Ethiopia’s invasive prosopis tree chokes livelihoods and land

Once hailed as a solution to Ethiopia’s creeping desertification, a foreign tree is now spreading uncontrollably across the east African nation, threatening fragile ecosystems and the very survival of local communities.

Native to Latin America, the prosopis shrub-like tree was first planted in Ethiopia’s northeastern Afar region in the 1970s.

It has become a nightmare for locals like livestock farmer Khadija Humed.

“Because of this plant, we have become poor,” she told AFP.

Heat-resistant and fast-growing, prosopis initially promised to curb soil erosion and provide shade to cool the local micro-climate in Afar’s arid lowlands.

But today it has overrun the region’s vast plains — its thorny, drooping branches rising up to 10 metres (33 feet) high.

Each tree can draw up to seven litres