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Somaliland: Government Reacts to Alarming Threat of Deforestation and Desertification
By: Yusuf M Hasan
HARGEISA (Somalilandsun) – Large parts of the country could turn into desert within decades, as many turn to chopping trees as the last remaining resource, revealed by the minister of Environment and Rural Development Mr Mahmud Saeed Mohamed ‘Ga’ameye’ as he banned the cutting of wet trees for purpose of charcoal burning in the country.
“My Ministry has been forced to take this action due to Threats of Deforestation and Desertification occasioned by massive cutting down of wet trees in all parts of the country thus produce charcoal for commercial purposes”
While numerous bans on the cutting of wet and young trees have been imposed in the past without much effect the ministry of environment is determined to see that current trends are reversed drastically thus its pact with the police force for arrest ond subsequent prosecution of those found contravening the ban.
Charcoal burning has not always been preferred in Somaliland. A few years back an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever in the Horn of Africa forced Gulf states to suspend importation of animals or animal products from the region, forcing the herders to look for alternative sources of income.
But it is urbanisation and a population explosion that are the biggest threats to the country’s environmental well-being. Somaliland’s capital Hargeisa has a population of 850,000 people, six times its population in the 1970s, which consumes approximately 250 tonnes of charcoal daily.
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DESERTIFICATION 