Since Somaliland?s independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991, the country has been recovering from the environmental damages resulted by Siyad Barre?s forces. The following decades have been showing positive impacts in environmental protection due to absence of military troops and heavy weapons that destroyed the environment.

Further, with only 20% of the country covered by vegetation and forests, people soon started to cut down trees for domestic purposes and for some urbanization as cities like Hargeisa, Burao, Borama and Erigavo expand and populations living in these areas started to grow. Deforestation remains the only environmental threat active in Somaliland. According to Environmental Protection Agency in the United States, environmental justice is defined as ?The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies?(United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2018).

In reference to the above definition, there are some key challenges why environmental protection (from deforestation) is not contributing to environmental justice in Somaliland: basically, 80% of Somaliland people are illiterate about the correct use of petroleum gas as they believe it will explode and cause fire. This becomes a common belief that households are not using petroleum gas for cooking and domestic uses but instead use charcoal which is more reliable to them. Secondly, no debate has been held that fights against deforestation and reforestation of the trees cut down. Also, the civil society and the government are not actively engaging communities and people to prevent the environment from this massive threat and this caused less priority to be given to environmental protection.

On the other hand, there are opportunities which can help people working on environmental protection, the presence of Somaliland Law on the Prevention of Deforestation & Desertification (Law N: 04/1998) which prohibits serious actions taken to against environment which if reinforced will yield positive outcomes in the future. In addition, youth –led platforms like Geed Beer Rajo Beer ?Plant a Tree, Plant a Hope? will play excellent role in replacing tree cut down in both urban and rural areas. There are good numbers of petroleum gas companies with cheap and affordable gas which participate the fight against deforestation in Somaliland cities.

In conclusion, deforestation does not only need civil society?s response but also a similar stack should be given marginalized communities to have their inputs in the decision making efforts to combat deforestation in Somaliland.