ADDIS ABABA (ENA)–Ethiopia has launched a 10-year National Forest Sector Development Program (NFSDP) targeted to serve as the main guiding document for coordinating strategic policy interventions so as to increase the national forest coverage and its contribution to national green growth
The Program launched today by the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MEFCC) in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Ethiopia.
Launching the program, Minister of MEFCC Gemedo Dalle, PhD, said the climate resilient green economy (CRGE) recognizes that deforestation and forest degradation must be reversed if the country is to meet its development goals.
Therefore, Ethiopia has set triple goal of attaining middle income status while pursuing net-zero emission economic growth and building resilience by 2025, he said.
“Ethiopia’s 10-year National Forest Sector Development Program, together with other initiatives we are launching today, will serve as roadmap for coordinating strategic policy interventions and sector wide investments,” Dr. Gemedo noted.
He stated that the program contains transformational action programs for catalyzing GDP, generating employment, and contributing towards self-sufficiency in forest products.
UNDP Ethiopia Country Director Louise Chamberlain said on her part that the goal of the plan can only be achieved with strong involvement of the people of Ethiopia and government leaders at all levels and across the country through strong partnerships.
Louise Chamberlain stated in her tweet that the launching of National Forest Sector Development Program will create 600,000 new jobs through business development investment conservation approaches and sustainable participatory forest management.
The National Forest Sector Development Program will ensure an increase in Ethiopia’s forest coverage to 20 percent in 2020 and 30 percent in 2025 and make forest a core sector in economic structural reforms.
It will also be a major source of income for people living in rural areas, diversifying income for small-holder farming households, she stated.
A UNDP Ethiopia study shows forest makes up more than USD 16 billion, or 12 percent of Ethiopia’s GDP. Ethiopia’s forest coverage has reached to 15.5 percent currently.
Source: ENA