For three decades, raising awareness about deforestation and soil erosion has gone hand in hand with implementing reforestation in grazing exclusion areas and other measures. The farming families need this support to continue living there.
From a friendship in Koblenz/Germany, a project emerged that provides direct assistance through volunteer work, donations, and trustworthy relationships, changing the landscape and lives in the Ethiopian highlands. Help to preserve and promote this.
Donate now for concrete measuresIn the Meno Highlands, about 65 km southeast of Awassa (Sidama, Ethiopia), around 30,000 people live in six Kebeles (districts) at an altitude of about 3,000 m – without electricity. Deforestation, overgrazing, and soil erosion are depriving people of their livelihoods; climate change is accelerating this development.
We have been working against this since 1996 – carried by people on the ground such as project leader Dr. Denbeshu Debeko, who studied and earned his doctorate in environmental and animal sciences at Awassa University. Two farmer cooperatives and two nurseries were created, and many farmers have set up exclosures for reforestation with native trees. The project is currently in its fourth phase (2026–2030) and comprises several subprojects.
Our concept is a chain of measures: tree nurseries grow native seedlings; in grazing exclusion areas, they thrive and the vegetation recovers; cattle are kept on limited areas. This stops soil erosion and desertification. Crossbred Jersey cattle increase milk yield, with the vegetation, bees and honey return, and poor families receive heifers and beehives as a basis for their livelihood. Ermias Denbeshu reports directly from the highlands via smartphone.
Go deeper here – the highland and its change, the project phases, impressions and the association.
Your help is needed – support one of our long-standing, successful subprojects. All four options were proposed by Ermias and the team on the ground; your contribution is calculated instantly.
Amounts and tree species are based on proposals by Ermias and Harald (as of October 2026).
You can help most concretely through one of the four campaigns mentioned above – there you can see exactly what your contribution achieves. Here you can also donate generally: We are a small association with flat structures – a large part of your donation goes directly to the highlands. As a non-profit organization, we will of course issue a donation receipt.
Secure & encrypted · receipt automatically by email