Girma Hailu was born in the town of Dire Dawa in Ethiopia in 1958. He graduated in Law from the Addis Ababa University in 1984. He is a Natural Resources/Environment Specialist with LL. M. Degree from the University of Dundee, UK. He has been working for the Ethiopian Government in different capacities including Legal Director; Department Head at the Ministry of Mines and Energy and Environment Policy and Legal Department Head at the Environment Protection Authority. He has conducted several studies regarding natural resources and environment for multilateral organizations such as UNEP, World Bank, Inter Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD).

He is a member of the IUCN LAW COMMISSION and a part time lecturer on Natural Resources Development and Environment Law at the Civil Service College. He is Regional Environment Specialist for East Africa based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The Conservation Strategy of Ethiopia has also evidenced the shift from the traditional fragmented approach to development to a comprehensive and integrated sustainable development.

This study on Environment laws of Ethiopia, which is a sponsored by the International Encyclopaedia of Laws, is basically an attempt to give the highlights of the legal instruments and policy directions that shape the Ethiopian environment dialogue. It is a dialogue in the sense that it is still an evolving issue in Ethiopia.

General Introduction

1.  Over the centuries, the concern for the environment in Ethiopia has undergone many stages and continuously evolved. The use-oriented period represents the main features of legislations, which were led by human needs and capacity to exploit natural resources. The resource oriented period on the other hand was more focused on the management of the natural resources and recognized the fact that such natural resources could be depleted. The eco-system-oriented legislations, however, are characterized by a holistic and integrated approach, which is focusing on the complementarily of society's development needs and that of ecological balance. In other words, the concept of sustainable development is reflected in most of the current legislations regarding the environment.

2.  With respect to the issue of environmental management and protection in Ethiopia, various government institutions and departments responsible for different aspects of the natural and human environment carried out the duties, until recently.  This had led to fragmentation of environmental protection activities and consequently to serious deterioration and damage to the environment because the said government institutions were responsible for both sectoral development and environmental protection of the resources of the country, which is inherently conflicting. In addition, there was no coordination mechanism to see to it that a development activity in one sector does not have a multi sectoral environmental harm or impact.

3.  In order to harmonize the conflict, enhance compatibility and incorporate environmental protection objectives in multi sectoral development endeavors of the country, a Conservation Strategy of Ethiopia (CSE), Environment Protection Authority and Environment Policy have been put in place.  There are also several ongoing initiatives to formulate relevant environment legislations that have passed the participatory consultative stage and are under review by the Council of Ministers' and the Federal Democratic Republic's Parliament.

4.  These draft environmental legislations, which are the first of their kind, will translate the Constitutional Articles into implementable provisions to attain sustainable development in Ethiopia.