Dr. Azene Bekele (Ethiopian) is a PhD graduate in Water and Land Management from Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands. He also had training in forest and range management (B. Sc. Degree) and M.Sc. degree Agroforestry from Washington State University with additional certificate in Gender analysis.

Dr. Azene served in various capacities He also served as head of the district Forestry and Wildlife officer (based in Dire-Dawa,) and technical head of the Regional Forestry and Wildlife Office (then Harrarge) and as Agroforestry Desk Officer at the Ministry of Natural Resources Conservation and Environmental protection (Addis Ababa).

Dr. Azene Bekele also served as Capacity Building Advisor for the Regional Land Management Unit (RELMA) of Swedish International development Agency (Sida) for two years and continued to serve at the same Capacity Building Advisor for Research on Development Department of World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) for additional 5 years until 2007

From end of 2007 to end of 2013, he had been serving as a Technical Advisor for the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal resources (MINAGRI) of Rwanda. While in Rwanda, he has developed a number of bankable Land-husbandry, Water-harvesting and Hillside-irrigation (LWH) projects which have been fully financed by multiple donors. He has been instrumental in justifying many of these LWH-related projects technically.
He has thought Natural Resouce courses at Alemaya University. He though Agroforestry courses (from Diploma to Masters) level at Wondo Genet Forestry College. He was an external examiner of PhD students at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Wageningen Agricultural University and Research. He served as the Secretary of the International Soil Conservation Organization (ISCO) from January 1, 1988 to February 1, 1990.

He has authored and co-authored a number of books, book chapters and articles starting from 1988. Among the many relevant publications are: books called Useful Trees and Shrubs, Profitable Agroforestry Innovations, Adding Value and Improving Approaches for Effective Teaching and Learning, Curriculum for In-service Training in Land-resources Management, Tanzania, Crafting the Missing Link, Farmers’ Competence Initiative and more, three chapters of the book called in “Managing Land”. His technically edited book on “Boosting Land Resilience and Productivity: comprehensive land-husbandry guidebook for development experts in Eastern and Southern Africa” is currently in its final stage to be printed.

Currently Dr. Azene Bekele just finalized the Roadmap for the National Integrated Land Use Planning. Currently, he is:

1. The coordinator for the development of Integrated Land use and Development master Plan (ILDP) of Gambella Peoples Regional State at the Horn of Africa Regional Environment Centre and Network (HoAREC&N) under Addis Ababa University.
2. General Manager of Azene Bekele Tesemma Professional Consulting Services, which is providing professional consulting services in forestry, land and water management as well as in physical environment
   3. Manging Director of Wisdom-Seeder schools which provides academic teaching from kindergarten to preparatory level.
   4. Board member of Tana Pulp and Paper Company, Bahir-Dar, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia

Dr. Azene’s Expectation from African Landscapes Dialogue:

“It is a pity that we did not win the battle against our landscape degradation. I hope this dialogue will bring better armaments. skills and technology packages by which better success will be scored. I hope the dialogue will create more voice for countries to come up with land care policy for reinforcing land use policy and plan of African Nations. I hope the dialogue will create a possibility for creating better recognition of governments in terms of budgetary allocation (proportional to the national budget) for African Landscape Restorations in its wide-scope. “

Dr. Azene Bekele can be reached at:

E-mail: Azene0101@gmail.com or Azeneb@hoarec.org
Tel.+251-7911 206278 and P. O. Box 30929,
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia;