Ethiopia’s 27 national parks cover 8.87 percent of country’s total area. On the other hand, about 80 percent of the country’s population led its life in agriculture where it has a strong connection with nature to survive. However, the survival might be a threat to natural places including the parks. Increment in the number of population plus scarcity of productivity caused by lack of technology will trigger hazardous condition on parks as they might be the first eye-catching spots to farmers.
Therefore, the level of poverty and climate change impacts stimulates the farmer to deforest areas for croplands and grazing. It needs a wise solution in this regard to protect the parks in a way that ensure the beneficiary of the community in the surrounding.
Among the institutions organized to undertake such activities is the Ethiopian Wildlife Development and Conservation Authority. The authority has been conserving natural places for the past 60 years. It conserves 11 national parks and two sanctuaries, said Getinet Yigzaw, Authority’s Communication Affairs Director.
The authority is organizing various public movements to protect tourism destinations from various manmade activities including illegal settlement, farming activities. Therefore, the movement is intended to reach to the public more than the regular annual programs of the authority to address the wide range of parks. Last year the authority has conducted about 17 public mobilization programs with active participation of tourism officials, experts, elders and other senior citizens among others.
The programs helped the country to avert illegal movements around some parks like Nechsar, Awash, Gambella and Altash national parks. There is a plan to extensively work on public movement to protect the parks more. In this regard, senior citizens, associations, media practitioners, government organizations, tourism experts and partners among others, Getinet stated.
Therefore, the plan of 2019/20 has already been prepared and agreements with various directorates have been signed. Accordingly, the year’s plan gives priority to re-delineation of parks and reaffirming proactive activities in protecting fire. According to Getinet, charcoal burning, honey extraction and flammable trees (Erica tree stump) disposal are the major fire inducing causes treating the parks.
“There is no evidence in Ethiopia to the existence of wildfire”. On the other hand we need a mitigation and restoration activities after a certain fire is happened to the parks. However, the country has not had such disaster and risk management legal framework.
Hence, the disaster and risk management policy has been drafted and waiting for the approval of intended bodies. It is remembered that last March the country had faced devastating fire on Semein and Bale Mountains National Parks. The country was also obliged to beg for technologies to control the fire.
The fire that happened on Semein Mountains National Park had destroyed about the thousand hectares of the park. Thanks to the rainy season, most of the grassland that has been affected by the fire has recovered shortly. And the rest part of the woodland that was covered by Erica and lobelia trees is recovering; recently 25 hectares of it has been reforested by planting about 38,000 indigenous plant seedlings, Abebaw Azanaw, Park Office Head stated.
Semein Mountains National Park is home to wolf, gelada baboon, giant lobelia, lammergeyer, and so on. This year, the park generated about 40 million Birr from entry ticket sell and tourist services, Abebaw said. As to him, the amount of the earning might be more than the registered one if challenges related with instability were curbed.
“Therefore, we are working with the community around the park to facilitate conditions in which they can get the needed benefit and be guardians of the park”. According to Abebaw, his office also works in strengthening inspection activities through rolling out its scouts in collaboration with the local peacekeepers. The office also prepared human and material resources to control possible fire accident. He noted that trainings are given to firefighters and materials like fire breaker, water sprayer among others will be facilitated.
In addition, boundary delineation and re-delineation has been conducting on various parks. According to Getinet, the re-delineation would help to ensure conservation activities through creating buffer zone between the parks and the community. Moreover, it is highly attached with the community therefore the authority effort is to draw a roadmap that help the surrounding community around each park can participated in tourism activity and benefited from it.
In this regard the authority in collaboration with various stakeholders would conduct conservation activities that can support the livelihoods of the community. Consequently, the authority planned to make the society guardian of the parks.
Therefore, conserving country’s wildlife is significant to keep the wellbeing of wild animals and their habitat. This would help the surrounding community to get conducive environment for its agricultural activities that won’t harm the parks. However, this needs extra effort among the conservation operators to undertake their activities in line with facilitating conditions in which the surrounding farmers can get earnings from the park income. This would help both the park and the farmers to develop sense of belongingness.
The Ethiopian Herald October 29, 2019
BY YOHANES JEMANEH
