The researchers from Embrapa Forestry Patrícia Póvoa de Mattos, Annete Bonnet and Gustavo Ribas Curcio went on a technical mission to Addis Abeba, in Ethiopia, from November 17 to December 2, 2018. The mission is part of the activities established in the Embrapa – EEFRI International Cooperation Project, “Strengthening Ethiopian technical capacity and sustainable forest management”, which has been conducted via the Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) for around 4 years, with the aim of transferring technology to Ethiopia about the management that is used in Brazil. Ethiopia's counterparts included the researchers Tesfaye Bekele, Mindaye Teshome and Nesru Hassen. In June 2017, the researcher Mindaye Teshome came to Brazil to participate in a capacity-building event on dendrochronology applied to sustainable forest management, coordinated by Patrícia Mattos and Evaldo Braz, held at Embrapa Forestry. The mission, which took place at the EEFRI institute and around Addis Ababa, including the Chilimo and Menagesha Suba forests, had distinct goals, according to the specificities of each project activity: -For Patrícia Mattos, the goals were to set up EEFRI's dendrochronology lab, train technicians to use it, and participate in a technical discussion about the potential applications of the growth series obtained through dendrochronology, especially in the forest management of species with more locally important species with economic potential. -For Annete Bonnet and Gustavo Curcio, the goal was to visit forests considered degraded by Ethiopian researchers and record their characteristics to inform future training in Brazil, when methodologies and recovery techniques are passed on. Dendrochronology and sustainable management Besides setting up the dendrochronology lab and the capacity-building of technicians for the suitable use of equipment, Patrícia Mattos was responsible for a technical training in sample collection for dendrochronological studies, which included tree selection, suitable preparation (polishment) of samples, tagging and measurement of growth rings for dating. From November 21 to November 23, the field work consisted in collecting samples of Juniperus procera (17 samples) and Olea africana (2 samples) disks a the Menagesha Suba forest reserve. “For three days we discussed the due care to correctly collect samples, tree selection to remove cross sections, avoiding logs that have internally rotten, and medullary eccentricity in trees on irregular terrain”, Mattos explains. For the researcher, her mission's goal was completely achieved: “the equipment was installed and tested, except the sander, but it will be once the electric part is adjusted. There were no difficulties in executing the activity and the Ethiopian counterpart provided the whole infrastructure and logistic support needed to carry out the mission as stipulated by the project”. As the next steps, Mattos clarifies the work will continue towards obtaining growth series, followed by the procedure to adjust models and analyze forest structure and growth in different diameter classes, for the planning of sustainable management. “There will also be training events on forestry techniques for forest plantation and on breeding and genetic improvement in light of the need observed in the field and the demand expressed by the researcher Mindaye Teshome, who accompanied me in the mission”, she concludes. Degraded areas, methodologies and rehabilitation techniques Annete Bonnet explains that the mission started the activity that had been established since the beginning of the Project. The visit included eight areas with different processes of forest degradation, in Addis Ababa, Yerer Mountain, Gibe Valley, and in the Chilimo and Menagesha Suba forests. Among the results, Bonnet highlights the discussion with EEFRI technicians about the needs to advance and organize existing knowledge in Ethiopia regarding crop succession with native vegetation, in addition to the need for technical intervention in areas with erosion of soils and stagnated regeneration. The forests they visited have species that are known and studied by Ethiopians, many of which are important as sources of timber and coal for rural and urban communities. They also started planning the activities of the training of Ethiopian technicians on the rehabilitation of degraded forests in the upcoming year: “There was an understanding about the content and the period for the next stage, which will be the training conducted by Embrapa Forestry's researchers in Brazil”, she reports. The researcher's assessment is that the activity was successfully and fully implemented. For her, the discussions allowed the exchange of experiences, even if they were partial ones, among teams, and demonstrated a mutual understanding of the range of issues comprised by Ethiopian forest environments. Translation: Mariana Medeiros