Once lauded as a remedy for Ethiopia’s advancing desertification, a non-native tree has transformed into an uncontrolled menace across the East African country, endangering delicate ecosystems and threatening the existence of local communities.The prosopis, a shrubby tree indigenous to Latin America, was initially introduced to Ethiopia’s northeastern Afar region during the 1970s.For livestock farmer Khadija Humed, it has become a source of misery.“Because of this plant, we have become poor,” she told the AFP news agency.Initially, prosopis seemed promising. Resistant to heat and quick-growing, it was intended to prevent soil erosion and provide cooling shade in Afar’s dry lowlands.Today, however, it dominates the region’s expansive plains with thorny branches that reach heights of up to 10 metres (33ft).Each tree extracts up to 7 litres (nearly 2 gallons) of water daily through its extensive root system, depleting soil moisture and devastating agriculture.Local pastoralists also reported that prosopis harms their livestock.“The plant has turned against us,” Hailu Shiferaw, a researcher at the Ethiopian Water and Land Resources Centre, told AFP.“No one could have foreseen its harmful effects.”In Humed’s village, about 200km (124 miles) northeast of Addis Ababa, she explained that the tree’s pods sicken their cattle and obstruct their mouths and stomachs, sometimes fatally. These losses have plunged the community into severe po …
