Extent & Impact of Land Degradation and Rehabilitation Strategies: Ethiopian Highlands

Abstract

Throughout the world today, depletion of natural resources is among the major problems facing human beings. Land degradation, especially in the highlands, has been identified as the most serious environmental problem in Ethiopia. The Hararghae highlands in Eastern Ethiopia, Tigrai, Wollo, and Semen Shoa highlands in the north and the Gamo-Gofa highlands and the Bilate River basin, which starts in eastern slopes of Gurage highlands and stretches through eastern Hadiya and Kembatta highlands are some of the seriously eroded/degraded land surfaces in Ethiopia. The dominant man induced causes of land degradation in Ethiopia are poor farming practices, population pressure, overgrazing, over cultivation, soil erosion, deforestation, salinity and alkalinity problems, and the use of livestock manure and crop residue for fuel as energy resource of the rural households. The recorded annual soil erosion (surface soil movement) in Ethiopia ranges from low of 16 tons/ha/yr to high of 300 tons/ha/yr depending mainly on the slope, land cover, and rainfall intensities. The total estimated annual soil loss (surface soil movement) from the cultivated, range and pasture lands (780,000 km²) in Ethiopia is estimated to range from low of 1.3 to an average of 7.8 billion metric tons per year.  Study put the degraded area on the highlands at 27 million ha of which, 14 million hectares is very seriously eroded with 2 million ha of this having reached a point of no return, and the soil depth is so reduced that the land is no longer able to support any vegetative cover. Land degradation costs/indicators are reduced yield, change in land-use, and change in crops, abandonment of fields, and altered livestock mixes and patterns of grazing, flooding, changes in stream flow, silting of rivers & dams, unreliability of irrigation water flow and decline in quality of drinking water and ground water, loss of environmental services, migration and associated loss of human capital and break up of communities, social costs of poverty, and reduced ability to invest in anti-degradation activities, loss of soil from farm plots and the loss of nutrients resulting in decreased productivity or the need for increased inputs to maintain productivity. Therefore, to minimize or avoid the current and potential undesirable consequences, proper attention must be given to the degraded areas in the country. Rehabilitation measures of degraded lands improve the overall ecological conditions of degraded areas so that they can provide better socio-economic benefits, Biodiversity and environmental services to the local communities.

Keywords: Land degradation, Rehabilitation strategies, Ethiopian highlands