4466 Environmental Crimes in Ethiopia.indd

Rose Mwebaza, Philip Njuguna Mwanika and Wondowossen Sintayehu Wonndemagegnehu
Ethiopia as it actually affects the market value of the crop.
However, there is no mechanism to track the use of DDT
in the country and it is therefore impossible to enforce the
law banning its use.
INADEQUATE INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
A shortcoming affiliated to a shortage of tools to
manage, track and exchange environmental crime
relates to information systems management. Generally,
there is poor information-sharing between the government
agencies responsible for enforcing environmental
legislation. Coordination and information-sharing
is particularly important for the EPA and the police,
but this hardly ever happens and, when it does, it
occurs on an ad hoc basis. Only regular and consistent
information-sharing would enhance the enforcement of
environmental legislation.
The federal arrangement of Ethiopia’s system of government
was also presented as a challenge. It was noted
that the different regional governments were at different
levels of development and that some were lacking welltrained
staff in the environmental area. It was therefore
not possible to apply a uniform system of approach at
national level for dealing with environmental crime.
Situation Report 27