The world is getting warmer, drier and infertile due to irresponsible human activities. Expansion of agriculture, industrialization, overgrazing, and overpopulation along with others have contributed to the desertification of the world.

Although desertification is a global trend, Sub-Saharan Africa is the most affected region. For the last three decades the region has shown a fast loss of rain forests and bushes mainly due to overgrazing and logging activities to supply the timber industry. But the more frightening story comes from northern Africa where the Sahara desert is advancing southward at a pace of 45 kilometers a year. This has a strong message for Eritrea and its neighbors whose farmers and pastoralists have already experienced successive droughts and untimely rains that eventually led to food insecurity.

Although environmental degradation, especially those related to global warming and desertification are borderless, countries like Eritrea which are situated adjacent to the Sahara desert are expected to endeavor more than anybody else in reversing the advance of the desert. Regional attempts to halt its advance through building a 15 km wide green wall, which stretches from Senegal to Djibouti is only a symbol of a growing concern, and leaves full responsibility of nation-wide reforestation to member states.

With the aforementioned initiative, one can dare say that lack of awareness is no more an impediment for African governments to take the right measure. The problem with sub-Saharan Africa is the absence of effective environmental laws with enforcement mechanisms and sufficient fund to conserve water, soil and forests. As such; farmers, pastoralists and suppliers of timber are free to clear forests and shrubs the way they want to do.

The government of Eritrea, however, has enacted a list of environmental laws that, among others, constitute bans of the cutting of live trees without the permission of responsible authorities and the use of ultra-thin plastic bags. The ban on cutting live trees has worked well in the first years of independence though lack of public awareness and the tendency to use firewood and charcoal might have hindered achieving the desired result. This decree was accompanied by planting new trees through the Students’ Summer Campaign and occasional public activities like Martyrs’ day. But this move seemed short-lived as Ethiopian invasion necessitated excessive use of timber to build trenches and cook food.

Although there may be official assessment reports on the success of Eritrea’s reforestation program, my observation and public opinion do not seem positive. The main reason behind this lays lack of follow-ups. Trees planted on summer are hardly visited during the dry season, and most of the time the plants would either be in need of water or protection from animals.

Terracing, planting and protecting rugged mountains across the country are by no means easy, at least at this time. But the situation calls for a mechanism that would effectively help fight desertification and rescue our country from the mess. The main problem that I assume to be is lack of sufficient funds, alternative sources of Energy and a government body entirely responsible to fight desertification.

Although global partnership could help address some of the above mentioned problems, Eritrea should continue to seize its self reliance policy. As such, the setting up of Environment Fund that devices its income mostly from domestic sources needs to be given attention.

Once an Environment Fund is established and tax is instituted as part of the different taxes and voluntary contributions are encouraged, a separate government body that closely works with the Ministries of Land, Water and Environment as well as Agriculture and other governmental and non-governmental bodies need to be established. The idea of establishing new government body may be considered duplication as there are departments in the aforementioned ministries in charge of the environment and reforestation. But these are budgetary bodies that lack enough fund and attention to entirely commit their resources and energy to such a specific purpose.

The setting up of such a fund should be seen as part and parcel of the national strategy to alleviate poverty. As the predominantly farming and pastoral society in Eritrea is entirely dependent on the land and rain, any effort to ensure food security without paying attention to the environment would be futile. Therefore, it is time to work towards preserving the environment and saving lives.