Ethiopia plants so many trees primarily because the country has experienced massive deforestation. At the beginning of the 20th century, forests covered 35% of the land area, but the forest areas decreased sharply until the end of the 1980s. At that time they represented only a little more than 2% of the country’s surface area. Then the rate of deforestation was slowed down and today forests represent about 15% of Ethiopia’s land area.
The benefits of reforestation
According to Life ONG, an association very active in the field of reforestation in Africa, this massive deforestation has two origins. Firstly, wood is a precious commodity in Ethiopia. 90% of the energy consumed in the country comes from biomass and it is mostly wood and charcoal. Wood is also widely used for building construction. The destruction of forests has also made it possible to develop arable land to feed the Ethiopian population. With nearly 110 million inhabitants, it is the second most populated country in Africa. But massive deforestation then increased the environmental risks.
Today, in Ethiopia, reforestation is a means of combating two types of environmental disaster. First, there are droughts. They are becoming more and more regular. In 2015 and 2016, the country experienced the worst episodes in 50 years, with more than 10 million people becoming food insecure. According to Life ONG, replanting is an effective way to reduce drought-related mortality, because plants help retain moisture in the soil or prevent the disappearance of livestock. The second type of deadly disaster is flooding caused by soil erosion. It causes major landslides. During the rainy season, as early as the 2000s, some villages began to try to combat this soil erosion and to replant trees in order to reduce the risks.
Reforestation as a government strategy
Reforestation is also part of a broader strategy for Ethiopia. On the occasion of major environmental conferences such as the Cop 17 in Denmark in 2011 or the Cop 21 in Paris in 2015, the country has displayed very proactive ambitions to green its economy and its territory. Today, beyond the shock figures of the billions of trees planted under the impetus of the government. Local media point out that information on this action is still unclear. For example, it is impossible to know whether the trees planted are adapted to the environment.
Indeed, for the country to reap the benefits of increased afforestation in the coming decades, the trees still need to reach maturity. Lack of forest maintenance is a recurring problem in this country. Of the more than 4 billion trees planted between 2000 and 2015, only 20-30% survived. Ethiopia’s large-scale planting project has shown that this is a mobilizing theme in a country. As Life ONG pointed out, other countries in Africa wanted to follow Ethiopia’s lead and make reforestation a priority, while encouraging NGOs to participate.
