Ethiopia is highly vulnerable to grave environmental degradation mainly due to unwise use of natural resources and poorly planned development projects, prompted by rapid population growth. This is because the environment has not featured on the development agenda in the past, since project evaluation and decision making mechanisms have focused only on short-term technical feasibility and economic benefits.
The 1997 Environmental Policy of Ethiopia was the moment where the concerns for environmental degradation started growing towards an intended goal of improving and enhancing the health and quality of life of all Ethiopians and ensure sustainable development through sound management and use of natural resources.
However, there was criticism that the conceptual framework of the environmental policy of Ethiopia was too general, not systematically formulated and missed strategies for rigorous implementation, monitoring, or evaluation.
In this sense it was the formulation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Proclamation (Proc. No. 299/2002), begun by the Environmental Protection Authority, including procedural guidelines as a prerequisite for the approval of new development activities and projects in any sector, having a very specific vision and mission statements that was of great significance.
Later, this mission statement has led to the enforcement of the “Environmental Pollution Control Proclamation (Proc. no. 300/2002)”, which is promulgated with a view to eliminate or, when not possible, to mitigate pollution as an undesirable consequence of social and economic development activities (FDRE, 2002b). This proclamation is one of the basic legal documents, which need to be observed as corresponding to effective Environmental Assessment administration.
Nevertheless, over previous decades, EIA in Ethiopia was voluntary and not legally binding whereby it was only applicable to large projects and certain environmental impacts of development activities and lacks how to mitigate negative impacts early in the project planning cycle. Hence, despite the internationalization and institutionalization of EIA in development activity, the upgrading of EIA process and practices in Ethiopia to tackle the root cause of environmental degradation are still challenging due to the lack of practical implementation and application of the EIA process leaving a huge gap between theory and practice. Study revealed.
As narrated by Sadler (1996) the influence that the EIA process has upon decision making is a ‘litmus test’ of EIA effectiveness only. In other words, there must be a way to turn to EIA proximate, rather than substantive, enforce its full implementation, and aim to find measurable criteria of effectiveness. In addition, setting limits could be set for proposed developments according to the resilience or regenerative ability of the environments affected.
Moreover, in order to strengthen the current EIA system in Ethiopia and ensure its effective implementation, the enforcement mechanisms have to be established either through market based forces or safeguarded by incentives; put in place a good monitoring system; develop effective mechanisms for accountability; ensure capacity building and awareness creation.
Literature and experience witness that poorly planned development endeavors and unwise use of natural resources have threatened and deepened Ethiopia’s past economic, environmental and social status.
Although the cause for Ethiopia’s environmental degradation is, in general, diverse and interlinked; chronic poverty, population growth, coupled with the lack of relevant scientific knowledge, inconsistency on an institutional level, non-existence of complementarities between institutions, and lack of environmental and investment policy and proclamations, are among the major drivers of environmental degradation of the country.
Most development practices have never been anticipated for the elimination or mitigation of potential environmental problems, and hence only targeted towards short term technical feasibility and economic benefits. These actions were not able to maintain the environment because developments had no vision for the long term and future generations. There was no awareness regarding the quality of the environment. Like in many parts of the world, in Ethiopia, the environment has not featured on the development agenda in the past.
Although EIA is a recent phenomenon in Ethiopia, it became a legally required procedure toward the end of year 2002, though emerged de facto before 2002 when a few land developers, including state-owned agencies, approached the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to have their environmental impact studies reviewed. Since the Environmental Impact Assessment Proclamation № 299 of 2002 was adopted by the House of Peoples’ Representatives, some efforts have been made to implement the law by the EPA and the relevant regional environmental organs, which were themselves established by Proclamation № 295 of 2002. In spite of these efforts, EIA in Ethiopia has until now remained weak.
Though five years have elapsed since the adoption of the EIA law in Ethiopia, the practice is still in its infantile stage, owing to a number of interacting factors that have slowed progress. As EIA is a complex process involving a large number of actors, there are many variables that can affect its proper implementation.
Therefore, in the past the environment was not considered in the development as most projects were undertaken without any prefeasibility studies of the project. There was no monitoring and protection and these no-actions lead to destruction of both local communities and the environment in general. Later on, in recognition of this, and then urgency of the matter, the country took major action and prepared an EIA system, including Procedural Guidelines, which is used for all types of development projects in any sector.
As a result, further development along this line has to be cut short, as efforts in reversing the damage to the environment at a later time is usually costly or even irreversible. In order to ensure sustainable development, it is essential to integrate environmental concerns into development activities, programs, and policies. Experience in the past has shown that different development schemes have caused massive environmental problems as traditional project preparation and decision-making mechanisms were based on short-term technical feasibility and economic benefits.
As the concern for environmental degradation has increased in recent years, the Environmental Policy of Ethiopia (EPE henceforth) was issued in 1997 to provide guidance in the conservation and sustainable utilization of the country’s natural resources in general. Among the specific objectives that the EPE seeks to achieve are ensuring conservation, development and sustainable use of essential ecological processes and life support systems, biological diversity and renewable natural resources and the empowerment and participation of the people in environmental management.
BY HAFTU GEBREZGABIHER
The Ethiopian Herald June 12/2021
