Abstract:
Managing the environment in which people live has become more complex. As a result millions of
people have become food insecure due to natural resource degradation. In the past few decades rehabilitation
efforts have been made to counterbalance environmental degradation. However its implementation has not been
successful in most cases, due to various barriers. The study aims at exploring the potential of coffee based
rehabilitation strategies, while supporting the livelihood of smallholder farmers. The study was conducted at
Haru district found in west Wallaga, Oromia, Ethiopia. A plot of 20 m x 20m was laid to collect vegetation data
from 40 coffee farms. Socioeconomics information were collected through household interview using
structured and semi structured questionnaire and focus group discussion. The result indicates that 15108ha
of degraded land was rehabilitated through coffee based land use system. Vegetation assessment result
showed that twenty nine species were recorded in sampled coffee farms. The proportion of indigenous tree
and shrubs, exotic fruit tree and shrubs accounted for 79.3%, 17.2 % and 3.5% respectively. Similarly more than
50 percent of the coffee production was found on degraded land greater than 16% slopes. The Shannon
diversity index was calculated 2.8. Given the increasingly important issue of land management coffee based
land use systems was found among the most promising land uses for achieving both conservation goals and
supporting human livelihoods at the landscape scale by promoting community- based management of natural
resources.
