Harmonising biodiversity conservation and food security in southwestern Ethiopia

This book summarises the findings of a five-year interdisciplinary research project studying topics such as biodiversity conservation, food security, livelihoods and the governance of these. The project constitutes an academically motivated, independent scientific study funded by the European Research Council. It was implemented through a collaboration between Leuphana University Lueneburg (Germany), Addis Ababa University (Ethiopia), and Stockholm University (Sweden). In the course of our work, we spoke with hundreds of local people, dozens of government agencies, several NGOs, as well as academic colleagues from different parts of the world. Moreover, we surveyed hundreds of locations in the forest and the farmland for their biodiversity. This book is a synthesis of the collective insights from all of this work. It condenses the findings of numerous, internationally published peer-reviewed journal articles into a readily accessible format. We hope the book can inspire and inform local stakeholders as well as colleagues in other parts of the world who may be working on similar topics.