Deforestation in Ethiopia - Accelerated Destruction

Accelerated Destruction

Earth trends estimated that in 2000 Ethiopia had 43,440,000 km² of natural forest area, which is 4% of its total land area. Compared to other East African countries Ethiopia’s deforestation rate is about average. However, the deforestation rates in East Africa are second highest of the continent. Moreover, it has the smallest fraction of its forest area designated primarily for conservation. Apart from Northern Africa, East African countries show the second highest decline rates of conservation forests in the continent.

In a forest resource assessment of Ethiopia, Reusing found that within 17 years (1973–1990) high-forest cover decreased from 54,410 to 45,055 km² or from 4.75 to 3.96% of the land area. He calculated a deforestation rate of 1,630 km² per year, which means that deforestation at the same rate would leave about 18,975 of the 45,055 km² in 2006. The FAO (2007) estimated a deforestation rate of 1,410 km² per year.

Dereje carried out a study in the coffee forest areas of southwest Ethiopia in order to estimate forest cover change between 1973 and 2005. The study area covered an area of 3,940 km² with 2,808 km² of high-forests (71% of the area) extended over five woredas (Bench, Sheko, Yeki, Guraferda, and Godere) in the two regional states of the Gambela and Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Regions. His analysis shows that the forested land declined to 1,907 km², which equals 67% of the forest cover in 1973. Between 2001 and 2005 another 55.4 km² of forest land were allocated for private coffee production and 20 km² for rubber plantations.

Gessesse studied an upland rain forest area of 3,060 km² in the Awasa watershed of the south-central Great Rift Valley, 280 km south of Addis Ababa. He estimated the rate of deforestation between 1972 and 2000 using remote sensing techniques. Furthermore, he could show that within the 28 year period 80% (400 km²) of the 1972 forest cover (489.24 km²) was lost. He describes that within the formerly closed forest, clearings created a speckled pattern of non-connected small forest patches.

Despite the slightly different estimates for deforestation in different regions of Ethiopia, given deforestation rates remain the same, the country will have lost its last tree of high forests within about 27 years. And with it will go the world’s only original wild populations of Coffea arabica. The economic loss of that genetic resource ranges between 0.4 and 1.5 billion USD/year.