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Environmental policy in Ethiopia: a rejoinder to Keeley and Scoones

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2004

Jan Nyssen ,
Mitiku Haile ,
Jan Moeyersons ,
Jean Poesen  and
Jozef Deckers
Jan Nyssen
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Experimental Geomorphology, K. U. Leuven, Belgium Department of Land Resources Management and Environmental Protection, Mekelle University, Ethiopia.
Mitiku Haile
Affiliation:
Mekelle University.
Jan Moeyersons
Affiliation:
Agriculture and Forestry Economics section of the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium.
Jean Poesen
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Experimental Geomorphology, K. U. Leuven.
Jozef Deckers
Affiliation:
Institute for Land and Water Management, K. U. Leuven.
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Abstract

Ongoing land degradation in Ethiopia requires urgent action, and has been addressed at different levels of society, including widespread soil and water conservation activities, and the introduction of technologies which integrate local knowledge and farmer's initiatives. This comment, drawing on extensive research on soil erosion processes in Ethiopia since 1994, in intense cooperation with farmers and local authorities, challenges the conclusions of a paper published in this journal on environmental rehabilitation and rapid agricultural intensification for food self-sufficiency in Ethiopia (Keeley & Scoones 2000). In our view, this paper firstly underestimates the importance of environmental degradation and apparently rejects current conservation techniques and policy, and secondly makes an artificial contradiction between environmental rehabilitation policy and a participatory approach. In our experience, and in line with studies reviewed elsewhere, natural resources conservation in Ethiopia is directed towards an integration of food self-sufficiency with conservation/restoration of the environment, and frequently follows a participatory approach.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 1 , March 2004 , pp. 137 - 147
Copyright
© 2004 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This paper is based on fieldwork and on literature study carried out for research programme G006598N (Fund for Scientific Research – Flanders, Belgium), as well as for the ‘Zala-Daget Project’ (Flemish Interuniversity council, VLIR, Belgium). Berhanu Gebremedhin Abay assisted with all the fieldwork. Numerous farmers, the local REST (Relief Society of Tigray) and Bureau of Agriculture branches as well as the authorities of several villages and of the Dogu'a Tembien district facilitated the research. Comments by an anonymous reviewer and language editing by Richard Kraaijvanger are gratefully acknowledged.