its importance for effective conservation efforts.