Environmental issues in Ethiopia

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Environmental issues in Ethiopia The Great Rift Valley is geologically active and susceptible to earthquakes. Hot springs and active volcanoes are found in its extreme east close to the Red Sea. Elsewhere, the land is subject to erosion, overgrazing, deforestation, and frequent droughts. Water shortages are common in some areas during the dry season.

[edit] Deforestation

Deforestation is caused by drought that actually occurs by what human beings do to the forests or sometimes by nature alone. Generally deforestation occurs when people clear forests for their personal need such as, for fuel, hunting, when they need the land to grow and harvest crops, for building houses, and at times because of religion beliefs (Sucoff 2003). The main causes of deforestation in Ethiopia are shifting agriculture, livestock production and fuel wood in drier areas (Sucoff 2003). Basically deforestation is the process of removing the forest ecosystem by cutting the trees and changing the shape of the land to different type of land use (Sucoff 2003). Ethiopia is a country in Eastern Africa it has the second largest population in Africa and has been hit by famine many times, because there was a shortage of rain, and a depletion of natural resources. Deforestation may have lowered the chance of getting rain, which is already low. Bercele Bayisa a 30 year old Ethiopian farmer said “his district was very forested and full of wildlife but, overpopulation cased people to come to this fertile land and clear it to plant crops, cutting all trees to sell as fire wood” (Haileselassie 2004). Growing populations are increasing deforestation which is leading the country to famine. As the population continue to grow the need of the people increases. And the country has lost 98% of its forested regions in the last 50 years (Parry 2003).

Forests in Ethiopia play a big role in protecting erosion, because if there are more trees the water wouldn’t be able to wash away the soil. Trees also help to keep water in the soil and reduce global warming by uptake of carbon dioxide. Because there are not enough trees, the Blue Nile is carrying all the soil and other nutrient in the water to the neighboring countries of Sudan and Egypt, where their land is very fertile.

Historically forests have been very important for the people of Ethiopia for their livelihood even more than now. People used trees to cook their food, to build their traditional homes. They also made traditional medicines from trees and other forest plants. Forests were also important in Ethiopia religious beliefs, believed in holy spirits in the forest that they treat the same as human beings.

At the beginning of the Twentieth century around 42 million hectares or 35 percent of Ethiopia’s land was covered by trees but, recent research indicates that forest cover is now less than 14.2 percent because the number of the population grows fast and the need is growing plus people don’t have enough knowledge about the benefit of trees (Parry 2003).

Horrific famines occurred in Ethiopia during the 1970s and 1980s, especially in the Northern part of the country where there was a bad drought. Thousands of people died. Even though some observers blamed climate change, international economics and government policies, but the one and most important thing that caused the famine was the government’s policy. It was a military government the country had so he spent the entire county’s money on buying weapons for opposing the E.P.R.D.F section which is the present leader party (Mccann 1999).

Ethiopia which is a country badly affected by deforestation loses 141,000 hectares of natural forests each year for many reasons. If the number continues to grow the future of the country will be very a bad. Currently the total number of the country’s land covered by forest is13, 000,000 ha of land 11.9 %( Mongabay 2006). Between 1990 and 2005 the country actually lost 14 percent of its forest or 2.1 million hectare, and that indicate us deforestation increased by 10.4 percent from 1990-2005, therefore because of deforestation the number of the wild animals the country has is becoming less and less over time. Previously the country has around 6,603 species of plants, 839 birds, 205 mammals 288 reptiles and 76 amphibians as well ( Mongabay 2006).

Although for a long time the government of Ethiopia was not controlling deforestation, the current government is far more aware of the costs of environmental degradation. In rural areas, the government realized that if the deforestation continues the country will be in a worse shape. So the government began teaching the people about the benefits of forests and encouraging the people to plant more trees and to protect what they have by providing them alternative home and agricultural materials. The interesting thing what they doing is if any person cut a tree, he or she need to plant one to replace that. Basically, the current government and people are working hard together to make their country a better place.

Prohibiting the people to cut trees especially, those who live in rural parts of the country will actually hurt their daily life since they can’t cut trees as much as they want for their needs. But the government is trying to provide them some other things such as fuel, some other things which can work by electricity so they can use it to cook their food. They also provide them land which is just flat and has no forest to promote agriculture that way they don’t have to cut all trees to prepare land to harvest food (Maddox 2006).

There are governmental and non profits working with the government to protect the land. Organizations such as SOS and Farm Africa are working with the federal government and local governments to create a good system of forest management (Parry 2003). One of the good things that the government is doing to end the famine is moving the people who live in the dry region to the better places where they can find a fertile land for their farm , that way they would be able to support themselves with out any support from the government. With the fund provided by E.C grant around 2.3 million Euros they trained people how to protect erosion and how to use this water for irrigation, so that helped on improving many people’s lives and saved the environment as well ( Parry 2003). This project is assisting more than 80 communities and all agree using it on a legal method. As time is change more people also became realize that trees need legal recognition and they are not supposed to cut trees for daily life especially the ones at the protected areas, because those are saved for future generations. One of the methods how they are protected is people have a designated areas where they can go and cut trees for their daily living needs, other than that they agree not to cut any tree anywhere, in fact they are responsible for their environmental protection ( Parry 2003).

[edit] Further Reading

1. Sucoff, E. (2003). Deforestation. In Environmental Encyclopedia. (P.g.358-359). Detroit: Gale.

2. Haileselassie, A. “Ethiopia’s struggle over land reform.” World press Review 51.4 (April 2004):32(2).Expanded Academic ASAP.

3. Parry, K perceptions of forest cover & tree planting & ownership in Jimma Zone, Ethiopia”unasylva”vol 54 Iss: 213(2003):p.g 18(2).

4. Parry, J. Appropriate technology: Dec 2003: 30, 4: ABI/INFORM Global p.g.38.

5. Hillstrom, K & Hillstrom, C.(2003).Africa and the Middle east. A continental Overview of Environmental Issues. Santabarbara, CA: ABC CLIO.

6. Mccann, J.C. (1999).Green land, Brown land, Black land: An environmental history of Africa 1800-1990. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

7. Maddox, G.H. (2006). Sub-Saharan Africa: An environmental history. Santabarbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

8. Williams, M.(2006).Deforesting the earth: From prehistory to global crisis: An Abridgment. Chicago: The university of Chicago press.

9. Mongabay .com Ethiopia statistics. (n.d).Retrieved November 18, 2006, from http://rainforests.mongabay.com/deforestation/2000/Ethiopia.htm.

10.Mccann.J.C.(1990).A Great Agrarian cycle? Productivity in Highland Ethiopia, 1900 To 1987.journal of Interdisciplinary History, xx: 3,389-416.Retrived November 18,2006, from JSTOR database.

11. Parry, J (2003). Tree choppers become tree planters. Appropriate Technology, 30(4), 38-39. Retrieved November 22, 2006, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 538367341).

This article contains material from the Library of Congress Country Studies, which are United States government publications in the public domain.