Environmental Policy of Ethiopia.

The Environmental Policy overall goal aims to improve and enhance the health and quality of life of all Ethiopians and to promote sustainable social and economic development through the sound management and use of natural, human-made and cultural resources and the environment to meet the needs of the present and future generations. The Specific Policy Objectives aim to: a) Ensure that essential ecological processes and life support systems are sustained, biological diversity is preserved and renewable natural resources are used; b) Ensure that the benefits from the exploitation of non-renewable resources are extended, minimizing the negative impacts of their exploitation on the use and management of other natural resources and the environment; c) Identify and develop natural resources that are currently underutilized by finding new technologies, and/or intensifying existing ones;
d) Incorporate the full economic, social and environmental costs and benefits of natural resource development into the planning, implementation and accounting processes by a comprehensive valuation of the environment and the services it provides, and by considering the social and environmental costs and benefits which cannot currently be measured in monetary terms; e) Improve the environment of human settlements to satisfy the physical, social, economic, cultural and other needs of their inhabitants on a sustainable basis; f) Prevent the pollution of land, air and water in the most cost-effective way so that the cost of effective preventive intervention would not exceed the benefits; g) Conserve, develop, sustainably manage and support Ethiopia's rich and diverse cultural heritage; h) Ensure the empowerment and participation of the people and their organizations at all levels in environmental management activities; and i) Raise public awareness and promote understanding of the essential linkages between environment and development.
Underlying these broad policy objectives are a number of key principles, such as: a. Healthy environment; b. Sustainable economic production systems; c. Development, use and management of renewable resources; d. Use of non-renewable resources minimized; e. Appropriate technologies using renewable and non-renewable resources; f. Environmental protection is necessary; g. Environmental/social costs resulting in pollution shall be incorporated into public and private sector planning; h. Market failures shall be corrected through the assessment of user taxes; i. Support community resource users to sustainably manage their own environment; j. Women shall be treated equally with men and empowered to be totally involved in any activity; k. Existence of a system ensuring conditions for sustainable natural resource management; l. Social equity shall be assured; m. Accurate assessment and monitoring of environmental conditions shall be undertaken; n. Increased awareness of environmental promoted by policy makers; o. Local, regional and international environmental interdependence shall be recognized; p. Natural resource and environmental management activities shall be integrated; s. The integrated implementation of cross-sectoral policies and strategies shall be seen as a prerequisite to achieving the objectives of this Policy.