BY GETACHEW MINAS
Passing through decades of challenges that hindered its progress forward Ethiopia is now forging an aggressive process of change. Its people are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now that the government is implementing ambitious perspective development plan, comprehensive reforms that touch the legal, justice and democratic system, among others. If properly handled with the right policy measures for its development , there is no doubt that the country is created to prosper.
Apart from its dynamic features of population size, growth, age, sex, density, distribution, labor force participation, migration and other factors, the main physical feature of the country are impressive. It has diverse climatic and ecological variations.
The altitudinal variations, climate changes and precipitation are reported to be suitable for agricultural activities. The country is endowed with natural forest cover, water resources, including lakes, river basins, surface runoffs and ground water.
According to Shibru and Kifle, most of the rivers are trans-boundary with more than 75% of the annual surface run-off draining into neighboring countries.
Among the major natural resources of the country are water, minerals and natural gas. Water resources provide large potential for hydro-power generation, irrigation and fisheries. Mineral resources such as soda ash are also extracted from lakes. Water quality in urban areas is poor due to pollution from domestic and industrial wastes.
The main non-renewable resources, even though limited, are minerals of which gold, rare minerals like potash, platinum, marble, phosphates. Included in this category are high quality coal, shale oil and iron, which are valuable. Natural gas and hydrothermal potential are also substantial.
Biological diversity and renewable resources in Ethiopia have various ecological settings, which have facilitated the evolution of various forms of lives. Shibru and Kifle record that the country is one of the twelve ecological centers of primary plant domestication in the world. It has a very high genetic diversity in four wheat, barley, sorghum and peas.
It also has three of the world’s most important industrial crops of linseed, castor, and cotton. It is the home of coffee, which is the world’s most important cash crop. Teff and millet are food crops of regional or local importance in the country.
Ethiopia has a high level of endemic wild flora and fauna (plants and animals). Agriculture is the main economic activity, accounting for a substantial part of the GDP. The main products are teff, sorghum, barely, field peas, chick peas, nagger seed, linseed, enset, cotton and coffee. Small-holder farming is predominant, accounting for more than 90% of agricultural area and 95% of total area under crop. The high population has caused the unsustainable use of soil, water and forest resources.
The ever growing energy demand for domestic fuel has resulted in extensive use of crop residues and cow-dung for fuel. This practice breaches the nutrient cycle. Forest resources are also being depleted fast because of high demand for fuel wood and timber.
More and more land is being deprived of its plant cover because of the ever increasing demand for crop land. The depletion of top soil has meant reduced water retention capacity of land, erosion of plant genetic resources and loss of habitat.
Ecological imbalance: Ethiopia is a country where natural resource depletion has been going on for millennia. At the present time it is facing a serious ecological “imbalance” triggered mainly by the fast growth its huge population.
This has led to a vicious cycle of land use pattern, involving deforestation followed by continuous cropping and grazing with little or no investment on the soil. Shibru and Kifle strongly stress that this pattern leaves few opportunities for the natural vegetation to regenerate, making the land more susceptible to erosion. This trend affects the hydrological cycle and altering the size and flow of the rivers.
The experts alert that changing this situation calls for better management of the natural resources including putting appropriate policies and regulations to facilitate better environmental management.
There is a need to grasp the full implication of the management of the environment in Ethiopia. This calls for analysis of policies, strategies, laws and regulations and institutions that have impact on the management of the environment.
These help in identifying gaps that may be addressed for the enhancement of environmental management “capacity.” It is useful to assess if the conservation plans and programs in Ethiopia have been implemented to meet the desired objectives.
An assessment of the implementation of environmental programs and projects identifies missing links for rectifying them. This facilitates in identifying gaps for future actions for balancing the ecology.
The importance of the management of natural resources has been recognized only recently. Human kind has been using natural resources since his emergence as Homo sapiens. The impact of human activity on the natural resources surrounding human kind was initially insignificant.
Such impact became more visible as population exploded and as new capacity and skill to manipulate natural resources increased. Throughout the millennia, human knowledge and technology have grown too fast. Such growth, although slow initially, had fast with time.
The gaps in technological change and revolution became shorter and shorter; the rate of knowledge and skill acquisition grew faster and faster, respectively.
The Ethiopian herald January 3/2021
