Environment in Somalia Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Located in extreme northeast Africa, Somalia occupies the tip of what is known as the Horn of Africa. The country is divided into five general biophysical zones. The eastern highlands are dominated by the Karkaar mountains, where the comparatively high but scattered precipitation supports forest vegetation. Here incense and myrrh collection represent the primary vegetative resource. The central high plateau, or the Haud, straddles the Ethiopian-Somali border and extends more than 37 miles (60 kilometers) into Ethiopia, and south and eastward into central and southwest Somalia. This region is characterized by relatively dense bush vegetation and grasses making up some of the best grazing areas in the country. The central Mudug Plain is made up of smaller terrace-like plains rising gently between the Haud and the coastal plains.

The interriverine area lies between the only two perennial rivers in the country, the Shabelle and the Jubba, and is the country’s major agricultural area due to favorable rainfall and soil conditions. Because of the perennial water supply, farmers inhabit many locations in this area permanently, and most Europeans settled here during the colonial era. This is also the region where the greatest interaction between pastoralists and agriculturalists occurs, and a large agropastoral sector exists in the south-central part of the country.

The coastal plains are characterized by coastal sand dunes, especially in the south, and fairly reliable year-round water resources. Although well water is saline in most locations along the coast and causes health problems for both humans and livestock, it is widely used, especially during the dry season. Throughout the country the rainfall pattern includes scarcity, poor distribution, and variability in the onset of the wet season and high variability in the amount of precipitation from year to year. Droughts occur about every four to five years.

Somalia possesses the greatest proportion of pastoralists in Africa. Prior to the war and famine of the early 1990s, approximately 65 percent of the national population participated in nomadic pastoralism, while 80 percent of the population engaged in livestock raising of some kind. The pastoral systems of Somalia are made up of cattle, camels, sheep, and goats. The focus of nomadic life and the mainstay of Somali pastoralism is the camel, which in the past served as the principal medium of exchange in many parts of the country. In times of famine camels have outlived less hardy livestock, providing the needed milk, meat, and transport that stand between the nomad and starvation.

Somalia has had no functioning central government since the early 1990s when the regime of President Siad Barre ended with considerable violence. Numerous attempts by various Somali factions and the international community have had little success in reconstituting an effective form of governance, and violence is ongoing. Meanwhile two areas in the north of the country have declared themselves autonomous-Somaliland and Puntland-and are assembling regional forms of governance; while the rest of the country continues in the hands of local militias. The turmoil in Somalia has had a debilitating impact on pastoralists and livestock herding activities. The decimation of herds and the impoverishment of nomads beyond the capacity of indigenous recovery mechanisms will compromise food production in the country for some time, while creating very large refugee populations.

Bibliography:

N. Al-Najim and J. Briggs, “Livestock Development in Somalia-A Critical Review,” Geo]ournal (v.26, 1992);
V. Cassanelli, The Shaping of Somali Society (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982);
Clark, “Debacle in Somalia,” Foreign Affairs (v.72, 1993);
A. Handulle and C.W. Gay, “Development and Traditional Development in Somalia,” Nomadic Peoples (v.24, 1987);
M. Lewis, A Pastoral Democracy: A Study of Pastoralism and Politics among the Northern Somali of the Horn of Africa (Oxford University Press, 1961).