Abbadiko Getahun Hassen*
Abstract
Natural resources are basis of all living beings on our planet, while after the introduction of agricultural revolution the interaction of human and nature have adversely changed; on the whole the emergence of industrial revolution that accompanied with rapidly growing of consumption of these resources is causing for severe destruction to the nature, such as decrease fresh water reserves, fish stocks and forests; fertile land is being destroyed and species are becoming extinct. Resource consumption and material welfare are inseparably linked to global justice. For instance, resource rich countries like the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar are using revenues from their natural resource wealth to construct mega-cities and large-scale foreign investments. But contrary natural resources are becoming cause for conflicts and civil war for most African countries, because of the inverse association between development and natural resource. This means that abundance natural resources of Africa are becoming factor of economic stagnation and political instability rather than generating large revenues for government. The Ethiopian case is more or less similar to most African countries because of the poor management for natural resources. The aim of this paper is to review the land, forest, wild life, biodiversity, water and soil resource problems and the factors of poor management. According to the different researches which have reviewed in this paper the factor for poor management of natural resources in Ethiopia is related with how governments administer resource wealth and how the people use their natural resource revenues, with the right policies, institutions and knowledge.