Abstract
Monitoring and Assessment (M&A) of environmental resources aims to support the formulation of policies and follow up on outcomes of their implementation. In this study, the state of M&A is explored for Ethiopia with a focus on forests and water resources. The study is intended to serve as recommendations for future M&A applications in Ethiopia, as well as fulfillment of SDGs and other national and international commitments. Expert meetings, key informant interviews, and selected document analysis served as sources of information. The findings were summarized using qualitative grading and institutional mapping. Basic results of the study are that monitoring data on climate and streamflow are standardized in forms that can be communicated to policymakers. Scantier and less standardized are environmental data on soils, sediment transport, forests, biodiversity, and air quality. Water quality, soil moisture, groundwater level, forest biomass, and soil carbon are rarely monitored and can only be found in reports or studies for the fulfillment of academic degree requirements. Resources like nutrient fluxes have rarely been documented, not at all in some cases. There is considerable scope for tapping both technological advances and experiences of citizen science and local participation in environmental governance to rapidly expand and improve monitoring from local to regional and national scales. The study showed that there is a need for establishing a coordinated national system for monitoring and assessing the status of the environment, including the use of natural resources. Communicating such data to the scientific and wider public will support evidence-based planning and policy-making towards national development.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed for the submitting manuscript on “Monitoring and assessment of environmental resources in the changing landscape of Ethiopia: a focus on forests and water” are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
References
Alarcon Ferrari, C., Jönsson, M., Gebreyohannis Gebrehiwot, S., Chiwona-Karltun, L., Mark-Herbert, C., Manuschevich, D., Powell, N., Do, T., Bishop, K., & Hilding-Rydevik, T. (2021). Citizen science as democratic innovation that renews environmental monitoring and assessment for the sustainable development goals in rural areas. Sustainability, 13(5), 2762. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052762
Aligica, P. D. (2006). Institutional and stakeholder mapping: Frameworks for policy analysis and institutional change. Public Organization Review, 6(1), 79–90. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-006-6833-0
Babulo, B., Muys, B., Nega, F., Tollens, E., Nyssen, J., Deckers, J., & Mathijs, E. (2009). The economic contribution of forest resource use to rural livelihoods in Tigray. Northern Ethiopia. Forest Policy and Economics, 11(2), 109–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2008.10.007
Chamberlin, J., & Schmidt, E. (2013). 2 Ethiopian agriculture: A dynamic geographic perspective. In P. Dorosh & S. Rashid (Eds.), Food and agriculture in Ethiopia. University of Pennsylvania Press. https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812208610.21
Conway, D. (2000). The climate and hydrology of the Upper Blue Nile River. The Geographical Journal, 166(1), 49–62.
Conway, D., Mould, C., & Bewket, W. (2004). Over one century of rainfall and temperature observations in Addis Ababa. Ethiopia. International Journal of Climatology, 24(1), 77–91. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.989
CSA. (2013). Population projections for Ethiopia 2007—2037. Central Statistical Agency, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Darbyshire, I., Lamb, H., & Umer, M. (2003). Forest clearance and regrowth in northern Ethiopia during the last 3000 years. The Holocene, 13(4), 537–546. https://doi.org/10.1191/0959683603hl644rp
Di Baldassarre, G. D., Elshamy, M., van Griensven, A., Kigobe, M., Ndomba, P., Mutemi, J., Mutua, F., Moges, S., Xuan, Y., Solomatine, D., & Uhlenbrook, S. (2011). Future hydrology and climate in the River Nile basin: A review. 14.
EFAP. (1994). Ethiopian Forestry Action Programme, Volume II. Ethiopian Forestry Action Programme, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
FAO. (2014). Country Fact Sheet on Food and Agriculture Policy Trends. Food and Agriculture, Ethiopia.
FAO. (2019). National gender profile of agriculture and rural livelihoods—Ethiopia. 88.
FDRE. (2011). Ethiopia’s climate resilience green economy. The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
FDRE. (2014). Ethiopia’s fifth national report to the convention on biological diversity. Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
FDRE. (2015). National biodiversity strategy and action plan. Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
FDRE. (2016). The second Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II). The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
FDRE. (2018). National Forest Sector Development Program. Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Climate Change, Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
FDRE. (2019). Ethiopia’s climate resilience green economy national adaptation plan. The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
Fikir, D., Tadesse, W., & Gure, A. (2016). Economic contribution to local livelihoods and households dependency on dry land forest products in Hammer District, Southeastern Ethiopia [Research Article]. International Journal of Forestry Research; Hindawi. https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/5474680
Fritz, S., See, L., Carlson, T., Haklay, M., Oliver, J. L., Fraisl, D., Mondardini, R., Brocklehurst, M., Shanley, L. A., Schade, S., Wehn, U., Abrate, T., Anstee, J., Arnold, S., Billot, M., Campbell, J., Espey, J., Gold, M., Hager, G., & West, S. (2019). Citizen science and the United Nations sustainable development goals. Nature Sustainability, 2(10), 922–930. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0390-3
Gashaw, T., Tulu, T., & Argaw, M. (2017). Erosion risk assessment for prioritization of conservation measures in Geleda watershed, Blue Nile basin. Ethiopia. Environmental Systems Research, 6(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40068-016-0078-x
Gebrehiwot, S. G., Di Baldassarre, G., Bishop, K., Halldin, S., & Breuer, L. (2019). Is observation uncertainty masking the signal of land use change impacts on hydrology? Journal of Hydrology, 570, 393–400. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.12.058
Gebrehiwot, S. G., Gärdenäs, A. I., Bewket, W., Seibert, J., Ilstedt, U., & Bishop, K. (2014). The long-term hydrology of East Africa’s water tower: Statistical change detection in the watersheds of the Abbay Basin. Regional Environmental Change, 14(1), 321–331. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-013-0491-x
Hansen, M. C., Potapov, P. V., Moore, R., Hancher, M., Turubanova, S. A., Tyukavina, A., Thau, D., Stehman, S. V., Goetz, S. J., Loveland, T. R., Kommareddy, A., Egorov, A., Chini, L., Justice, C. O., & Townshend, J. R. G. (2013). High-resolution global maps of 21st-century forest cover change. Science, 342(6160), 850–853. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1244693
MoWE. (2013). Ethiopian national energy policy. The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
MoWR. (2001). Ethiopian water sector policy. The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Nyssen, J., Poesen, J., Lanckriet, S., Jacob, M., Moeyersons, J., Haile, M., Haregeweyn, N., Munro, R. N., Descheemaeker, K., Adgo, E., Frankl, A., & Deckers, J. (2015). Land Degradation in the Ethiopian highlands. In P. Billi (Ed.), Landscapes and landforms of Ethiopia (pp. 369–385). Springer Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8026-1_21
Pocock, M. J. O., Roy, H. E., August, T., Kuria, A., Barasa, F., Bett, J., Githiru, M., Kairo, J., Kimani, J., Kinuthia, W., Kissui, B., Madindou, I., Mbogo, K., Mirembe, J., Mugo, P., Muniale, F. M., Njoroge, P., Njuguna, E. G., Olendo, M. I., & Trevelyan, R. (2019). Developing the global potential of citizen science: Assessing opportunities that benefit people, society and the environment in East Africa. Journal of Applied Ecology, 56(2), 274–281. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13279
Reij, C., & Winterbottom. (2017, February 15). Can we restore 350 million hectares by 2030? World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/blog/2017/02/can-we-restore-350-million-hectares-2030
Reusing, M. (1998). Monitoring of natural high forests in Ethiopia. Ministry of Agriculture, Addis Ababa Ethiopia.
UNEP. (2016). The contribution of forests to national income in Ethiopia and linkages with REDD+. UnNations Environment Programme, Nairobi, Kenya.
US Department of the Interior. (1964). Land and water resources of the Blue Nile Basin, Ethiopia: Vol. Appendixes, III. US Bureau of Reclamation.
WMO. (1994). Guide: The hydrological practice: Vol. WMO-No. 168. World Meteorological Organization.
WMO. (2008). Guide to meteorological instruments and methods of observation: Vol. WMO-No. 8. World Meteorological Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
Yineger, H., Kelbessa, E., Bekele, T., & Lulekal, E. (2008). Floristic composition and structure of the dry Afromontane forest at Bale Mountains National Park. Ethiopia. SINET: Ethiopian Journal of Science, 31(2), 103–120. https://doi.org/10.4314/sinet.v31i2.66551
Young, N. E., Evangelista, P. H., Mengitsu, T., & Leisz, S. (2020). Twenty-three years of forest cover change in protected areas under different governance strategies: A case study from Ethiopia’s southern highlands. Land Use Policy, 91, 104426. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104426
Zeleke, T., Giorgi, F., Mengistu Tsidu, G., & Diro, G. T. (2013). Spatial and temporal variability of summer rainfall over Ethiopia from observations and a regional climate model experiment. Theoretical and Applied Climatology, 111(3), 665–681. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-012-0700-4
Acknowledgements
In this tribute, we share our heartily experiences working with Dr. Tefera Mengistu who has heightened vision to materialize the environmental monitoring system of Ethiopia. He has close working experiences with Ethiopian government officials and international organizations for the benefit of Ethiopia’s environment and forest management. He worked with us not only as a co-author but also initiated a national environmental monitoring research project before resting in peace during the publication process of this article.
Funding
This study received financial support from the Swedish funding agency FORMAS, grant number 2018–02341. The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Sweden, and the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences (EAS) have been highly supportive. The EAS is the host institute for the project as well as the two workshops in Ethiopia. We are indebted to the workshop and interview participants for their interactive and open discussions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gebrehiwot, S.G., Bewket, W., Mengistu, T. et al. Monitoring and assessment of environmental resources in the changing landscape of Ethiopia: a focus on forests and water. Environ Monit Assess 193, 624 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-021-09421-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-021-09421-3