BY DARGIE KAHSAY
Ethiopia launched a greenery campaign in 2019 and planted over nine billion trees during the past two consecutive greenery seasons and started the third plantation campaign of 2021 to plant five billion seedlings in this single Ethiopian rainy season. This massive plantation aims to boost Ethiopia’s forest coverage from 15 percent to 30 percent within 10 years.
The major objective of the plantation is to combat the effects of climate change and desertification. Apart from this, Ethiopia gives due attention for planting seedlings so as to ensure food security.
Ethiopia prepared different types of vegetable seeds as part of its massive seedling plantation especially since the 2020 greening campaign. Aside from planting trees for the sake of ensuring food security, Ethiopia also gives due consideration for planting trees for industry use.
Recently, Environment, Forest and Climate Change Commission (ECC) Deputy Commissioner Kebede Tesema, has told The Ethiopian Herald that parallel to tackling climate change via boosting its forest coverage, Ethiopia gives special emphasis to planting seedlings for food, animal forage and construction as well as input for industries.
According to Kebede, of the five billion seedlings planted in 2020, 1.5 billion were fruits and trees for animal forage whilst the remaining were trees for forest coverage and others to be used for different wood inputs, construction and household goods.
Meanwhile, The Ethiopian Environment and Forest Research Institute (EEFRI) stated that although Ethiopia has a comparative advantage in producing commercial plants, it is still importing over three million metric tons of wood products from abroad at the cost of over 183 million USD.
Unless Ethiopia focuses on balancing its wood products demand and production at home, with the current status, it will be forced to spend over six billion USD annually on wood and wood products by 2040, according to researchers.
Advisor to the Director of Ethiopian Environment and Forest Research Institute, Teshome Tesema (PhD) has also told The Ethiopian Herald that up to now Ethiopia’s forest productivity depends on nature, adding it is critical time to invest in man-made forestation both to boost forest coverage and to cover its wood related demands for industrial inputs and other furniture needs.
Citing research, Dr. Teshome said that in 2015 alone, Ethiopia spent over 182.5 million USD to import three million Metric cubic of wood products for various industrial inputs and the amount is increasing year by year as the consumption of the industries are increasing.
Teshome said: “We need to continue cultivating artificial forest resources in connection with the green legacy. There are important indigenous and foreign forest species. Depending on the purpose of the plant, the ecological and climate conditions of the area, some may be used to protect the environment, while others may be used to produce forest products.”
He reiterated that the institute has adapted different types of trees that are used for wood production for timber in various places particularly in the South West region.
For Teshome, in connection with the current greenery campaign, Ethiopia has given due emphasis for the development of artificial and man-made forest coverage, which has already started. So as to plant the right plant at the right place, conducting in depth research on the suitability and ecological situation is required for the healthy development of trees.
Giving due emphasis for the development and expansion of industrial trees is very important and connecting the industrial trees to the market through value chain would boost the commercialization of trees and is helpful to aware the benefit of trees for the community. There are improvements in planting commercial trees at this plantation campaign, but it should be enhanced to a higher level.
As stated by him, the institute is supporting the plantation with research for the proper plantation and growth of the trees for the intended purpose. The current plantation especially this season’s greening campaign is considering these trees considering the growing demand of wood products and the decreasing of our forest resources due to unwise use of the forests for a long period.
Subsequently, manmade and artificial forest coverage with especial attention to commercial trees is very critical and a timely action to substitute the wood and wood products import. As to the advisor, Ethiopia has a comparative advantage than its neighbors in forest production if it gives attention.
“Our unwise usage of our natural forests affected negatively not only for industrial inputs but also exposed us for climate related hazards,” Teshom said. Hence, for the purpose of tackling climate change effects and to fill the demand and supply gap in forest productivity for industrial inputs, the mass plantation should give due attention for the growing of the trees.
Kebede also argued that Ethiopia is importing a huge amount of forest products with foreign currency though it has endowed with enormous potential to grow all kinds of forest products at home.
Thus, as part of its greenery initiative during the past two years and in the coming years, the commission has given due emphasis to substitute importing forest products and planned to replace them with local items.
In the same token, the ECC Deputy Commissioner has noted that by continuing the mass plantation campaign and giving due care for the growing-up of the planted seeds, Ethiopia is striving to substitute imports of forest products in a short period.
He added that Ethiopia is earning over 20 million USD every year by exporting eucalyptus to Sudan. For him, compared with Ethiopia’s abundant potential forest products, this amount is unsatisfactory though it is promising.
Eyob Girmay, Researcher at Ethiopian Environment and Forest Research Institute also argued that it is important to link the current massive seedling plantation with forest development for commercial and industrial inputs purpose.
“We have a diverse and suitable climate and ecology to produce different types of tree species for commercial purposes,” Eyob said.
As to him, for the successful forest development including commercial plants, it is important to give attention to forest and climate research. “As human beings choose suitable places to live, seedlings also need to be grown in the place that suits them and it is our responsibility to choose the right place to grow plants,” he added. This helps to plant proper plants according to the climate and ecology of the country.
Ethiopia should invest on its comparative advantage to cover its national wood products demand since it has untapped potential as over 300 wood species are available in Ethiopia that can be used for timber services, Eyob added. He also commended government’s Green Legacy Initiative to bring promising results in enhancing the availability of the species and in boosting the forest coverage in the country.
All the products that are currently imported from abroad in the wood sector are replaceable with local production and this will play in saving foreign currency, minimizing the cost for production and minimizing their cost and easily accessible raw materials for industrial inputs, the researcher stated. In addition, development of commercial forestry helps in job creation for the youth and if we invest highly, it may become another opportunity in this regard.
Therefore, Ethiopia should focus on planting commercial forest coverage parallel to planting trees for forest coverage to combat climate change and climate related effects by exploiting its suitable climate and diverse ecology to produce different types of species. To achieve this goal, the current greenery initiative is an opportunity as all Ethiopians are mobilized in greening their areas following the 2019 greenery initiative called by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed across the country.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD JULY 2 /2021
