The Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute (EBI) with the support of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV) through the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Network (BES-Net) project under the UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Center (UNEP-WCMC) has conducted a National Ecosystem Assessment (NEA) since 2017 in Ethiopia.
The National Ecosystem Assessment (NEA) undertaken on the major ecosystems, according to EBI, focuses on nature’s benefit to people, status and trends of ecosystem and their services and direct and indirect pressures on biodiversity and ecosystem services.
According to Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute, Ethiopian ecosystems are classified to ten broad categories and recently 12 vegetation-based ecosystems are recognized. But, for the purpose of the NEA, however, the ecosystems were clustered in to five major groups, named Mountain Ecosystem, Forest and Woodland Ecosystem, Aquatic and Wetland Ecosystem, Rangeland Ecosystem and Agro ecosystem.
To discuss the findings of the assessment, current trends of the national ecosystem, solutions and recommendations forwarded by the assessment, the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute (EBI) has prepared a workshop and discussion forum with stakeholders last week in Adama. During the discussion, the Institute’s Director General, Melese Mario (PhD) said that due to the increase in population growth, ecosystems and bio diversities are facing serious threats.
Though, Ethiopia is gifted with high biodiversity with different topography and weather conditions, due to climate change and unwise use of resources and increase in human population, bio diversities are facing serious threats, he added.
A document prepared for the discussion also underlined that Ethiopia is endowed with high biodiversity that emanates from a wide range of topographic, climatic, edaphic and cultural variations, giving rise to diverse ecosystems and wide range of ecosystem services for the benefit of people and the environment. Despite this, biodiversity and ecosystem services are under critical threats, mainly due to rapid human population growth.
According to EBI the livelihood of the majority of the Ethiopian population mainly depends on services generated from the natural resources, adding that the demand from the natural resources is consistently growing. The increase in demand and dependency on natural resources substantially drives the unbalance between demand and supply of services and triggers unsustainable utilization of natural resources. EBI argued that this leads to a rapid decline in biodiversity and ecosystem lose.
To address the challenges that the ecosystem and biodiversity is facing, it requires information on the current status of biodiversity and ecosystem services. Thus, a biodiversity and ecosystem services assessment, a process to evaluate current knowledge about interrelationships between human activities and biodiversity is a critical tool and needs to be conducted based on proven assessment methodologies and principles such as those outlined in Intergovernmental panel for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), EBI underlined.
Launched in 2017 the NEA provides key findings and ample evidences about the current trends of the ecosystem and describes the unique features of the ecosystem and the values that help in promoting the conservation and sustainable use of the ecosystems. The findings by NEA assessment underlines that, “all ecosystems have biodiversity components that harbor unique assemblages of plant, animal and microbial species.” The ecosystems are Mountain, Forest and Woodland, Aquatic and Wetland, Rangeland and Agricultural ecosystems, mentioned above that clustered for the purpose of NEA.
Furthermore, the NEA finding discovers that the Ethiopian agro-ecosystem is unique as it is part of the vacillation center of origin and diversity of crop species such as coffee (Coffea Arabica), teff (Eragrostis tef), enset (Ensete ventricosum) and nigger seed (Guizotia abyssinica), and livestock breeds, the document prepared by EBI disclosed. Regarding to service provision, the NEA disclosed that the Ethiopian ecosystem provides provisioning, regulating and non-materials services such as food, construction materials, flood, and erosion control, pollution and ritual sites.
Due to dependency on the nature and its resources, NEA’s finding revealed that communities living in various ecosystems in Ethiopia have rich indigenous and local knowledge developed over millennia to manage biodiversity and the ecosystem services. In addition, at national level, Ethiopia has formulated and implemented several ecosystem and biodiversity related policies, laws, regulations and guidelines.
As a result of the threats and vulnerability in the assessment, the NEA clearly puts 11 areas that require the combinations of policy, science and practical interventions to save the biodiversity and ecosystem losses. Accordingly, it stated that most endemic flora and fauna inhabiting isolated mountains are critically endangered. According to NEA, the national policy on biodiversity conservation and research and other environmental policies and strategies also lacks adequate attention to the mountain ecosystem as a unique environment and the services it provides.
According to NEA findings, the spread of invasive alien species, is affecting all ecosystems. In addition, lack of clarity in rangeland policy and development direction and limited knowledge to the pastoral indigenous and local knowledge and informal institutions plus the shift towards crop cultivation and emergence of private holding of communal rangelands are triggering conflicts over grazing and water resources which requires further interventions.
Implementing appropriate policy frameworks and strengthening institutional setup, promoting generation and integration of knowledge systems and the tradition of collaborative undertakings, according to the recommendations of NEA.
BY DARGIE KAHSAY
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 4 MAY 2022
