NB: restoration impacts on: land productivity; availability of water for home (household and livestock) and for irrigation, of fodder or grazing grass and of firewood, poles and timber; landscape scenic beauty and habit quality for wildlife and pollinators; weed reduction; job and business opportunities; land tenure security; and on farm income, input costs and labour.

Provisioning ecosystem services: natural resource availability

We found that both men and women perceived land degradation and restoration to have profound impact on provisioning ecosystem services. In Amhara women rated that they were greatly impacted by degradation in terms of water scarcity for household and livestock use whilst men for irrigation. These reports are in line with domestic responsibility divisions among households in Ethiopia where over 80% of women are engaged in household chores and livestock enterprises while men are engaged in high value income generating irrigation enterprises (CSA, 2014). In SNNP, both genders reported experiencing a greater scarcity of water for their livestock due to degradation (Fig. 3). With restoration in place, both men and women rated positive effects on water for livestock which significantly increased in both sites. On irrigation water, one third of men indicated that restoration had moderate to significant positive impact on water for irrigation.
During the FGD in Amhara, men reported that, due to degradation, the area experienced substantial shortage firewood. Post restoration, both men and women perceive significant improvement in fuelwood and pole availability. In SNNP, most respondents indicated that the change, though positive, is minimal. In both sites both men and women indicated that restoration significantly improved availability of fodder and grazing grass. During FDG, men indicated that women are worried a lot when there is livestock feed shortage. As men move to search for employment and income, women remain at home to take care of livestock. In SNNP, men narrated that communities are highly satisfied with the availability of grass for the cut and carry system. They noted that practice of planting improved grass variety on soil bunds helps farmers to integrate crop and livestock farming. Enclosures have been found to be effective at controlling grazing and restoring degraded grasslands and woodlands (Mekuria et al., 2019). In Amhara it was noted that marginal lands are converted to tree plantations which have higher economic value than if the land, with low soil fertility, is used for food crop production. In their pursuit of higher income from the smaller plots, farmers in the lower landscape positions tend to grow high value plants including the stimulant “Chat ” shrub. Some left their fields as fallow and enclosures are used for controlled grazing for 3 to 5 years and recultivated once fertility is regained. Women’s valuation of provisioning ecosystem services in restoration activities is in sharp contrast to established notions that it is only men who value provisioning services and women value regulatory services (Fortnam et al., 2019; Kalaba et al., 2013).

Regulatory ecosystem services: landscape health and habitat quality

The study reveals gender differences in perceptions of landscape scenic beauty and habitat quality for wildlife, pollinators, beneficial plants, weeds and pests and diseases as regulatory indicators of ecological health (Fig. 3 and 4). The men of Amhara perceive that, pre-restoration, the scenic beauty, and wildlife habitat were greatly impacted while women rated the impact as moderate. In SNNP, both men and women gave a moderate rating of degradation’s impact on wildlife habitat, but both indicated that landscape beauty was greatly impacted. As presented in Fig. 4, men and women in both sites indicated that resource management restored landscape scenic beauty.
In SNNP, degradation was rated to have moderate impact on pollinators and beneficial plants but lead to proliferation of weeds and, pests and diseases while in Amhara, the ratings were inverse with higher impact rated for pollinators and beneficial plants. Most women of Amhara indicated that the impact on beneficial organisms was minimal but men observed that the increasing use of chemicals for weed control had a negative impact on bees and other pollinators. The respondents indicated that there have been habitat improvements leading to increase in wildlife and pollinators which has been substantial in Amhara but moderate in SNNP. A biodiversity study by Terefe et al. (2020) found increased abundance of pollinators and re-appearance of new species in restoration sites compared to neighbouring unrestored sites. In SNNP, respondents indicated that there has been significant reduction in weeds but in Amhara, majority of women reported that, post restoration, the areas have experienced increased occurrence of weeds and a third men perceived a slight increase in weed incidence. This rating reflects women’s central role in weeding and their ability to recognise the challenge better. Men and women of Amhara reported divergent experiences of incidence of pests and diseases. More women perceived least to moderate pest and disease occurrence in degraded landscapes while men rate the problem as least to none (Fig. 3). In SNNP, both genders reported higher occurrence of pests and diseases. The women’s knowledge and perception of these regulatory services is supported by similar findings by Yang et al. (2018) who found that women had stronger perception of habitat conservation and sustaining biodiversity.

Land tenure and economic costs and benefits

Related to productivity, restoration activities are viewed to influence land-use rights. In Amhara, although a greater proportion of women think it has not altered the existing land tenure systems, one-third of men reported that the restoration activities have reduced their tenure rights while around 15% of men and 20% of women reported increased access to land. In SNNP, both men and women reported that restoration did not alter the tenure arrangements. Most women than men in Amhara indicated that restoration opened business and job opportunities while in SNNP, the respondents did not experience change.
The women’s tenure security confirms earlier studies that found that enhanced tenure security increases their engagement and valuation of restoration initiatives (Basnett et al., 2017). Since women have minimal economic opportunities (CSA, 2014), they are highly dependent on natural resources and their increased tenure through restoration initiatives significantly impact their livelihoods and wellbeing. Women’s tenure security has been supported by Ethiopia’s gender-responsive land certification and registration policies since early 2000s which were found to increase investments in soil and water conservation measures by 20 to 30 per cent (Collantes et al., 2018). However, enhancing the value of land through restoration can affect the functionality of the (land) resource, and thus may pose the risk of land use and ownership dispossession. The study found that tenure rights for some men were reduced, which calls for gender-balanced approaches.
Degradation impacted both men and women in terms of labour and costs of sourcing fuelwood (Fig. 3 and 4). Women were greatly constrained by the lack of feed/forage availability and the shortage of time. To support livelihoods through livestock, women reported spending much of their time and income to acquire forage. Fuelwood collection is more of a woman’s task in Ethiopia, and with scarcity of resources near homesteads, they travel for up to 2 hours per day (CSA, 2014) with large economic consequences (Gebru and Bezu, 2014; Mosa et al., 2020). Studies in Kenya and Tanzania also found that fuelwood collection is affected by degradation thereby increasing women’s burden to search cooking energy (Njenga et al., 2021) affecting other economic activities including care for the children (Levison et al., 2018). A recent study in Ethiopia found that enclosures supply close to 10% of households fuelwood demand, and women still travel 10 km/day to collect from degraded forests (Mekuria et al., 2019).
Ironically, in Amhara, husbands reported significant increase in income as well as in associated costs, majority of their wives indicated that the incomes and costs were sightly increased, while 20% of wives reported reduction in both income and costs. In SNNP, husbands reported observing a significant increase in income and a little reduction in costs while wives reported that they think incomes increased a little. In Amhara, women experienced significant increase in time and labour demand on farm while most men reported experiencing a decrease in both time and labour requirements while in SNNP, wives and husbands indicated that restoration slightly reduced the time and labour demands on farm. A restoration workload study in Kenya found that the structural restoration measures increased the cost and time for land preparation but the labour investment was paid off by increased productivity and income from sales of vegetative measures (Crossland et al., 2021). An increase in household income has been recorded for restoration programs in sloping landscapes (Lin and Yao, 2014).