Status, Challenges and Opportunities of Environmental Management in Ethiopia

Abstract

Our planet’s capacity to prolong life is eroding due to the wide disparity between consumption, production and waste assimilation capacity of the environment. Ethiopia is situated in the Horn of Africa about 79% are employed in the agricultural sector.  Since the mass of Ethiopian population is totally dependent on limited natural resources as their primary source of income and strive to test nature by unlimited human growth. Looking into Ethiopian history one might come across a few stories of environmental management by the state. The easiest evidence indicating some form of protection of natural resources was found in the fourth century AD. However, the first professionally organized forest management intervention started in Ethiopia during the brief period of Italian annexation (1936–41). Yet, the country faces many environmental challenges including deforestation, soil erosion, declines in soil fertility, loss of water quality and biodiversity. Other, important environmental challenges include spread of invasive and alien species, urban outdoor air pollution (mainly in Addis Ababa), and toxic household wastes. As various figures estimated, about 1.24 million ha of natural high forests cleared for agricultural expansion between 1990 and 2014. The average annual deforestation rate is 1% which is high compared to other Sub-Saharan African countries (0.6%). It is estimated that unless action is taken to change the traditional development path, an area of 9 million ha might be deforested between 2010 and 2030. The major opportunities that obtained in environmental management includes improve governance. The Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) is probably the major fundamental initiative Ethiopia adopted recently.  CRGE is attached in the GTP and designed with a vision of achieving a middle-income status by year 2025 (FDRE, 2011). It attempts to systematically combine attaining sustainable economic growth, with combating adverse impacts of climate change.

Keywords: Status, challenges and opportunities, environmental management