Ethiopia Calls for Law to Protect Natural Resource
12/23/98
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Title: Ethiopia Calls for Law to Protect Natural Resource
Source: CNN
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 12/23/98
ADDIS ABABA (Dec. 23) XINHUA - The Ethiopian Environmental
Protection Authority Wednesday called for a law to protect
natural resources from man-made and natural disasters.
Speaking at a national meeting on the draft environmental
protection law here, Tewolde-Brirhan Gebre-Egziabher,
general manager of the Authority, said that the national
environmental protection policy approved a year ago in
Ethiopia has not been translated into law due to capacity
limitation.
Natural resources should be protected by law, he stressed.
He said that environmental protection is the responsibility
of not only executive bodies but also of the general public
at large.
Ethiopia's forest resource has depleted from 40 percent
about a century ago to only two percent now.
Some 100,000 to 150,000 hectares of land is deforested
annually in the country, said sources from the three-day
meeting.