BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
Ethiopia is gifted with abundant natural resources of adequate landmass, fertile soil, favorable climate, water, wildlife, and others. Many of its resources are not properly identified, well managed, and fully exploited. The concern of this review is collating the current state of knowledge about the status of land, water, forest, rangeland and wildlife resources, and hence, assesses their degradation tendencies.
The country is one of 20 megadiverse countries in the world and one of the 12 centers of origin and diversity. The country also hosts the Eastern Afromontane biodiversity hotspot. Regrettably, the country has not been able to tap these blessings for long due to various reasons and its citizens are living under an extreme poverty cycle.
Conversely, countries found around Ethiopia have been widely benefited from the resource generated from the land of origins. If we take rivers crossing the Ethiopian borders, they are a blessing for the neighboring countries and a major cause for their economic progress. However, Ethiopia has been allocating a huge amount of budget every year to protect its natural resources from being eroded by a flood. Apart from this, the country has been playing an important role in declining climate change impacts through planting trees in billions.
Here it is imperative to describe what ecosystem service means. Ecosystem services are the diversified benefits derived from properly functioning ecosystems and the environment. Ecosystems include forest, grassland, aquatic, mountain and agro-ecosystems and provide services such as timber, fishes, water and agricultural produce.
In short, Ethiopia provides ecosystem service for its neighbors and the world at large free of charge. Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) is payments for environmental benefits to the community as an incentive for managing their land to sustain these ecological services. Ethiopia’s resources have been undervalued and considered free goods. Payments for ecosystem services (PES) occur when a beneficiary or user of an ecosystem service makes a direct or indirect payment to the provider of that service. The idea is that whoever preserves or maintains an ecosystem service should be paid for doing so.
“This has led to manipulation and uncontrolled utilization, in turn, resulting in the extinction of unique biodiversity resources and its ecosystem,” said Wubua Mekonnen, Programme Specialist at UNDP Country Office. For example, once abundant wildlife, such as the Rhino, now face extinction. For more than 35 years, the lake served the three town’s residents until it dried in 2005. The research confirmed that Lake Haramaya dried up due to over-pumping of the lake and groundwater, environmental degradation and climate changes. By and large, it dried as a result of the overutilization of the resource.
According to documents from UNDP, the impact of Payment for Ecosystem Service (PES) can be very high by generating measurable conservation outcomes, e.g. carbon sequestration, reforestation, water control. It is intrinsically dependent on the ecosystem flows that are enhanced and or preserved. One of the largest and long¬standing PES is in Costa Rica, where since 1997 nearly one million hectares of forest were preserved through PES programmes, helping to increase the country’s forest cover to 50 per cent from a low of just 20 per cent. Between 2000 and2007 the National Programme for Hydrological Environmental Services in Mexico has reduced the rate of deforestation from 1.6 per cent to 0.6 per cent.
In China over a six¬ year period, the Sloping Lands Conversion Programme and Cropland to Forest Programme planted about 37 million hectares. Over 50 million low¬ income Chinese households might have participated in PES schemes from the early pilots in the 1980s. The long -term watershed conservation program of New York City provides a source of high ¬quality drinking water to over nine million consumers.
In the longer term, PES can positively affect poverty reduction through improved resilience of communities and increased land productivity. While PES can certainly contribute to poverty reduction, the resources allocated are unlikely to be sufficient to solve long-standing deprivation problems or the structural lack of economic and employment opportunities.
Ethiopia has a national law for payment for ecosystem services that provide rights and obligations on ecosystem service providers and users she says adding that notable changes have been recorded in this regard.
Citing the overall goal of Ethiopia’s Water Resources Policy is to enhance and promote all national efforts towards the efficient, equitable and optimum utilization of the available Water Resources of Ethiopia for significant socioeconomic development on a sustainable basis, some professionals suggest that the country should claim ecosystem service payment from Nile riparian countries.
Hydrologist and Former Irrigation and Drainage Monitoring Specialist at Abbay Basin Authority Girmachew Addisu also shared the idea raised by Wubua and said Ethiopia deserves and should claim payment for ecosystem services from other Nile riparian countries.
The hydrologist said that in any case, upper riparian countries deserve payment for ecosystem services from downstream countries for the water development activities they undertake in the basin.
This is because the conservation activities along the basin in terms of sustainable water and underground water supply among others will benefit downstream countries, Girmachew said.
“Besides, conservation and water development activities upstream will support fishery and reduce siltation downstream,” he added.
The overall goal of the Water Resources Policy is to enhance and promote all national efforts towards the efficient, equitable and optimum utilization of the available Water Resources of Ethiopia for significant socioeconomic development on a sustainable basis.
“That is why I say Ethiopia deserves payment for ecosystem services. Presently, the idea works in many countries and basins,” he said. “Accordingly, upper riparian countries develop the water and undertake conservation activities and receive reasonable ecosystem services payment. Limpopo in Southern Africa and Mekong river basin in Asia are some of the basins that are applying for ecosystem services payment,” the hydrologist added.
Hence, Ethiopia should set this as an agenda while negotiating the Nile issues, with him.
It is unfair that while Egypt has been developing using the Nile waters, it is not ready to accept Ethiopia’s right to develop using its resources and reach a win-win solution on the issue. “The Grand Renaissance Dam (GERD) will regulate the flow of water to Egypt besides preventing siltation in Egypt’s dams,” he said.
Being this the fact, Egypt’s intention is not about water but has to do with hindering Ethiopia’s development and preventing the latter from becoming a major supplier of power in the region.
Hence, Ethiopia has to be prepared to set its agendas during GERD negotiations, Girmachew said adding the riparian countries should contribute their share and finance environment protection initiatives to ensure mutual benefits
The Ethiopian Herald 21 March 2021
