In the Biblical story of the Garden of Eden, we read that God, “also put specific trees -the Tree of Life and the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil (Genesis 2:9). Adam was only commanded not to eat of one of these trees, but he disobeyed that stipulation and we are pretty familiar with what happened to man afterwards.
This may be the first mention of the word “tree” in the history of creation. Where the tree came from is another story that may take us deep into Biblical references, which is not the main focus of this article. Trees have had symbolic significance since the dawn of times. According to some sources, “Since ancient days, trees have been used to represent life, growth, wisdom, prosperity and more in legends, poetry , literature and religion.
We all know he symbolism behind olive branch and the Tree of Knowledge from the Garden of Aden.” have been given deep and sacred meanings throughout the ages. Human beings, observing the growth and death of trees, and the annual death and revival of their foliage, have often seen them as powerful symbols of growth, death and rebirth. According to Wikipedia, trees are accorded symbolism in folklore.
“Trees are significant in many of the world’s mythologies and tree planting has therefore a very long history dating back to at least 500 years if we take modern tree planting as our starting point. We can go farther in time and refer to a still older time when selecting and breeding fruit trees and other nonwood products around the world and transferring them has a history of more than 4000 years. “The skill of tree planting has been around for a very long time. The ancient civilizations had gardens and orchards into which they transplanted trees that bore useful crops or those that could be clipped into hedges, or those which were values for their shade or beauty.”
Trees also occupy a precious place and have great significance in folk cultures well as well as in daily lives of the people at that time. It may be important here to point at some of the more exotic tress that are recognized for their size, age or utility. At one point, there was even a suggestion coming from a highly-educated Ethiopian biologist, Professor Emeritus Legesse Hunduma from the Addis Ababa University, who, proposed, “the evergreen native tree, Podocarpus Falcatus (Zigba in Amharic and Birbirssa in Afan Oromo) as Ethiopia’s National Tree.
There is also the case of the indigenous tree known as Kosso tree that can grow to great size, a meter or more in diameter, and probably can live many hundreds of years. “Kosso, also called African redwood, or Heto in the Oromiffa language of southern Ethiopia, is found in high elevation forests throughout much of East Africa.”
A study conducted around the symbolic significance of trees in Guji Oromo culture for instance suggests that, “Guji believe in Waqa supernatural power the creator who created heaven and earth, trees, grasses, mountains and rivers. Guji religious practices are embedded in the Gada system. Religious rituals and ceremonies blessing and cursing) are mostly performed by Qallu. Qallu is the religious institution which is responsible for spiritual activities in Guji Gada system….”
According to another related information, “Trees are considered as gifts from God or Waqa to human beings to manage conserve and use them properly. In addition, different prayers, marriage ceremonies, meetings, political, economic and other cultural activities are highly attached to trees.”
So far so good concerning the spiritual and cultural significance of trees and the place it occupies in the day to day lives of tens of millions of people in Ethiopia. Trees and tree planting also has another more realistic and more tangible dimension, namely the role they play in the economic and social lives of tens of millions of people. Trees continue to play a critical role in maintaining and improving the ecosystem and environment. They form the basis for the survival of agricultural communities particularly in the northern parts of the country where droughts and famines have wreaked havoc on the social fabrics of rural communities.
Droughts and famines have been critical factors in shaping the politics and economics of rural Ethiopia for decades if not for centuries. Although tree planting had always remained an integral part of the economic survival of human communities, its true dimension could only be grasped during times of droughts and when rampant deforestations particular areas led to land degradation, soil erosion and made productive life totally impossible as during the 1984-85 cataclysmic drought in northern Shoa and Tigray.
The importance of trees and tree planting in the survival of rural communities may not be scientifically explained or understood at that time, but Ethiopian peasants always knew from experience that failing to plant trees meant signing the deaths certificates of hundreds of thousands of people in drought-prone areas in particular. Their intuitive perceptions proved correct when close to a million people perished in the 1984-85 famine whose long-term causes included the desertification of the entire region and the subsequent degradation of the top soil.
The need for large-scale tree planting initiatives at the national level as a critical step in environmental protection was accorded a clear and urgent focus right after the 1984-85 drought and famine that hit entire regions in northern Ethiopia. This tragic event shocked not only the rural population but also the military government that was embarked on a course of transforming agriculture along socialist. In the 1974 popular revolution that was focused on land reform and on improving the lives of the rural communities in general.
After the dust raised by the drought and famine settled and international aid managed to save lives that could have been lost to famine, the Ethiopian government launched a national program of land reclamation through planting trees on a massive scale.
Nurseries were established in various parts of the rural areas and farmers were encouraged to plant trees in their localities as part of a long-term land protection initiative. Some commendable results were registered before the projects were abandoned as another drought and famine struck in other parts of the country. At that time, Ethiopia’s total forested area was reduced to 4% of the total land area of the country and that was an alarming statistics to say the least.
When a new government took power in 1991, the tree planting campaign as well as the once popular literacy campaign, were almost totally abandoned as the focus shifted to dealing with the long-term consequences of the war and the economic disaster caused by the socialist policies of the military government. Tree planting, that had at one time become a national passion slowly lost steam and ground to a halt as the new government changed its priorities from rural to urban economic management under the new economic policy.
There was no significant activity carried out in the country regarding tree plantation and land protection at that time, although drought and famine repeatedly visited not only northern regions but also traditionally fertile areas of the south. According to official statistics, the total land area covered with forests had shown slight improvement while Ethiopia still remained not a land of big forests as it used to be in the distant past, but a land left barren by seasonal rains that washed away the top soil and led to sharp falls in rural productivity.
Rural deforestation and land degradation still remain the Achilles Heels of Ethiopia’s rural economy which is still based on rain-fed agriculture by conducted with primitive farm implements. Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s total population witnessed a real explosion, growing at more than 3 % per year while rural productivity trailed far behind.
To be fair, the necessity of planting trees in order to cover deforested areas in the country had rarely assumed such an importance as it is now, both by the government and the rural and urban populations. In 2022 for instance, “the government targeted to plant 6 billion trees during the rainy season in the same year, between mid-junes to mid-September.”
Why Ethiopia is planting so many trees at this particular time is something that can be understood from the long history of droughts and famines that claimed millions of lives and left the country at the mercy of climate change that exacerbated the process of desertification. According to available information, the question why Ethiopia is planting trees at this particular time can be answered in the following terms.
“The call to plant more trees is part of Ethiopia’s national “Green Legacy” initiative which according to the government’s office, aims to tackle deforestation and the effects of climate change by educating Ethiopians on the environmental and planting different “eco-friendly seedlings.”
The Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is also another trigger that accelerated the urge to plant more than 20 billion trees in the subsequent years and this trend is continuing with greater pace as trees have now become critical for the ecological survival of Ethiopia which is increasingly becoming vulnerable to climate change.
Ethiopia cannot therefore afford to slow the pace of this initiative and failing in this national mobilization is not only unacceptable but also unthinkable. Trees are indeed the symbols of Ethiopia’s cultural, economic and spiritual wealth. This notion is now expanding to include the physical survival of the people in the face of devastating climate changes and environmental disasters that continue to visit them now and then.
BY MULUGETA GUDETA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 19 JULY 2023
