Borana
"The Wise Never Misuse Their Property"
(Abban of Hin Saamu)
Ibrahim-Nur is 45 and a
father of 10. He lives in Marsha-Gobicha PA in Liben
District. He has been a pastoralist most of his life
until one fateful week, twelve years ago, when he lost
five of his family members and his cattle to drought,
disease and tribal conflict. Looking to have a better
security for his remaining family, Ibrahim-Nur decided
to move to Liben District and settle in Marsha-Gobicha.
Having
been a pastoralist all his life, Ibrahim-Nur knew
nothing of the settled life. Hence, not knowing what
else to do, he became one of the people that fully
depended on the timber products of Mankubsa forest. It
didn’t take him long to learn the technique of making
construction poles which helped him to earn some income.
“My greatest challenge was avoiding the forest guards
who were keeping an eye on illegal harvest. I had to
stay within the forest the whole day cutting trees and
making poles, and shifting them after dusk. This forced
me to get to the Negelle town to sell the poles after
8:00 p.m. Therefore, by the time I was able to buy bread
for dinner and get back home, it was often after
midnight, sometimes forcing my kids to sleep without
food.”
The
family was hardly surviving with the money Ibrahim-Nur
was bringing home. His wife did her best to take care of
their children, but she could do little with the income
they earned. This forced the children to find employment
on other farmlands, get into early marriage and even
join the street life in Moyyalle.
In the
course of time, the forest resources that could be used
as construction poles was exhausted leaving Ibrahim-Nur
and his family in another dilemma. Shortly after, his
wife started charcoal making while Ibrahim-Nur started
brokering in the cattle market. Though they solved their
problem for a while, they knew that this would not last
any longer than their previous livelihood actions.
Therefore, the family welcomed SOS Sahel when it started
working on collaborative forest management in 1999 which
later became part of the FARM-Africa / SOS Sahel
Participatory Forest Management Programme in 2002. The
project has been working with the community and the
Raba-Gada (traditional governing body, that is highly
respected by the community) since the start. Therefore,
when the Raba-Gada banned charcoal making everyone
including the family of Ibrahim-Nur accepted the
decision. However, this time they were happy to know
that it was not a simple banning of forest uses but a
broader initiative that actually gave the forest
management responsibilities and benefits to the
community.
When
the forest management groups were established,
Ibrahin-Nur became one of the members. Ibrahim-Nur
recalls his wife’s statement clearly...“Now we have
become the owner of the forest. We used to steal from
the forest but the wise never misuse their own
property”. Since then she has never cut trees to make
charcoal and she decided to sell the one donkey she had
to carry her charcoal to the market.
After
using the money from the donkey sale to buy the
necessities of the family, his wife bought some material
to start petty trading with the remaining money. At this
point, the project introduced saving and credit schemes
to the community. From the 1000 Birr Ibrahim-Nur
received, he started buying and selling cattle in the
market where he learned to broker. Ibrahim-Nur started
earning enough profit to buy chickens, goats and an ox.
With additional support from the government’s safety net
programme, the family started working on their own
garden, sent three of the children to school and started
living a better life. With the small support from the
project and government, the hard work of the husband and
wife has paid off. “The project helped me and my family
to think of other livelihood opportunities which have
changed my life more than I ever thought” said
Ibrahim-Nur, “now we plan to start working on
horticulture, poultry and apiculture while conserving
the forest resources that can bring even more income in
the long run”.
Read about the Borana project >>>
