Figure 6. Community members’ views

on need for church forest protection.

The Role of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Forest Preservation in

the South Gondar Region of Ethiopia

Travis Reynolds, Ph.D.*, Sally Holmes ’13*, Jacob Wall ’16*, Alemayehu Wassie Eshete, Ph.D.**

*Colby College Environmental Studies Program, **Bahir Dar University

“A church without a forest doesn’t have value.”

Figure 4. A church in South Gondar region with very little forest left.

Church Forests in Ethiopia

Over half of priests claimed that the size of their church forest had

decreased over the past 30 years, and almost all said the forest area

outside their church is still decreasing. Priests cited a variety of spiritual

and subsistence benefits provided by church forests, and most saw

immediate needs for action to protect the church forests in the future.

Community members primarily value church forests because of their

religious importance. Many households were highly invested in church

forest protection and the vast majority were willing to assist in building

a protective wall or hiring a guard if asked by the church. Community

members also respect and fear to violate religious sanctions more than

civil courts and laws.

Overall findings suggest the Ethiopian Orthodox Church will continue to

play a significant role in forest preservation in the South Gondar region,

both as a direct actor and as a source of moral leadership.

Community and Priest Perceptions

Methods

A great thank you to Dr.

Alemayehu Wassie for his

assistance in survey-writing

and organizing in-country, in

addition to his expertise.

Additionally, thank you to Dr.

Margaret Lowman for her

guidance and expertise on

church forest ecology.

References Acknowledgements

“There is not any attention because there is no

understanding about forests.” - Ethiopian Orthodox Priest

Figure 1. Debresena church forest (in the South Gondar region) and the new

stone wall surrounding Zhara church forest.

“It is necessary to keep the forest of the church for

future generations.” - Ethiopian Orthodox Priest

Figure 9. Disciple houses in Zhara church and January 2013 Priest Workshop..

Church Forests of South Gondar

Figure 5. Map showing church forests of South Gondar. Green

dots represent identified church forests and white dots represent

churches without forests (Source: Authors, GoogleEarth imagery).

The highlands of Northern Ethiopia have suffered from intense

deforestation for decades (Wassie et al., 2010). What little indigenous

forest remains persists in “church forests”: small forests encircling the

thousands of Ethiopian Orthodox churches spread throughout the

countryside. Church forests are sacred places for church followers and

community members alike. Unfortunately, today these forests are

slowly disappearing - gradual conversion for agricultural land, in

addition to demand for fuel and construction wood has led to

deforestation of the church forests themselves (Bongers et al., 2006).

Bongers, F., Wassie, A., Sterck, F.J., Bekele, T., and Teketay, D. (2006).

Ecological restoration and church forests in northern Ethiopia. Journal of the

Drylands 1(1): 35-44.

Wassie, A. (2002). Opportunities, constraints and prospects of the Ethiopian

Orthodox Tewahido Churches in conserving forest resources: the case of

churches in South Gondar, northern Ethiopia. M.Sc. Thesis, Swedish

University of Agricultural Sciences.

Wassie, A., Sterck, F.J., and Bongers, F. (2010). Species and structural diversity

of church forests in a fragmented Ethiopian Highland landscape. Journal of

Vegetation Science 21(5): 938-948.

In January 2013 a team of Colby students and faculty conducted 60

interviews and 92 surveys of community members and priests in South

Gondar, Ethiopia. Seventeen community interviews were performed in

the Zhara church community, and 43 were performed in Debresena

church community. In addition, written surveys were distributed to 92

priests at a sacred forests workshop sponsored by the Goldfarb Center

for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement. Interviews and surveys

consisted of questions on forest cover, economic and spiritual benefits,

management practices, and conservation needs for church forests.

Figure 2. Percentage of community

members who use the church forests for

various benefits.

Figure 3. Institutions community

members fear and respect in both Zhara

and Debresena communities.

Figure 7. Priests’ views on changes and

sufficiency in the area of their church forests.

Figure 8. Priests’ views on if and how

church forests will persist in the future.