Land Degradation In Ethiopia

2.2. Ethiopian Highlands: A General Overview

In Ethiopia highland covers an area over 1500metre above sea level, that make up about 45% of the total land area; this areas support over 84% of human population and two thirds of animal population. They are also the sources of many of the country’s major resources (Alemneh, 2003). Several studies have revealed that there is a widespread belief that the Ethiopian highlands used to have an adequate fauna and flora, dependable soils, and climatic conditions. In the course of time, however, the highlands have become the most degraded area in Africa if not in the world (Terefe, 2003).

Due to the high degree of degradation, important renewable natural resources such as soil, water, forest and biodiversity

Causes of Land Degradation in Ethiopia

The main causes of land degradation are very complex and attributed to both biophysical and socio-economic factors. Many empirical studies have indicated that land degradation such as deforestation, overgrazing, cultivation of marginal lands and soil fertility depletion can be attributed to population pressure (Yohannes, 1999).

Natural factors that have aggravated the problem of land degradation in the highland of Ethiopia include the nature and characteristics of the terrain, rainfall and type of soil. Within the highlands of the country the terrain is characterized by high relief, high slope angles exceeding 30% in more than 70% of the highlands and long slope length. These have made many parts of the highlands prone to soil erosion once the natural vegetation cover is removed (Muluneh, 2003).

The causes of land degradation can be divided into natural hazards, direct causes and underlying causes. Natural hazards are the conditions of physical environment, which lead to the existence of a high degradation hazards, for example steep slopes as a hazard for water erosion. Direct causes are unsuitable land use and inappropriate land management practices. Underlying causes are the reasons why these inappropriate types of land use management are practiced, for example, the slopes may be cultivated because the landless poor need food and conservation measures not adopted because these farmers lack security of tenure (FAO,

For example, steep slopes may be cultivated by landless poor people to produce their food. The main cause of land degradation in Ethiopia is soil erosion. The erosion in Ethiopian highlands, amounting to nearly one billion tons of soil lost each year is due to natural causes exacerbated by human activities, particularly overgrazing, over cultivation and deforestation. In addition, (Yohannes, 1999) reported that many environmentalists, policy makers and researchers agree that land degradation mainly caused by soil erosion has been one of the chronic problems in