“Command and Control”: 75 Years of Quasi Wildlife Policy Analysis of Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopia’s wildlife history is at loggerheads with the theory of “environmental colonialism.” Ethiopia sets a center stage for the debate of what could have been the fate of African wildlife if Africa had not been colonized. In the 1960s, Ethiopia had a huge wildlife diversity. As of present, its wildlife is severely deteriorated, while that of the colonized countries are in much better condition. The disparity of conservation between the colonized countries and independent Ethiopia prompted this study. In the past 77 years, several wild species in Ethiopia have gone extinct, while some moved to threatened categories and their habitat vanished or deteriorated. Overall, Ethiopia currently hosts six critically endangered, 23 endangered, and 70 vulnerable species of wild animals. The numbers do not include plants, fungi, microorganisms, or invertebrates. This shows a clear pathology of the command and control policy of the wildlife conservation system of Ethiopia. The objectives of this article were to analyze previous legal documents published since 1944, up to the recent wildlife proclamation; to bring out strengths and weaknesses of these policies; and to propose possible alternative adaptive management strategies based on other similar studies. Policy instruments since 1944 were collected. This include the Imperial regime (1941–1974), the Military Government of Socialist Ethiopia (Derg) Regime (1974–1991), and the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (1991–2018). Documents were collected from two sources: the Internet and government printing press. Policy analysis involved a documentary analysis method on how Ethiopian governments’ policies addressed wildlife conservation of Ethiopia since 1944. To achieve the overall research objective, questions were formulated and guided the research direction. The analysis showed that there are good aspects of colonial wildlife conservation policies to learn from. Independence was not a guarantee for wildlife conservation. Existing national parks of East Africa including Ethiopia are the result of UNESCO missions to Africa.