Major Causes Of Deforestation In Ethiopia

Among other factors that contribute significantly to deforestation are property rights. Private ownership protected forests to some extent during the imperial reign. The ownership right was passed to the Peasant Association during the Derg regime for management as a community resource. These forests were not only poorly managed but they were sometimes exposed to accidental fire and even reportedly set on fire deliberately which then allowed free grazing rights and free cutting of fuel wood after burning. Such practices have a negative effect on proper management of natural forest resources and ultimately the land is easily degraded (Asefa 1994).

These factors adversely affected natural resources; particularly native forests Deforestation continues to cause environmental degradation in the form of land and water resources degradation as well as loss of native tree species.

2.4 Major Cause of Deforestation

Deforestation is caused by what human beings do to the forests and can be accentuated by drought. Generally deforestation occurs when people clear forest for their personal need such as, for fuel, hunting, when they need the land to grow and harvest crops, for building houses, and at times because of religion beliefs (Sucoff, 2003).

Organizations such as Farm Africa are working with the federal and local governments to create a system of forest management. Ethiopia, the third largest country in Africa by population, has been hit by famine many times because of shortages of rain and a depletion of natural resources. Deforestation has lowered the chance of getting rain, which is already low, and thus causes