More People and Fewer Resources

Interviewee

Dr. Tadesse

with CARE Ethiopia, Water Task Force

Interviewer

Alison M. Jones

NWNL Director and Photographer

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Oct 3, 2007

Introductory Note

Dr Tadesse, introduced to NWNL by fellow Rotarian Samrawit Moges, shared with us his involvement with CARE Ethiopia’s Water Task Force. His focus was in area called WaSH (acronym for Water, Sanitation, Health). Our talk addressed Ethiopia’s current watershed management issues, particularly increasing deforestation by local people cutting trees for fuel. Hopefully, Ethiopia’s Millennium commitment to improve water and land use can be a tool in halt this environmental degradation. Other approaches include environmental education and improved country-wide land policies fostering personal responsibility for protecting ecosystem health.

Outline

WOMEN CUTTING TREES for FUEL
LAND POLICY CHANGES NEEDED
POPULATION CONTROL

Key Quote There should be a good strategy that increases community or household lands [in Ethiopia] so the people can plant trees or other vegetations that will help sustain their life and contribute to the management of the land. –Dr. Tadesse

NWNL Thank you, Dr. Tadesse, for meeting with me after my travels documenting the Blue Nile Basin – my first exposure to this dynamic tributary to one of the world’s greatest rivers! I’m very interested in hearing your thoughts on the value of the Blue Nile, expanding population pressures on its watershed and needed environmental management solutions. It seems protection of this waterway is critical to so many people downstream..

DR TADESSE The health of the Nile is not just a one-time issue one can quickly address. We need research and detailed analysis before seeking the solutions to best protect and use its water sources. We need to bring forward integrated development so that all downstream users in this Nile River Basin benefit from this system. [Editor’s Note: Downstream Nile watershed users include communities in Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt.]

We need to identify and assess discussions on how these downstream countries can best benefit from this river. We first need to take time in finding the problems and only then go forward with the solutions. Most importantly, the solutions shouldn’t be left only to Ethiopia.

WOMEN CUTTING TREES for FUEL

DR TADESSE Solution assessments point out that women are key in managing our natural resources. Yet, at the present time, women are contributing to the problem because they need firewood for cooking. So, women should be aware of both the consequences and alternative solutions for fuel needs they face. The road [to such solutions] should be clearly identified and women should be part of any development in that issue. Because she’s contributing to the problem, she must be involved in the solution.

NWNL What resource can be provided as a substitute for trees to provide the fuel she needs for cooking and light and heat?

DR TADESSE Perhaps she could plant another tree when she cuts one?

We know that when women are given responsibility, they are very strong. I ask my wife, “What do you think if we do this, this, this? Will it be better?” Once the idea is ignited, she will try to address those things. Women must be given that opportunity.

Women are good at nursing things into working well, and at the same time creating awareness among the wider community. They clearly understand cutting trees creates problems, because they see that all that’s left are leaves on the ground.

Traditionally, women have used cow dung for fuel. Their baked cakes of cow dung are very, very useful, especially in areas where trees are now gone and vegetation is scarce. The Nile Basin is known for its livestock resource, so there’s plenty of dung to be used.

The problem is people in the Nile catchment see fuelwood as income; and thus, they chop down the trees to sell at the market. So, we must think of how to improve the livelihoods and incomes of people living in this catchment to reduce the increasing erosion. Many of our problems in the basin support other issues, but those communities lose their land’s soil as their trees are chopped down. So, improving their life by supporting other income-generating activities and alternative energy sources is very important in meeting our goals. This is especially so as more and more poor people populate our Ethiopian Nile catchment.

There are solutions we can promote. For instance, if I plant trees in my garden, I can use them and replace them when I use them. In that case, I am controlling the cutting and controlling the utilization of trees.

LAND POLICY CHANGES NEEDED

FRIEND of Dr TADESSE Ethiopia’s land belongs to the government. So, we can’t just go cut and plant in any catchment. Given those policies, we’re trying to encourage people to plant in their backyards, to at least recover – if not expand – from their own usage. So, the first solutions to fuelwood replacement should be considered in relation to the government’s land policy, since no one can plant trees for their own use on government land. We should have our own land. Addressing land policy issues could improve situations.

DR TADESSE Yes, government policy should entitle one to own a plot of land on which you can plant anything you like and use it for food or for firewood. The people will quickly learn the use should be such that it doesn’t damage the land.

NWNL If you have use rights on a plot of land, does the land go to your family when you die? Or does it go to whomever the government thinks should have it next? That’s what I heard from a 17-year-old boy near Lalibela.

FRIEND of Dr TADESSE You transfer it to the next one within that family.

DR TADESSE The problem is that as population increases, land use increases. Additionally, land owned by the government is not transferred to the community.

NWNL That boy I met in Lalibela said “My father is a farmer, but there are 12 of us. If he dies, none of us will get the land. Instead, the government will give it to somebody else who is older who has 12 children – not to one of my father’s children. I want to be a farmer, but I’m going to school to study to be a teacher because I know I am too young to be given land.”

DR TADESSE Here’s what happens now that land uses are given to individuals: if I have 4 kids and 5 hectares of land, I must give one hectare of land to each kid – and I can keep one. Then, when the kids grow up with their own land, they each must likewise give portions of their land to their kids. So, what happens? It’s a problem: the size of each land plot is divided with each generation and thus diminishes from year to year. The land becomes divided into ownership by too many people.

So, land parcels will reach a point where they can’t support that family. As land plots diminish in size, owners must plow that which was originally “bush.” Land degradation increases because of government policy. There are estate farms big enough. But there should be a good strategy to increase the ability on community or household lands to plant trees or other vegetations to sustain their life and contribute to the management of the land.

NWNL It’s similar in Kenya: large families divide land between their children, so each successive generation’s plots get smaller and smaller to the point where they become ineffective. Yet, if you lack a pride of ownership, you don’t invest in the land. You don’t feel like planting the trees or digging a well, because your land will be further split up. So, why invest for the future? It’s a problem. Both Kenya and Ethiopia need to come up with a solution. Everything – including livelihoods and environment – is interrelated and issues are complicated.

DR TADESSE One manages and protects one’s land resource to use it, as will your descendants who will be entitled to that resource. But, after 4 generations of splitting and using their lands, that 5th generation is left to desperately investigate how to restore the environment that has been overused.

POPULATION CONTROL

NWNL There’s a big elephant here in the middle of the room – a need for population control because we have limited resources. We have a finite amount of water. We have a finite number of trees and other resources on this planet. But, we have more and more and more people.

I have a question bigger than climate change, but it is tightly connected: What effort is Ethiopia making on population control, and how successful is that effort?

DR TADESSE We see some organizations promoting family planning and things like that; but generally, despite policy issues, the land can only sustain so much. As it stands now, if you go beyond one generation, the second generation will not be able to give any land to anybody.

Because of our population’s needs, we’ve been getting relief from many countries, as happened in Japan after WWII. But especially with the Millennium celebrations. the population of Ethiopia is now feeling energetic. I hope this spirit will inspire people to work more on solutions to protect our land and its resources.

NWNL That’s your wish, and I wish you all the success in the world. I certainly felt and absorbed this new Millennium energy as I traveled across Ethiopia this month. As I read the newspapers, it’s clear that changes are being discussed and are happening.

Posted by NWNL on May 5, 2024.
Transcription edited and condensed for clarity by Alison M. Jones.

More People and Fewer Resources Nile River Basin