REST: Post-war Reconstruction and Environmental Rehabilitation

Abstract

This chapter is about the role of the Relief Society of Tigray (REST), an Ethiopian NGO, in the liberation struggle against the defunct regime of Mengestu Haile Mariam. It aims at providing relief food as well as environmental rehabilitation, thus providing a clear linkage between political and environmental liberation. Having worked in a region plagued by the combined effect of war and environmental volatility, drought and recurrent famines, it did not take REST long to grasp the structural relationship between environmental, livelihood and political struggles. Relief food was used both for saving lives and for engaging people in environmental and agricultural rehabilitation programmes across Tigray region. After the liberation war, REST has concentrated its efforts on post-war reconstruction by consolidating its former gains and embarking in an elaborate programme aiming at linking relief, rehabilitation and environmental protection. The novelty of these programmes stems from their ability to recognise the significance of environmental maintenance and agricultural rehabilitation for food security. However, initially, the programme was met by resistance from conventional government institutions, which were not amenable to concepts such as participatory conservation and environmental rehabilitation driven by the people themselves.