Thousands of runners who filled the streets of Arba Minch in southern Ethiopia on Sunday were participating in far more than a road race. The third edition of the Safaricom Great Arba Minch Run was deliberately designed to raise awareness of one of the region’s most pressing environmental challenges—land degradation and recurring landslides—while demonstrating how sport can support environmental stewardship, tourism and local economic development.
Organised by Great Ethiopian Run in partnership with Safaricom Ethiopia and supported by the German development agency GIZ, this year’s event adopted the theme “Healthy Landscape for a Healthy Life.” Rather than promoting a broad environmental message, organisers centred the race on the specific ecological realities facing Ethiopia’s Gamo Zone, where degraded hillsides and vegetation loss have increased the frequency of destructive landslides affecting communities, livelihoods and infrastructure.
The event reflects a growing recognition that sporting platforms can serve as effective tools for public engagement on sustainability issues, particularly where climate risks intersect with economic development and community resilience.Ahead of race day, participants took part in tree-planting exercises under Ethiopia’s nationally recognised Green Legacy Initiative, while volunteers joined city-wide clean-up campaigns designed to improve the urban environment and reinforce public awareness of ecosystem conservation. These activities transformed the race into a broader community mobilisation programme, integrating environmental education with practical conservation efforts.
According to Ethiopian authorities, land degradation remains one of the country’s most significant environmental and economic challenges. Decades of deforestation, unsustainable farming practices, rapid population growth and climate variability have contributed to severe soil erosion across many highland regions. The resulting environmental degradation has reduced agricultural productivity, increased disaster risks and placed additional pressure on public infrastructure and local government resources.
The Gamo Zone illustrates these challenges clearly. Repeated landslides have disrupted transport corridors, damaged farmland and threatened settlements, highlighting the close relationship between healthy ecosystems and resilient local economies. By focusing this year’s race on those realities, organisers sought to connect environmental protection with issues that directly affect people’s daily lives. The setting itself reinforced that message. Arba Minch, renowned for Lake Chamo, the Dorze Highlands and its rich biodiversity, provided participants with direct exposure to landscapes whose ecological health underpins tourism, agriculture and local livelihoods. As part of the Discover Ethiopia Classics programme, runners and visitors also participated in guided hikes, cultural exchanges and lakeside activities that showcased the area’s natural heritage while promoting responsible tourism.
The integration of sport, tourism and environmental conservation reflects an increasingly important development model for African destinations seeking to diversify local economies without placing additional pressure on fragile ecosystems. Government officials demonstrated strong institutional support for the initiative. Tourism State Minister Dr. Endegena Abebe, Arba Minch Mayor Mesfin Menza and senior regional leaders attended the event, underlining growing recognition within Ethiopia that environmental protection is closely linked to economic growth, public health and sustainable tourism development.
Their participation comes as Ethiopia continues to invest in landscape restoration through the Green Legacy Initiative, which has become one of Africa’s largest national tree-planting programmes. Since its launch in 2019, the initiative has sought to restore degraded landscapes, improve watershed management, strengthen biodiversity conservation and contribute to climate mitigation efforts while supporting rural livelihoods.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), land degradation affects nearly one-third of the world’s agricultural land, with many African countries facing particularly severe consequences due to dependence on rain-fed agriculture and natural resource-based economies. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) similarly identifies land restoration as one of the most cost-effective investments for improving food security, protecting biodiversity and strengthening climate resilience.
For African countries, the implications extend beyond environmental protection. Healthy landscapes contribute directly to agricultural productivity, water security, tourism revenues and disaster risk reduction. Conversely, degraded ecosystems increase fiscal pressures by requiring greater investment in disaster response, infrastructure repairs and humanitarian assistance following climate-related events. Increasingly, governments across Africa are recognising that nature-based solutions represent both environmental and economic investments. Programmes focused on reforestation, watershed restoration and ecosystem management can generate employment, improve climate adaptation and attract international climate finance while protecting communities from escalating environmental risks.
The Arba Minch race demonstrates how public events can complement these broader policy objectives by translating technical sustainability concepts into accessible community action. Mass participation events offer opportunities to engage citizens who may otherwise have limited exposure to environmental campaigns, particularly younger generations whose long-term engagement will be essential for achieving restoration targets. For race founder and Olympic legend Haile Gebrselassie, the approach reflects a broader philosophy that athletics should create lasting social and economic value beyond competition itself. By combining elite sport with environmental awareness, community participation and destination marketing, the Great Ethiopian Run continues to evolve from a sporting event into a platform supporting sustainable development.
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The model may hold wider relevance across Africa, where governments are increasingly seeking innovative ways to integrate climate resilience into sectors beyond traditional environmental programmes. As climate-related risks intensify and public resources remain constrained, partnerships linking sport, tourism, conservation and community engagement could become valuable tools for strengthening environmental awareness while supporting local economies.
The Safaricom Great Arba Minch Run illustrates that sustainability communication is often most effective when rooted in local realities. By focusing on the tangible consequences of land degradation in Gamo Zone rather than abstract climate narratives, the event demonstrated how community participation can reinforce environmental stewardship while supporting tourism, public health and long-term economic resilience.
As African countries continue balancing development ambitions with climate adaptation, initiatives that connect environmental restoration to everyday life may become an increasingly important component of sustainable development strategies across the continent.
