National Policy on Natural Resources and the Environment 1994 (Volume II).

This National Policy on Natural Resources and the Environment is an overall comprehensive cross-sectoral and sectoral policy framework developed by the Transitional Government to guide natural resources and environment sustainable development, use and management. The overall policy goal is 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 as a whole so as to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. To achieve this overall goal the document lays out the following specific objectives as follows (i) ensure that essential ecological processes and life support systems are sustained, biological diversity is preserved and renewable natural resources are used in such a way that their regenerative and productive capabilities are either restored or maintained and where possible enhanced; (ii) ensure that non-renewable resources are exploited and managed in a sustainable manner, minimizing the negative impacts of their exploitation; (iii) identify and develop natural resources that are currently under-utilized; (iv) incorporate the full economic, social and environmental costs and benefits of natural resource development into the planning, implementation and accounting processes; (v) improve the environment of human settlements to satisfy the physical, social, economic, and cultural needs of their inhabitants on a sustainable basis; (vi) prevent the pollution of land, air and water in the most cost effective way, and disallow that interventions whose costs exceed the benefits; (vii) conserve, develop, manage, and support Ethiopia's diverse cultural heritage; (viii) ensure the empowerment and participation of the people and their organizations at all levels in environmental management activities; and (ix) raise public awareness about the essential linkages between environment and development.
To make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable, the document focuses on (i) promoting improved soil conservation practices that enhance and maintain land productivity for the sustainable development of agriculture and, in general, biomass and biodiversity; (ii) increasing crop and animal production whilst maintaining the diversity, the security, the in-built safety mechanisms and thus the sustainability of crop and animal production systems; (iii) managing the range lands resources within their capacity to sustainably maximize the production and wise use of livestock, crops, woodlands, water and wildlife resources; (iv) conserving forest ecosystems and genetic resources and increasing the production on a sustainable basis of forest resources, fodder and minor forest products as well as to increase soil fertility and decrease land degradation through the planting of appropriate trees thus improving agricultural production; and (v) developing water resource for the increase of sustainable agricultural production, for the generation of hydro electricity and for the health and well being of the population.
Rural poverty can be countered with (i) adoption, adaptation or development of simple and easy to use technologies which are appropriate for the local conditions in rural situations, and acceptable to, as well as affordable, by local communities; (ii) giving priority to rural communities in mineral bearing areas, and encouraging and supporting them in artisanal and small-scale mining for gold, salt and other minerals amenable to artisanal operations and small-scale groundwater exploitation; (iii) decentralizing decision making for the issuance of licences for the collecting of surface minerals, including panning for gold, drilling for groundwater and for quarrying to local councils; and (iv) integrating into regional, urban, and rural local land use planning the relationship between an urban area and the surrounding rural areas.
To enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural systems, the Policy seeks for (i) empowering rural communities and urban municipalities to ensure local ownership of water supplies through the formation of local representative water committees in rural areas and municipal technical units in urban areas and pass to them responsibility for day to day management and maintenance; (ii) empowering water resource users, particularly women and animal herders, to enable their full participation in population and environmental decision making, resource ownership and management; (iii) promoting off farm income generating programs which aim at the alleviation of poverty, especially among women and the landless; (iv) designing programs that involve and benefit the most disadvantaged groups, particularly women, children, the disabled and the landless; (v) ensuring women's access to technology; (vi) involving the primary users such as women, charcoal makers and large institutional consumers (eg. schools, bakeries), and cottage and large scale industries (eg. brick makers, potters, tea and tobacco curers, fish smokers) in local level energy planning and decision making; and (vii) providing support to women in mineral development with special practical training and technical assistance particularly in small-scale and artisanal mining.
The resilience of livelihoods to disasters could be increased through (i) providing a system of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental Audit so that adverse environmental impacts can be foreseen, monitored, eliminated or at least mitigated and environmental benefits are enhanced; (ii) developing plant breeding programs including not --only high yielding varieties for favorable environments but, equally, varieties which will perform satisfactorily under adverse conditions and low input technologies; and (iii) protecting the ozone layer to mitigate the adverse health effects from exposure to ultra-violet rays.