Controlled Burning Returns to Rangelands
U.S. Experts Support Government of Ethiopia Conduct Prescribed Fires in Oromia

March 10, 2007
No 15/07

SATURDAY, MARCH  10, 2007    Addis Ababa (U.S. Embassy) – This week a team of four fire technical experts from the United States Forest Service (USFS) will assist with planning a series of rangeland fires in the Negelle area of Oromia National Regional State.   Restoration of fire to these rangelands will increase fodder for livestock grazing, and ultimately increase food security for pastoralist communities.  The prescribed burns are being carried out at the request of the Government of Ethiopia and support the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Pastoralist Livelihoods Initiative (PLI). 

As a result of fire suppression in the Afar and Oromia Regions for the past several decades, former rangelands which provided fodder for livestock are now overrun by thorny invasive plant species that prevent grazing.  In an effort to improve the lives of Ethiopian pastoralists, USAID is working with the Government of Ethiopia to return fire to land that depends on periodic burning for healthy survival. Controlled rangeland fires repair the health and overall ecological integrity of the land by removing invasive species and allowing new growth.

The U.S. fire experts will work in collaboration with other institutional partners in Ethiopia, such as Save the Children, and CARE.  In consultation with regional government officials, two to four sites will be selected and burns will begin the week of March 12th.