Geography of Ethiopia - Natural Resources and Land Use

Natural Resources and Land Use

Ethiopia has small reserves of gold, platinum, copper, potash, and natural gas. It has extensive hydropower potential.

Of the total land area, about 20 percent is under cultivation, although the amount of potentially arable land is larger. Only about 10 to 15 percent of the land area is presently covered by forest as a result of rapid deforestation during the last 30 years. Of the remainder, a large portion is used as pasturage. Some land is too rugged, dry, or infertile for agriculture or any other use.

Read more about this topic:  Geography Of Ethiopia

Famous quotes containing the words natural, resources and/or land:

    [Men say:] “Don’t you know that we are your natural protectors?” But what is a woman afraid of on a lonely road after dark? The bears and wolves are all gone; there is nothing to be afraid of now but our natural protectors.
    Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)

    When we want culture more than potatoes, and illumination more than sugar-plums, then the great resources of a world are taxed and drawn out, and the result, or staple production, is, not slaves, nor operatives, but men,—those rare fruits called heroes, saints, poets, philosophers, and redeemers.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    In Europe the object is to make the most of their land, labour being abundant: here it is to make the most of our labour, land being abundant.
    Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)