Berhe Mezgebu
6 February 2008
opinion
Addis Ababa — The World Economic Forum takes place at Davos, Switzerland, every year. Well except when it is moved to other cities for a change. Movers and shakers of our globe, in the form of political leaders, educators, CEOs, scientists, moneymen talk about the state of the world economy and exchange ideas, propose solutions and remedies, including tamping abject poverty. Never mind that most of the participants know poverty mainly from the vintage point of the haves.
Switzerland is known for a topography much suited for skiing. It is also famous for its banks, especially for an important aspect of the banks' ethos: secrecy. Although it must be said its association with the Mobutus of the world sometimes gave it a bad name.
But this piece is keen not on such aspects of Swiss life, although they are in themselves interesting. What interested me rather, was the fact that an Environmental Performance Index of the Yale University gave the country the top most ranking of every other country for its excellence in environmental upkeep.
I count myself privileged to have briefly visited the country several years back. I didn't go everywhere, not by any means. But from what I saw, just a couple of cities and one of its mountainous parts, the country fully deserves the plaudits it received for the environment. The physical land of Switzerland, it was possible for me to see during the trip, received the most respect and care from its citizens and government.
Much of the country, as we know, is rugged. Come winter, skiing on those hills and mountains is popular with winter tourists. Come summer, anyone can see why Switzerland is renowned for its conservation success because of the carpet of green grass and other vegetation that blanket the land.
The green grasses are doubly worthy: one, they provide fodder for the livestock that constitute the backbone of the dairy industry of that country. Two, the other and no less important contribution they make is that they have helped protect the soil from erosion by water for generations.
Much of the ruggedness of the country resembles many parts of Ethiopia. The resemblance of the two ends there, of course. If we, in this country, had been more careful about our mountain ecology in the past, we could have had a more productive and less degraded mountain landscape like the Swiss have now.
The Swiss have by giving their rugged lands the utmost care; made their mountains the source of wealth, beauty and recreation. The degradation of mountains here has the unintended consequences on our farmlands downstream. Runoff emanating from the deforested mountains are instrumental for accelerated erosion and flush floods that cause havoc on lives and property.
The Environmental Performance Index rankings do not show wealth to be the sole determinant factor in the conservation of natural resources. That means rich countries are not necessarily the most environmentally minded ones. Switzerland is one of the world's most environmentally sound countries. It happens to be rich, yes, but it has trumped several countries that are definitely richer.
The study found that although wealthy countries tend to be greener, good governance counts too. Green policies, for instance, pushes relatively poor countries like Colombia ahead of France on the list of 149 countries. The United States scored poorly also. But that country has surely one of the most effective soil conservation institutions.
The argument therefore, that only wealthy states who have the financial means can carry out effective conservation programs or that governments, especially the poorer ones, have to postpone conservation programs until such time that they become well-off has been seen to be neither accurate nor very helpful.
In any case, it should be possible for even the poorest countries to initiate basic measures in conserving their finite natural wealth without too big budgetary expense and with the available manpower. If we take Ethiopia, the biggest scourge on our natural resources is soil erosion on our farmlands. What is the best and most cost effective way of preventing this kind of environmental meltdown? Quite easily, by planting trees in the critical watershed areas and by constructing terraces on the farmlands themselves.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Daily Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
