BY DARGIE KAHSAY
Ethiopia has a lot of experience in protecting natural forests and the environment, through traditional and religious practices. With these traditional norms and religious beliefs, parallel to the legal system enacted to protect the forest, the society protects forests from unnecessary damages.
These traditional norms and activities of the society are applied according to the community’s agreements and anyone who violates these societal norms is punished according to the community’s laws. In addition, in Ethiopia, trees found in Ethiopian Orthodox Church territory are protected religiously.
Wherever you go, every Ethiopian Orthodox Church is circled with dense forests and these trees found in a radius encircled to the church are considered as “clothes of the God” or “sacred trees”. Due to this reason, these trees found around Ethiopian Orthodox Churches are untouchable. This is a common norm in Ethiopia. No body tends to cut trees from these areas, which is totally forbidden by the community.
This religious norm helps in protecting natural forests in many parts of the country especially in protecting different types of endemic species as these forests are protected for centuries. Especially, this religious norm plays a crucial role in protecting forests in northern Ethiopia, where the forest coverage out of churches is affected for many reasons.
In addition to this religious norm or belief, there are societal norms and laws by each community that are useful to protect the forest in their areas. This aims to find enough forest coverage by controlling the illegal damage of the trees as most social activities are dependent on forests. In Ethiopia, in most parts of the country, the society uses trees to build homes and other raw materials. For this purpose, the society enacts communal norms and elected elders to manage the issue, including punishing the violators.
In this regard, the Guji Zone of Oromia State is among the best examples in protecting its dense forests with the society’s traditional norms. Guji Zone is implementing societal values of the community to protect the area’s forest and this scores significant outcome in increasing the forest coverage of the area, according to the elders of Guji. Guji Zone’s forest protection tradition is closely related to the Geda System of the Oromo culture.
According to Guji Zone Agriculture and Natural Resource Department, the old tradition of Guji Zone in protecting forests benefits the society and as the society understands the advantage of forests, Guji Zone is among the Ethiopian areas where attractive and dense forests are found. As a result of this tradition, the ongoing Green Legacy Initiative is progressing effectively in the Zone, Fana Broadcasting Corporate (FBC) reported.
Demissie Detamo, a Guji elder, told FBC that as the society understands the benefits and advantages of forests, it protects its natural resource and this makes Guji Zone green. This traditional system is now under the umbrella of the Geda system and illegal damaging of the forest is totally forbidden by society. Hence, if someone wants to cut trees to build a house or for any other purpose, he/she is required to get permission from the elders. The elders give permission for the cutting of trees that are commensurate to the required purpose only.
“Forest is our areas cloth and green area which covers by natural forests is a life for us which is easing our agrarian life,” Demissie said. So, he said, the community by itself protects nature mainly to protect its benefits.
According to Aba Geda law of the community, any member of the community is responsible to protect forests. Aba Gedas penalize anyone who illegally cuts trees or damages forests, Demissie said. “Damaging forests is a crime. If anyone is caught doing so, he/she may be punished by money or cattle, according to the level of the crime,” Demissie noted.
If the person does not refrain from his actions, even after the punishments in kind or in cash, he/she the Aba Gedas would order his/her social exclusion. “If anyone does not stop the illegal activities of cutting trees, Aba Gedas and elders of the society would excluded the person from any social life of the community including greetings by the society which is the highest punishment,” Demissie said.
Demissie said that this societal law of protecting natural forests under the umbrella of the Geda system in Guji Zone is commonly known as Shemaga. After the social exclusion punishment, if the person committed to stopping his illegal activities and asked Aba Gedas to apologize, then Aba Gedas ordered him to plant trees to replace the number of trees he/she damaged. After that, if the person fulfills his/her responsibility, then Aba Gedas would lift up the social exclusion sanction and announce the society of the person’s behavioural change. This Shemaga cultural forest conservation system is playing a crucial role in protecting the dense forest coverage of the zone, he stated.
Forest Expert at Oromia Forest and Wild Life Office Getachew Abduro for his part said that in Guji Zone since the society gains economic benefits from the forest coverage, the society by their tradition are protecting their natural resource. “In Guji, every person protects the forest like his/her personal property” Getachew added.
This is due to two reasons, first, the society incorporates protection of forests in their traditional laws that govern their social life and the second one is that members of the society will get enough benefit from the forests according to their traditional law. This means, if anyone wants to build a home, the elders give permission to use from the forest and they give specific number of trees selected by the elders, he added. Hence, directly and indirectly, society gets the benefit from the forest.
Accordingly, Guji Zone is covered by highly dense forests with attractive and eye-catching coverage which also benefits in preserving biodiversity, Getachew noted. In Guji, if a person illegally damages forests, he/she would punish by the traditional law and by the formal law, he said. Even for the formal law, it is the society who presented the violator to the court, he noted.
Elder Demissie also stated that, in Guji tradition, cutting young or teenagers and old trees is totally prohibited in any situation. The teenage trees are symbols of the youth generation and the oldest trees are symbols of the elders of the community, he said adding, hence, it is totally forbidden to cut these trees.
Guji Zone Agriculture and Natural resource Deputy Head Negeso Waqo for his part also stated that according to Guji culture old trees are revered like the respected elders of the community and forest conservation is among the proud traditional values of Guji. Teenage trees are also untouched according to the Guji tradition transferring from generation to generation. For him, this helps to protect indigenous species in addition to boosting the forest coverage.
Neeson stated that the current green legacy initiative of Ethiopia is helping in supporting the old traditional value of forest protection of the Guji Zone. The green initiative campaign is playing a crucial role in the area especially in planting new trees.
For Negeso the forest conservation tradition of Guji is also playing its role in developing the newly planted seedlings in the area, adding among the seedlings planted during the past two consecutive plantation campaigns, over 86 per cent are already growing. He added that mass plantation is also continued during this rainy season of the third year green legacy initiative.
The office is capitalizing on the traditional forest protection value of the people for the proper development and growth of the newly planted seedlings, the Deputy Head stated. He further underlined that the experience of the people of Guji can play a significant role in forest protection if capitalized well.
The Ethiopian Herald August 7/2021
