Baro-Akobo River Basin Wetlands: Livelihoods and Sustainable Regional Land Management (Ethiopia)

The Baro-Akobo system from Ethiopia, along with a major tributary the Sobat from South Sudan, contributes 48 % of the flow of the White Nile where these river systems join downstream of Malakal. Within the Baro-Akobo system in Ethiopia there are wetlands at altitudes from 400 m amsl to over 2000 m, varying in size from 1 ha to more than 1000 ha. These wetlands provide a range of ecosystem services and play critical roles in the livelihoods of the local people. These communities have built up considerable local knowledge about these areas and have developed community management systems. These skills need to be developed and applied more rigorously to address the threats to wetlands to ensure sustainable use with catchment and wetlands managed together in a functional landscape approach.