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How do you revive a coffee landscape suffering from declining productivity, ageing coffee trees and a lack of investment? In Ethiopia, it’s a combination of providing the right tools, empowering women, enhancing coffee production, and fostering knowledge exchange.
Simon Cooper from the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) Food Systems team spoke to Mulugeta Worku, Project Manager at the Ministry of Planning and Development, about the success stories.
Landscape restoration: Reviving coffee and forest ecosystems
“One of FOLUR (the World Bank-led Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration Impact Programme) Ethiopia’s most visible successes lies in its landscape restoration efforts, particularly rejuvenating old coffee farms,” Mulugeta told Simon.
Mulugeta outlined restoration techniques including stamping (cutting coffee stems to stimulate new growth), pruning, and in some cases, complete uprooting followed by replanting. Mulugeta outlined how they lacked essential equipment such as chainsaws, pruning shears, and polybags for seedlings, so these were procured and distributed by UNDP, a FOLUR implementing agency.
“Motorized chainsaws are really helpful and save labor,” Mulugeta noted. “We have clearly observed a positive spillover effect to neighboring community groups who also use the equipment.”
Beyond coffee, FOLUR also targeted degraded forest landscapes which co-exist with coffee. Indigenous tree seedlings were planted in delineated restoration zones, and healthy forest ecosystems were brought under participatory forest management. A prime example is the U.N. cultural agency (UNESCO) Gedeo Cultural Landscape, where coffee rejuvenation and forest restoration coexist in mixed agroforestry systems. “You have coffee, you have annual crops like legumes, you have false banana, and you have the forest ecosystem,” Mulugeta said.
Women’s economic empowerment: Building resilience through enterprise
How can the funding and investment situation be improved? Mulugeta and his team recognized the economic vulnerability of households undergoing coffee restoration, where income may be lost for up to two years. “FOLUR Ethiopia decided to organize women’s cooperatives, women’s self-help groups, and women’s business groups,” Mulugeta explained. “Rather than giving them $25 per household, we transferred funds directly to their bank accounts to be used as a revolving fund.”
Today over 450 women-led groups are active, with more than 22,000 women engaged in enterprises such as poultry farming, compost production, seedling cultivation, and livestock fattening.
“Now it’s getting bigger and bigger,” said Mulugeta. “I’m happy to see livelihoods improve as this money circulates.”
Coffee sector development: From restoration to market linkages
Mulugeta says coffee is central to Ethiopia’s identity and economy, so FOLUR’s interventions go beyond farm-level restoration. With 25–30 percent of Ethiopia’s coffee plantations classified as “old,” the programme’s restoration efforts target a significant opportunity. “You can imagine the amount of money that we are losing every year because it’s old,” Mulugeta emphasized. “Now we are focusing on this big opportunity.”
In parallel, FOLUR is strengthening the coffee value chain. Ten cooperatives have been identified for specialty coffee production, with training provided to farmers, traders, and cooperative leaders.
Knowledge generation and sharing: Building a culture of applied research
FOLUR Ethiopia is a knowledge-intensive programme, committed to generating and disseminating actionable insights. “We pursue two lines of approach for knowledge generation and dissemination,” Mulugeta explained. “One is production of knowledge through implementing partners, and the other is partnering with academic institutions.”
Government agencies such as the Ethiopian Forest Development and the Space Science and Geospatial Institute have produced training manuals and conducted assessments on topics ranging from biodiversity conservation to geospatial mapping. Nine universities have joined the programme, each nominating research focal points across three thematic areas: integrated landscape management, coffee, and forest conservation.
“We have identified around 45 priority research topics that need to be researched and inform development directly.”
A model of circular development
Since its formal launch in January 2024, the World Bank-led, Global Environment Facility (GEF)-funded FOLUR (Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration) Impact Program in Ethiopia has made impressive progress in restoring degraded landscapes, empowering women, enhancing coffee production, and fostering knowledge exchange.
Across all four of these impact areas, FOLUR Ethiopia demonstrates a powerful model of circular development. Equipment and knowledge are reused and shared; financial resources are reinvested through revolving funds; and restored landscapes yield both ecological and economic benefits. “These are good signs that we are working hard to build on the success stories” Mulugeta concluded.
The programme’s early successes offer a compelling blueprint for integrated, inclusive, and sustainable development—one that places communities, especially women, at the heart of transformation.
[Published Dec. 2, 2025]
