| European
Tropical Forest Research Network |
CONSERVATION
OF ETHIOPIAN SACRED GROVES
By Pierre
Binggeli, Desalegn Desissa, John Healey, Matt Painton, John Smith and Zewge
Teklehaimanot
The Ethiopian Highlands have been largely deforested for decades and in the North of the country probably for centuries. Today, only small islands of forest or woodland or even just single large trees dot the landscape here and there. All traditional Ethiopian religions have been responsible for the conservation of most of these patches of relict natural vegetation. By far, the majority of these groves have been preserved by the Orthodox Church, the dominant religion of the Highlands.
In 2001 a Darwin Initiative (U.K.) funded project was initiated between the University of Wales and the Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society in conjunction with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the Alliance of Religions and Conservation. This three year project will promote sustainable development through participatory conservation of the biodiversity of the forests preserved on sacred lands, and their establishment as a resource of value to alleviate local poverty.
During the first year of the project, representative sites retaining semi-natural woody vegetation throughout the Ethiopian Highlands were investigated. Rapid Biodiversity Assessment (RBA) of the woody plant species was carried out at each site in conjunction with semi-structured questionnaires designed to assess usage of the woody plant resource by the local communities and the clergy in particular. Most of the relict groves are less than two ha in size and often just ½ ha, with the occasional monastery covering up to 20-50 ha. They are found between 1400 m and 3000 m a.s.l. Despite their small sizes, these stands harbour on average 41 species of woody plants (range: 21-68). On average 26.0 (range 10-55) species, roughly 2/3 of the total, were used by the local communities. In the RBA we also counted individuals of each species encountered. Out of the 223 recorded species 42 species were consistently rare or uncommon, i.e. usually had fewer than 5 individuals per RBA, and over ¾ of these species were used by local people.
The majority of the investigated sacred groves are under threat mainly because of the lack of natural regeneration, often due to overgrazing, but also to unsustainable tree harvesting (e.g. for timber and fuel in particular). Furthermore, there appears to be no tradition in the Ethiopian countryside to grow trees from seeds (not a single of our 339 informants had ever grown a tree from seed), thus a traditional replanting system does not exist to replenish existing groves. However, there is in most local communities a strong desire to protect and even expand their church and monastery woodlands.
This study provides evidence that outside expertise and resources will be extremely valuable in enabling local church communities to look after their sacred groves as well as conserve and promote rare/uncommon woody plant species. Current and future phases of this Darwin Initiative project will deal with these issues.
For further information
visit our web site:
http://members.lycos.co.uk/ethiopianplants/sacredgrove
or contact:
Zewge Teklehaimanot
School of Agricultural and Forest Sciences
University of Wales
Bangor
Gwynedd
LL57 2UW
United Kingdom
E-mail: z.teklehaimanot@bangor.ac.uk