What else is exciting more than supporting the poor & alleviating their root cause problems? Project Proposal on Ecotourism Development and Generation of Livelihoods around Tebbi Dam in Mekdela Woreda of South Wollo Zone, Ethiopia Prepared By: Mr. Gashaw Abebe (BA)-PSNP-PWs P/M&E Specialist Mr. Misganw Kelemework (BSc)-Natural Resource Expert at Mr. Seid Mohammed (BSc) - PSNP-PWs Natural Resource Specialist Contact Address, 251910119384-251334500236/38/39 Mekdella-Masha, Ethiopia May 2014 (Revised)
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What else is exciting more than supporting the poor & alleviating their root cause problems?
Project Proposal on Ecotourism Development and Generation of Livelihoods
around Tebbi Dam in Mekdela Woreda of South Wollo Zone, Ethiopia
Prepared By:
Mr. Gashaw Abebe (BA)-PSNP-PWs P/M&E Specialist
Mr. Misganw Kelemework (BSc)-Natural Resource Expert at
Mr. Seid Mohammed (BSc) - PSNP-PWs Natural Resource Specialist
Contact Address, 251910119384-251334500236/38/39
Mekdella-Masha, Ethiopia
May 2014 (Revised)
What else is exciting more than supporting the poor & alleviating their root cause problems?
Acknowledgement
We would like to acknowledge Mekdela Woreda
Administration Counseling and Agriculture Development
Office for their logistical and valuable ongoing support to
effectively get end the project document. It is our gratitude to
Mekdela Woreda Natural Resource Experts in the agriculture
development office who provide us the necessary data and
critical suggestions in building the project contents.
What else is exciting more than supporting the poor & alleviating their root cause problems?
Executive Summary
Entitled by the project name locally, “Akababihin Bezelakinet Adin” (Save your Environment
Sustainably-SYES) with the title of the project; A Project Proposal on Ecotourism Development and
Generation of Livelihoods around Tebbi Dam in Mekdela Woreda. The project is located at a distance
of 11km in the North West direction of Masha Town the capital of Mekdela. The project site has an
altitude of 2782 m above sea level and an average rain fall of 891.23 mm.
The primary aim in which this project has been launched is to save “Tebbi Dam” sustainably by
participating poor households (land less youths, female headed families, HIV/AIDS Orphans and very
vulnerable to poverty part of the societies) and land holders of the dam beneficiaries to make better soil
and water conservation activities on their farm land in order to minimize soil erosion that fills the dam
with siltation and introducing lodges& hotels around the dam to empower & food secure the local
communities. To make it achievable the project focuses on the field of Ecotourism Development intervention in
Tebbi Dam of 012 kebele under the province of mekdela woreda of South Wollo Zone since 2014.
Lodge and hotel building around the dam is the complementary intervention of the project that intends
to create income and employment opportunities for more than 270 unemployed youths of the kebele.
Though, it is not functioning well up to now constrained by inadequate beginning capital, tools&
equipment, before this, Mekdela Woreda Administration Counseling Office (local administrator) had
been built lodges around the dam. Improving the function of these lodges is therefore additional attempt
of the project. If the dam has been sustainably saved directly, the project will also benefit more than
617 household heads of land holders around the dam.
The project intend to recommend land holders of the dam beneficiaries to plant exotic and fast growing
indigenous plant species on soil& water conservation physical structures that will be made around the dam and
hence to make the area the field of biodiversity and/ or the diverse source of fauna and flora as well as microbial
resources. Definitely, the project aims to make the area the center of paradise where tourists take breath after
they have visited all the natural and artificial historical sites of Mekdela. Simultaneously, the project strengthen
the link between environmental development and tourist attraction sites and therefore to provide positive
experience for both visitors and hosts. Therefore, the project significantly needs 124,679,635 of ETB
(6,361,205.87 US $) to entirely run its deal.
NB.
The effort of the project that intends to link environmental development and tourist attraction sites makes
it unique beyond the significant contribution of its positive experience for both visitors and hosts.
What else is exciting more than supporting the poor & alleviating their root cause problems?
1. Introduction
1.1. Background Information
One of the rural woreda of ANRS of S/Wollo Zone establishing its capital town Masha at distance
of 152 km in the West direction of Dessie is Mekdella Woreda. It is delimited by woredas of
Dawunt&Delanta in the North, Saint in the South, Tenta in the East and Gaint in the West.
Mekdela, the place where the 1860s Ethiopian Emperor TewodrosII the time heroic leader managed
ever than before to unit Ethiopia had suicide himself rather than giving his hand to British armies.
Mekdela Woreda has been established as an independently province since 1991. It is alienated from
the former “Tenta Awuraga” for administrative purpose. Currently, Mekdela is inhabited
by154561peoples of whom 75419 are males and the other 79142 are females. There are 37410
house hold heads. Total area of the woreda is 152100 hectare with diverse landscape features of
which 35288 ha cultivable, 8271 ha irrigable, 9641 ha grazing, 45455 ha forestry and bush, 4228 ha
institutional buildings & residential lands, 1254 ha perennial crops and 59962 ha of land which will
be used for agricultural production in the future. The average farmland holding size of the woreda is
0.97 ha of which 0.71ha of land is suitable for crop production and the rest uses for grazing
purpose. Topography of Mekdela is partitioned in to 41.5% undulating, 23.25% mountainous, and
35% plane/flat surface/.This ridged terrain topography of the land has its own contribution for its
chronic food insecurity. Its altitude ranges from 1500-3200m a.s.l. owing to its agro-ecological
zone of 28% ``Dega``, 26.4%``Wina Dega``, 44% “Kolla”and 1.6% “Wurich”. It has an average
rain fall of 916mm per annum and has the temperature of 3.10c-25.50c.
Twenty-nine rural peasant associations of which 4 kebeles produce during “Belg” season on 4848ha of
land, 20 in “meher” that produce on 23876ha of land and the rest 4 kebeles produce in both seasons on
689ha of land and one urban kebele encompass Mekdela. The main area wise crops produce in Mekdela
are Teff, wheat, barley and sorghum. Crop production is the leading economic activity of the woreda.
Livestock production is the major subsidiary income source of the agrarian communities further than
being a means of better social status. There are 121150 cattle (38467 cows, 12098 heifers, 14898 bulls,
39282 oxen and 16405 calves), 214625 sheep and goats, 20276(2330 mules,2454 horses and15492
donkeys) back animals, 120955 poultries, and 10688 beehives. Almost all residences of the woreda get
their livelihoods from agriculture. An individual needs 2.19Ql of grain to meet his annual food need in
accordance of the standard of the woreda.
To further bring diversified income sources and afford employment opportunities for the local
communities of Mekdela Woreda currently, the Administration Counseling office has carried out
different development initiatives. Model Lodge project launched at a distance of 11 km in the North
West direction of Masha town in 012 kebele-around Tebbi Dam is among the different development
initiatives.
However, the office has started to carry out the above project; it could no longer be able to widely
achieve the objective in which the project has been embarked. On the other hand, the effort made by the
government to provide income source and employment opportunity for youths/adult/ alone is not
What else is exciting more than supporting the poor & alleviating their root cause problems?
enough rather it deserves the cumulative effort of the community, NGOs, and the private sector to
defend them from economic dependence. Therefore, to bring considerable and sustainable economic
development, unemployed youths/adult/ should be supported by other on and off farm activities such as
ecotourism activities in which that this project stretches its hand forward to more than 270 youth/adult/
to create income sources and employment opportunities further than its strive to bring community
based sustainable environmental conservation/development.
2. Situational Analysis /Problem Justification/
Our country Ethiopia is endowed with varied natural and human made historical tourist
attraction sites. However, the country is not fully using its potential source of tourism economy
due to its inadequate capital to promote the tourism sector for both foreign & indigenous
visitors further than its long term reveal in civil war, boarder conflict, poverty, inaccessible
infrastructural facilities and backwardness. As compared to its abundant historical tourist
attraction sites, the tourism sector has insignificant contribution to the country’s GDP which is
not exceeding more than 8% and has limited employment opportunities.
For instance, in Mekdela, there are more than nine natural and artificial historical tourist
attraction sites of which only six sites are delimited& protected by local administrators from
animal and human interference.
Among the historical sites of the woreda the Gott Giorgis cave which is excavated from a
rock is the one immovable heritage of Mekdela. But its economic contribution due to
infrastructural and transportation inaccessibility is insignificant. Others like the hut of prince
Michael of Wollo which is built from forty-four oxen’s leather in 1880s is the other heritage of
the woreda. Similarly, at national level the well-known prophetic Sheikh Hussien Jibril’s grave
and his heritage are also found here, currently, it is visited by many local tourists. What makes
Mekdela unique is its richness in tourist attraction sites in both Christian and Muslim historical
heritages though infrastructural and transportation in accessibilities and near to none promotion
of these historical sites to the local and foreign visitors is the bottleneck to its development.
Now, this project has managed to promote and establish ecotourism activities to further
enhance and conserve historical tourist attraction sites beyond the introduction of natural
conservation and improving of local economy status of communities.
The concept of ecotourism has been defined by The International Ecotourism Society in 1990,
as responsible travel to natural areas that conserve the environment and improves the well-
being of local people.
Taking this concept as a common definition of ecotourism this project is intended to be
established at the local district of Tebbi Dam in 012 kebele. The dam had been constructed by
CERAR project in 1991E.C. This dam is located at a distance of 11km in the North West of
Masha-the capital of Mekdela. It has an average height of 17.2 m and a volume of more than 2
million m3. It can irrigate more than 180 ha of land per a year. The dam beneficiaries are more
than 617 farmers. Before the establishment of the dam the surrounding farmers had got 7.4Ql/ha
of grain on average over the past five years. However, after the establishment of the dam, on an
average of the past five years, the farmers had got 29Ql/ha of grain on the same farm land.
What else is exciting more than supporting the poor & alleviating their root cause problems?
Since, irrigation makes easy and develop self-confidence to use modern agricultural inputs and
technologies the potential need of farmers to secure capital wealth to buy selected seeds,
agricultural technologies and inputs has shown progressive change ever than before. The dam
has been drastically improved lives and livelihoods of the beneficiaries. Some farmers have
bought mills& cars while most of the others have deposited certain amount of money in banks
in addition to building can roof houses. At the current moment the dam beneficiaries have been
producing vegetables products relatively in large amount than the other areas and supplying it to
the market to feed the market demand of Masha Town.
However, recently, the dam has been endangering of being filled in silts which adversely sets
back the livelihood and economic status of beneficiaries. Other than the different causes of
siltation problems the ploughing of farm lands near to the bank of the dam is the salient factor
that severely accelerates the distraction of the dam. Therefore, to halt this and other interrelated
problems this project intending to get on ecotourism project around the dam. The dam so far has
been used only for the purpose of irrigation development. Other agricultural complementary
activities like ecotourism development interventions were not visualized for the woreda as far
dating from the establishment of the dam.
Since ecotourism is an environmental friendly source of income generating scheme, it will play
incredible role to the local communities and youths in multiple ways.
The first principal need of ecotourism intervention is to enable land holders of the dam area ever
more to practice improved soil and water conservation activities in coordination with poor
households (land less youths, female headed families, HIV/AIDS Orphans and very vulnerable
to poverty part of the societies) on farm land so as to minimize the soil erosion and run of
water/flood/ that makes siltation on the dam. Biological conservation and planting on soil bunds
on the surrounding mountainous and farm land areas of the dam is the other recommended
measure of practices to save the dam from siltation. The project intend to advice land holders of
the dam beneficiaries to plant exotic and fast growing indigenous plant species on soil& water
conservation physical structures to make the area the field of biodiversity and / or the diverse
source of fauna and flora as well as microbial resources. Definitely, the project aims to make the
area the center of paradise/park/ where tourists take breath after they have visited all the natural
and artificial historical sites of Mekdela.
Despite the fact that the effort of the Woreda administration counseling office/local
administrator/ can be appreciated in building lodges around the dam prior to this, it is not
functioning well up to now constrained by inadequate beginning capital, tools& equipment.
Therefore, the other purpose of the project is to enhance and build lodges and hotel and other
complementary activities like fishing, pool house, Carrabolla, table tense, internet café, shop,
DS-TV and library/book rent/ around the selected areas of the dam which will generate income
and employ more youths in addition to consuming of local commercial farming products. This
further, will encourage& motivate the dam beneficiaries to produce commercial crops such
as fruits and vegetables to nearly supply it for the lodges catering and hotels. This
advancement will attract the focus of the local community sustainably to conserve the
dam.
What else is exciting more than supporting the poor & alleviating their root cause problems?
On the other hand, the effort of the government an alone does not enough to engage & employ
all active labor force in governmental institutions. Such community based productive assets
should be encouraged to absorb the significant portion of the labor force. In this case the
projected lodges and hotels have intended to employ more than 23 youths in this year and will
be improved by 35% each year and will be adjusted based on the investment return.
Similarly, the communities will not solely relay on a single income & employment opportunity
sources of agricultural products, rather they will be engaged on producing off farm activities
encourage them to supply their product to lodges and hotels.
V. Donors
Timely despercement of the fund
Taking physical M&E assessment rather than report view
Providing advisory services
8. Encountering problems/Risk-Assumptions/
It is not as such smooth and easy, to get the goal at end, there may be some uncertainties such as:
Siltation
Drought and deforestation
Flooding and soil erosion
Traditional farming and need of the community to continue on adapted cereal crops
cultivation
Waste disposal from lodges and residents around the dam
Budget limitation & volatile pricing
9. Formulating Solutions Except the natural disasters;
Physical and biological conservation practices will be made at the upper catchment and
around the dam to prevent siltation
Waste deposal mechanisms will be employed to mitigate the matter
experience sharing and awareness generation will be introduced to adapt conservation
based farming system
What else is exciting more than supporting the poor & alleviating their root cause problems?
10. Good opportunities to run the project Since the project has several institutional stakeholders it gets a strong back up from each of them in
various ways. For instance, woreda agriculture development office will provide its multidisciplinary
expertise particularly in irrigation development schemes, natural conservation activities and crop
production mechanisms.
Similarly, at the time when the project fund comes to decline these offices will collaborate to
support the project materially, financially and technically.
11. Project Benefits
11.1. Economic Benefit
The project is the source of diversified incomes i.e. on and off farm activities
Improve the livelihood and income sources of local communities.
11.2. Social Benefit
Beyond the establishment of economically independent citizens the availability and accessibility of
lodges and hotel around the dam give substantial social services to the surrounding communities and
tourists.
Saving the dam sustainably and improving the livelihood status of farmers around it.
The recreation center will be used as leisure time spending area for youths, local communities and
tourists accordingly which reduces the negative impact of drug abuse and the incidence of
HIV/AIDS
11.3. Environmental Benefit
It develops community based biophysical soil and water conservation practices further than
improving the coverage of natural resources endowments/forest resources.
Adapting and promoting green environment projects that have strong link with tourism
11.4. Political Benefit
Filling food gap months of some sort of food insecure communities
Employing youths/adults/
12. Sustainability of the Project
Since the project entails participatory nature of planning, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating
activities, it gets a strong backup from Agriculture Development and Administration Counseling Offices,
further than Kebele Development Agents, Primary stakeholders and other concerned bodies who ensure the
sustainability of the project. On the other hand, the investment return/profit/ of lodges and hotels will be
used as an revolving fund to strengthen involvement and response of the project on different encountering
problems and alternative community development initiatives such as dam & road maintenance, to replicable
the project at other sites, to make broad components of the project or to include other interventions such as
fishing, animal fattening, beekeeping, etc.
13. Monitoring and Evaluation
The Project coordination office will undertake monitoring while evaluation is the joint function of donor
representative, coordination offices and the stakeholders. Different monitoring and evaluation tools such as
field visit, beneficiaries interview, meetings and workshops with the communities and stakeholders will be
used to assess the performance of the intervention. Furthermore, committee members will have a quarterly
meeting with the whole beneficiaries at each project site, present project achievements and bring feed backs
to the general meetings. This absolutely, enables us to track the ongoing function and performance of the
project and hence to make back on track implementation of the project activates. Achievement/Impact/ of
What else is exciting more than supporting the poor & alleviating their root cause problems?
the project will be evaluated twice a year i.e. on January 2015 to assess the project at output level and July
2015 to assess at outcome level. Progressive monitoring and evaluation reports will be submitted to the
funding organization and concerned stakeholders based on the term of the system.
14. Budget Estimation
This is clearly illustrated at Microsoft Excel Sheet on Table 2&3.
What else is exciting more than supporting the poor & alleviating their root cause problems?
Budget Breakdown for the up Coming Three Years in Ethiopian Birr (ETB) Table 3
Budget Breakdown for the up Coming Three Years in Ethiopian Birr (ETB) Table 3.
No Activity Types Unit Quantity Unit Price in ETB Total price=Quantity X Unit price X 3 Years Remark
I Admin Budget Allocation Birr 9,335,948
1 Stationeries (including computer with its full accessories) 1,750,948
2 Double Cup Toyota No 1 2,300,000 2,300,000
2.1 Vehicle maintenance, oil and lubricant 2,135,000
3 Human Resource Costs Salary per month
Total salary=Quantity X salary per month X12 months X 3 Years
3.1 Project Coordinator No 1 15,000 540,000
3.2 Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation Officer No 1 12,500 450,000
3.3 Natural Resource Officer No 1 12,500 450,000
3.4 Community Mobilizer No 1 10,500 378,000
3.5 Accountant No 1 12,000 432,000
3.6 Casher No 1 9,500 342,000
3.7 Driver No 1 4,500 162,000
3.8 Hotel Manager No 1 5,500 198,000
3.9 Lodge manager No 1 5,500 198,000
Sum Birr 3,150,000
II Capital Budget Allocation Birr
1 Hotel and lodge construction 3,500,000 This is to employ youths on hotel and lodge
2 Seed purchasing for nursery Dev't 4,747,895
3 Hand tools and gabion box 5,350,145
Sum Birr 13,598,040
III Transfer Budget Allocation No Quantity Salary per month
Total salary=Quantity X salary per month X6 months a year X 3 Years
Beneficiaries will work for six months from 01 January to 30 June since these seasons are suitable for biophysical soil and water conservation activities.
1 Total beneficiaries No 2500 64 86,400,000
IV Contingency Budget 15,345,647
Grand Total (I+II+III+IV) Birr 124,679,635 Equivalent to US$=6,361,205.87
What else is exciting more than supporting the poor & alleviating their root cause problems?