BY FITSUM GETACHEW
Over the past four or five years Ethiopia has made tremendous efforts to cover the country with greenery. Billions of tree seedlings have been planted involving in the operation millions of Ethiopians. It is at the same time undeniable how much the consciousness of Ethiopians about the importance of keeping the environment green and preventing the continuous degradation of the same for years has risen.
Today most Ethiopians are conscious that planting trees is an honourable thing to do just as felling trees arbitrarily is to be vehemently discouraged and condemned. The size of Ethiopia’s forests once used to occupy from thirty to forty percent of the entire land size of the nation when we look at the records. But due to several reasons this size has diminished alarmingly. There was the population explosion, the increase in the need to plough more land and produce more food for the people. Then there is the use of wood and wood products to build houses for residence and to make furniture and above all the continuous use of wood products for fuel consumption at home. All this combined has resulted in the depletion of the forest coverage of the country.
People may have believed that the forests would never end and that felling of trees be considered as the most natural thing to do to go about finding solutions for their immediate problems or needs. This process has continued unabated for years without any one bothering to replace the trees that were cut probably also because there was not enough consciousness or awareness about what sorts of damages were to ensue. The government itself did not seem to manage to control such phenomenon when it continued practically undisturbed and replacements were not well carried out to compensate for the losses.
In a recent survey the level of forest in Ethiopia was said to be about five percent only. Meanwhile, changes in the cycle of the climate have been causing drought and Ethiopia has been a victim of this phenomenon. Periodic drought has become the order of the day and millions suffered due to the scarcity of rain or the irregularity and unpredictability of the rainy season and spells of the dry season expanding. Unfortunately, Ethiopia still depends on rain fed agriculture and this has complicated further the lives of the entire population which depends mainly on agriculture. In fact the number goes up to 85 percent of the economy relying on agriculture. It is hence unimaginable what sort of consequences followed with such regime of climate aberration and unreliability. This is not true only for Ethiopia but for practically all developing countries particularly in Africa who do not have other resources for their livelihood other than agriculture based on rain and not irrigation.
Climate change is here to stay and for a long while unless we all do our part to reconcile with nature. The latest developments we see across the globe do not promise a lot because there are serious disagreements on how to go about to lessen the effects of climate change and reduce substantial the reasons for this phenomenon. Experts insist the temperature of the earth must get down from the current one substantially and this takes the efforts of every one, particularly the big economies such as the USA, China, India and Brazil who have contributed more to the current state of affairs. We have had several conferences on climate change and scientists, environmentalists and researchers have continued to warn about the consequences of the current trend. They say pollution must be reduced to the minimum, the use of fossil fuel as a source of energy must decrease substantially and above all afforestation must be the order of the day because the earth has been subjected for decades to intense felling of trees, depletion of forests and greenery in general.
As cities continue to multiply, construction booms in large plots of land once green or somehow occupied by some sort of vegetation, the green areas countries have continued to dwindle. We have concretely seen the consequences. Temperatures have continued to rise and this has exposed the vast areas of forests in many parts of the world to wildfires. Even currently there have been extensive wild fires in many areas in Canada with millions of square meters of forests completely erased. At the same time the smoke that came out of those wild fires has been creating a huge challenge for the quality of air people of the surrounding were to breath. It was a huge alarm especially for those who had their own respiratory issues.
Climate change is hence a global phenomenon. The number of climatic disasters has increased by leaps and bounds in the past several years in intensity and severity of the losses and damages. Unwanted rains or not seasonal ones have been recorded affecting seriously those who rely on rain fed agriculture. At the same time with excesses of rainfall there have been inundations such as the one that happened in Pakistan not very long ago. There have been scarcity of rain for years and drought has become a huge challenge in certain parts of the world which previously never had these episodes. The impact is more devastating in the poorer countries where subsistence farming is the rule and people are forced to aid from outside in order to survive. Look at East Africa where millions are in dire circumstances and are calling for humanitarian aid to save them. The flooding of many areas in Africa and Asia and even other continents are clear consequences of this climate crisis.
More and more people are being displaced and if we add the ones that are displaced due to conflicts, the flooding of so much extensive land, the drought that displaces millions of farmers, the wildfire that chases people from their usual habitat, all these are severe consequence of man-made activities. For years no one took seriously the consequences of the irresponsible use of wood and deforestation of lands until scientists came with their research and now are warning everyone that the future of the planet is at grave risk and extensive devastations will follow unless we take drastic measures now. Tomorrow could be too late they warn and mere talk is equally dangerous because action is what is needed.
Ethiopia is one of the countries that are trying to do their part in this regard. The initiative that has been launched by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed five years ago seems to be producing very tangible and promising results. This year another round of 7 billion tree seedlings are to be planted now that Ethiopians have come to be aware of what positive consequences tree planting brings about, the efforts continue more intensely. Up to now in four years more than twenty billion tree seedlings have been planted and continuous progress is being registered. The effort Ethiopia exerted in this regard has gained the admiration of many countries which are very sensitive about the environment. Ethiopia has been trying to adopt green-led economic measures by using carbon free industries and renewable energy sources. But for that to succeed fully it needs the assistance of the advanced economies more than it currently gets.
This year we are in the fifth continuous year of planting billions of tree seedlings. The rainy season has begun it has been announced that by 2027 more than fifty billion trees shall have been planted. What is more, the follow up of the seedlings has also been recorded to be very satisfactory because planting seedlings only does not suffice. The seedlings should be nurtured so that they grow to be trees. In fact the success rate has been reported to be about 80 to 90 percent over the past years. Every year we learn from the past experiences and the success rate is bound to increase. It is not only simple plants that are planted but also fruits that are marketable even to the outside world. The products that are reaped could contribute to lessen the shortage of certain fruits and vegetables and eventually help households meet their nutritional needs. This is encouraging and needs to ramped up.
The idea of planting trees is becoming a newly emerging tradition or custom in Ethiopia and people are now well aware of the significance and value of planting trees also because of the continuous campaign of the government and the media outlets that show how useful plants could be. Schools are also including in their educational curriculum the relevance of keeping the environment green and clean at an early age so that children grow well aware of what the environment means to everyday life. We are lately experiencing a boom of green areas and parks that can attract not only tourists but also natives. People know that our future livelihood very much depends on what we do today. ‘We must plant trees today to guarantee our future’, the new motto goes. Hence, we should all engage in this important operation and do our part.
Furthermore, this idea of planting seedlings has also been exported to neighbouring countries such as Djibouti, Eritrea, South Sudan and Kenya with Ethiopia contributing billions of tree seedlings and sharing its knowhow on how to prepare the billions of tree seedlings that are necessary for the operation. It is evident that climate change does not have nationality, race or belief. It has no boundaries. It affects everyone in the world and it takes the entire world to exert efforts to reduce the planet’s temperature and cover the earth with greenery.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD THURSDAY 15 JUNE 2023
