Major Human and Natural Disruptions that Facilitated Vegetation Cover Removal in the Ethiopia Highlands

Abstract

The Ethiopian highlands, occupying 44% of the total surface area of the country, are home to over 80% of the people, 75% of livestock, and are where up to about 95% of the crops are grown. However, they are among the most degraded in Africa due to a long tradition of settled agriculture that dates back to more than 3000 years. This has been aggravated by climatic strains and civil unrest. As the frequency of such extreme weather conditions increase, subsistence farmers become even more desperate, resulting in actions that cause significant damages to the environment. In addition, civil unrest aggravates the threat to the environment. Even though, much of Ethiopia’s history has been dominated by war between internal rivals for domestic supremacy and against external invaders, the environmental implications of such recurrent destructive wars have not been studied.

A survey was carried out in the northern and southern parts of the Ethiopian highlands in order to understand deforestation patterns. The result of a focused group discussion indicated that the removal of forest covers in the highlands followed a non-linear trajectory over the past five decades. Catastrophic climatic conditions and civil unrest posed turning points in deforestation and mismanagement of natural resources. During times of severe droughts, instability, and civil conflict, only forests around religious institutions, homesteads, and those found among communities with local bylaws (written or otherwise) have survived compared to those exposed to free human and animal access. In a country whose history is characterized by prolonged civil war and instability, the impacts of protracted and prolonged wars should come to the Centre of the environmental degradation discourses. The conventional thesis of blaming only the poor farmers, who struggle to make ends meet, for destroying their environment due to their “ignorance” and to completely neglect the destructive acts of powers, does not seem fair, to say the least.

Keywords: Drought, civil unrest, environmental degradation, Ethiopian highlands