EthioTrees: Rebuilding Tigray's Highland Terraces

Founded in 2016 in Hagere Selam, Dogu'a Tembien (Tigray region), EthioTrees organizes landless and smallholder highland farmers into associations that restore degraded mountainsides through natural regeneration, enrichment planting and hillside terracing. Revenue from Plan Vivo-certified carbon credits is reinvested locally, with at least 60% of income flowing directly back to participating communities for schools, water infrastructure and drought relief. During the Tigray war and famine, EthioTrees-enrolled communities used carbon-credit income to buy food and set up emergency distribution systems. The project restores groundwater, non-timber forest products like honey and frankincense, and highland biodiversity alongside the terracing work.