The main causes of deforestation in Ethiopia are shifting agriculture, livestock production and fuel in drier areas.

Ethiopia has the second largest population in Africa and has been hit by famine many times due to rain shortages and a depletion of natural resources.

Bercele Bayisa, a 30 year old Ethiopian farmer said "his district was very forested and full of wildlife but, overpopulation caused people to come to this fertile land and clear it to plant crops, cutting all trees to sell as fire wood".

Because there are not enough trees, the Blue Nile is carrying all the soil and nutrients in the water to the neighboring countries of Sudan and Egypt.

Apart from Northern Africa, East African countries show the second highest decline rates of conservation forests in the continent.

In a forest resource assessment of Ethiopia, Reusing found that within 17 years (1973–1990) high-forest cover decreased from 54,410 to 45,055 km² or from 4.72 to 3.96% of the land area.

Gessesse studied an upland rain forest area of 3,060 km² in the Awasa watershed of the south-central Great Rift Valley, 280 km south of Addis Ababa.

[8] Dereje explains deforestation in the coffee forest area he studied by linking it to historical events in certain time periods.

Gessesse Dessie and Carl Christiansson identify an entire combination of biophysical and socio-political conditions for forest decline in the Awassa watershed area.

[10] Geographic properties, socio-political change, population growth, insecurity of land tenure, agricultural development and the improvement of transport capacities are among the most important.

The afromontane rainforests of Southwestern Ethiopia are the world's birthplace of Coffea arabica and harbor their last wild populations.

The variability in their tolerance towards diseases[13] and drought[14] reflects the high genetic diversity of the wild coffee populations.

[16] Economically valuable forests in Ethiopia, which contain the world's only wild Coffea arabica populations are diminishing and, at current deforestation rates, will be completely lost in 27 years.

Deforestation in Ethiopia is caused by past governmental and institutional changes, insecurity of land tenure, resettlement programs, population pressure, agricultural and infrastructure developments.

When the Derg military regime seized power in 1975, socialism was declared the guiding ideology for Ethiopia and all rural and forest land was nationalized.

Central and Eastern European experience has taught us that state ownership of land is a disincentive to manage it productively and sustainably.

However, also the current government adopted a constitution in 1995 in which forests (land and other natural resources) are declared exclusively state property.

With the intention to improve tenure security, the first land certification scheme was initiated 1998 in Tigray and only 80% completed (because of the war with Eritrea).

[citation needed] Deforestation can exacerbate the problems caused by drought because rain is less likely to soak into the soil and replenish ground water.

The government of Ethiopia has asked several international agencies, like the Japanese ICA, the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and FARM-Africa to get involved in Participatory Forest Management.

What is needed, however, are direct, competent, trustworthy relations between local resource users and the federal authorities: a functioning and effective forestry extension service.

Another problem is that the environmental issues in Ethiopia have no (or a very weak) lobby and the current restrictive socio-political context for public engagement has detrimental effects on environmental education, awareness, advocacy and the building of an engaged and empowered civil society – assets which are necessary to conserve and use Ethiopia's forests in a sustainable way.

The recent "School Children Talent Competition Award on Biodiversity Conservation", organized by the Ethiopian Coffee Forest Forum is an excellent example of what is needed.

[citation needed] The government is trying to provide the Ethiopian people with fuel and electrical machinery so the demand for forest resources is not as high.

With the fund provided by E.C grant (around 2.3 million Euros) people were trained to protect the land from erosion and taught to use water for irrigation, which improved quality of life and the environment.