TRENDS OF WRITING ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY IN ETHIOPIAN HISTORIOGRAPHY

Abstract

The main objective of this manuscript is deals with the history of writing environmental history in Ethiopia Studies.  It has shown that particularly after the 1960s, as a new discipline, scholastic works and publications are produced on environmental history in Ethiopia. Various authors repeatedly made their researches on the history of environmental thought, forest history, drought history, famine history, agricultural history and etc. Among others drought and famine history received a considerable attention of scholars and researchers; famine history, especially after the 1984/85 famine has attracted a growing number of practitioners on the field.  In the other side, the study of the natural environment in the past has not gain enough consideration.  Furthermore, most of those research works and publications on environmental issues like drought, famine, deforestation, land degradation, soil erosion, and are focused on northern and central Ethiopia through ignoring the rest parts of the country. In general, while it is not adequate, the last century shows the production of numerous researches on different thematic areas of environmental history in Ethiopia. Then, it suggests the need for more research works in the area to fill the above-mentioned gaps.