Lij Iyasu and the Bahr Zaf, or Eucalyptus Tree

Now that people are once again discussing the value – or otherwise - of the Bahr Zaf, or Eucalyptus Tree, imported in Emperor Menilek’s day from Australia, it may be interesting to turn the clock back almost a century – to the year 1913.

To the time in fact of Ethiopia’s uncrowned King: Lij Iyasu. Prior to World War I.

Difficulties

Difficulties relating to the spread of eucalyptus trees, which had been introduced only a couple of decades earlier, came dramatically to the fore in this period. Iyasu’s Minister of Agriculture reacted by issuing a decree on 21 March 1913. It stated that the old Emperor had introduced these fast-growing trees because the area of the capital had then been virtually treeless. His intention, the edict claimed, had however been also to introduce other trees, notably ones with useful wood and edible fruit. Trials had established that such trees included mulberries as well as plums and roses. Referring specifically to mulberries, the decree stated that they yielded fruit, while their leaves could serve in the production of silk, as well as being edible for livestock.

“Destroyed the Soil”

The decree appealed specifically to Iyasu’s authority, by stating that he had thought that a “tree with such advantages” as the mulberry should be cultivated”. By contrast the decree stated that the eucalyptus “destroyed the soil”, “dried up the land, “sucked the wells dry” and, presumably because of its acidity, killed other plants.
Persons cultivating eucalyptus trees were accordingly ordered to pull out two-thirds of them, and replace them with other trees to be supplied by the Ministry.

Dr Merab

This edict was far from a dead letter. Dr Mérab, a Georgian then resident in Addis Ababa, was much impressed by the decree’s implementation. Providing valuable testimony he recalls that it applied to both Ethiopians and foreigners, and that only the Abun, or Head of the Church, and the foreign Legations were exempt. Persons disobeying the decree, ran the risk, he says, of having their trees pulled up, and the wood confiscated, as well as being liable to a fine of one hundred Maria Theresa thalers. The result was that within three days the majority of Ethiopians and many foreigners had carried out the Government’s orders, and former eucalyptus fields were reduced to a mass of pot-holes.
And that, as it would seem, is as far as the proposed reform went. Europe in 1914 entered World War I. Two years later, in 1916, Iyasu was deposed in a Coup d'Etat, or Revolution; and Ethiopia entered a New Era – in which the Bahr Zaf was restored to its former prominence.