Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Climate change in Ethiopia is affecting the people in Ethiopia due to increased floods, heat waves and infectious diseases. [4] In the Awash basin in central Ethiopia floods and droughts are common. Agriculture in the basin is mainly rainfed (without irrigation systems). This applies to around 98% of total cropland as of 2012.
Elsewhere, the land is subject to erosion, overgrazing, deforestation, and frequent droughts. Water shortages are common in some areas during the dry season. The causes of degradation are primarily the demand for more land for agriculture, fuel and construction as well as for grazing grounds.
Climate change is of great concern in Ethiopia, especially since the 1970s. Between the mid-1970s and late 2000s, Ethiopia's rainfall in some areas and seasons decreased by 15-20 percent. Furthermore, numerous studies predict climate change will increasingly affect the country's ecosystem, causing drought and famines.
Deforestation in Ethiopia is caused by past governmental and institutional changes, insecurity of land tenure, resettlement programs, population pressure, agricultural and infrastructure developments. Farmers suffer from poverty as well as food insecurity and cannot bear the costs of forest conservation.
Coffee harvest in Ethiopia. Coffee, which originated in Ethiopia, is the largest foreign exchange earner. Agriculture accounted for 50% of GDP, 83.9% of exports, and 80% of the labor force in 2006 and 2007, compared to 44.9%, 76.9% and 80% in 2002–2003, and agriculture remains the Ethiopian economy's most important sector. [7]
In the late nineteenth century, about 30% of Ethiopia was covered with forest. The clearing of land for agricultural use and the cutting of trees for fuel gradually changed the scene, and today forest areas have dwindled to less than 4% of Ethiopia's total land. The northern parts of the highlands are almost devoid of trees.
The Ethiopian montane forests is a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion in Ethiopia. It covers the southwestern and southeastern portions of the Ethiopian Highlands. The ecoregion includes distinctive Afromontane evergreen forests. The ecoregion's biodiversity is threatened by deforestation, conversion to agriculture, and overgrazing. [2]
This concept of land-atmosphere feedback is common among permaculturists, such as Masanobu Fukuoka, who, in his book, The One Straw Revolution, said "rain comes from the ground, not the sky." [16] [17] Deforestation, and conversion of grasslands to desert, may also lead to cooling of the regional climate.