Ethiopian church forests: a socio-religious conservation model under change

Orlowska, Izabela; Klepeis, Peter

doi:10.1080/17531055.2018.1519659

Cited by 23 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…In a study examining community perspectives of church forest use in four church forests across four Woredas in 2002 and 2014 in the South Gondar Administrative Zone, respondents showed a lot of variation in their perceptions of the ecological and social values across Woredas, and there were shifts from social responsibility to official responsibility in protecting the forest and from valuing church laws to valuing state laws [42]. In ethnographic surveys of church forest communities in the South Gondar region, head priests varied in their understanding of why the church forest exists [27].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To reduce the degree of human disturbance, we suggest on-the-ground protection efforts, such as continued building of stone walls and guards both of which encourage cattle and people to enter the forest using few main trails. The presence of guards may be less effective, as their main job is protecting the church and its valuables, which keeps them by the inner wall of the church and not on the periphery of the forest [22,27]. Thus, we propose guards whose sole role is to protect the forest.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, we propose guards whose sole role is to protect the forest. For any of these recommendations to take root, however, they need to be in line with community traditions [24] and include indigenous narratives of protection [27] as any recommendations or programs initiated outside of the culture of the church community will likely not succeed [50,51].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The church forests are conserved through a hybrid model of protection: they are owned by the state but controlled by the EOTC and the local community [22]. Because local communities have agency over the management of church forests as found in common property models [26,27], differences in the relationship of the local community to the forest could result in variations in forest health, management, and ecosystem services provided.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Tree Community Composition and Dispersal Syndrome Vary with Human Disturbance in Sacred Church Forests in Ethiopia

Woods

Mekonnen

Baez-Schon

et al. 2020

Forests

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Research Highlights: Variations in species composition across church forests in northern Ethiopia were driven more by variations in human disturbance and community forest management than forest size. The degree of human disturbance acted as an environmental filter that selected for weedy, exotic, and wind-dispersed species regardless of forest size. Background and Objectives: Forest fragmentation can profoundly influence the long-term persistence of forests on the landscape. Habitat fragmentation can increase edge effects and limit dispersal between forest patches. In the South Gondar Administrative Zone in northern Ethiopia, many of the remaining forests are small sacred church forests governed by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. Materials and Methods: We examined the drivers of woody plant species composition across 46 church forests in this region, including the influence of elevation, forest size, distance between forests, human disturbance, the presence of a wall, and the importance of local/individual community forest management at the Woreda level. We also examined how dispersal syndromes are influenced by increasing distance between forests and the extent of human disturbance within forests. Results: We found that elevational zone, distance between forests, the degree of human disturbance and Woreda had the greatest effect on species composition. Forest size and the presence of a wall were not significant drivers of species composition in these forests. Conclusions: We propose connecting forests through corridors or scattered trees to increase dispersal between forests, and greater on-the-ground protection efforts to restrict people and cattle from leaving the main trails within sacred forests.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Tree Community Composition and Dispersal Syndrome Vary with Human Disturbance in Sacred Church Forests in Ethiopia

Woods

Mekonnen

Baez-Schon

et al. 2020

Forests

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“…The recognition of the importance of Faith based organizations-FBOs in environmental conservation is recent and has been growing especially among the secular organizations [5][6][7][8]. Faith based organizations have a role to play in environmental conservation generally and for plant conservation in particular [5,9]. This is due to the following reasons; they are the largest organized sector of civil society worldwide; 84% of the world's 6.9 billion people described themselves as belonging to a faith by 2010.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Management by Faith Based Organizations in Uganda: A SWOT Analysis

Mucunguzi¹,

Tugume²,

Ogola³

2021

IJEPP

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Faith Based Organizations (FBOs) play a significant role in environmental management in Uganda. Despite this, they have been largely ignored in scholarship leading to a significant gap in understanding activities they carry out and challenges they encounter in environmental management. This study explored the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats associated with environmental management by the FBOs in Uganda. FBOs selected and studied were the Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Church of Uganda, the Muslim Faith, Pentecostal Assemblies of God and the Seventh day Adventist, since they consist over 86% of Uganda's population. Qualitative and quantitative research strategies with systematic and purposive sampling techniques were used. SWOT analysis using Key Informant Interviews and questionnaires were carried out to obtain information from seven ( 7) key decision-making staff at the FBOs' headquarters and 75 from regional centers. Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and content analysis respectively. Key strengths of FBOs in environmental management include; land ownership, skilled human resources and finances. Existence of good structures from grassroots to national level, knowledge in environmental management and an extensive following countrywide boosts the capacity of FBOs to engage in environmental management activities. Major areas that need improvement are; knowledge and skills in environmental management of leaders and followers; resource mobilisation skills and interest in environmental conservation among most clergy and Imams. Key opportunities were; existence of large number of employees and followers who can be trained in environmental management and the structures from grass-root to national level. Key threats were human population explosion, poverty, land grabbing and unfavourable land tenure and policy changes. FBOs are instrumental in environmental management but are constrained by financial resources, limited knowledge and skills in environmental management and fundraising abilities. This calls for capacity building in these aspects in order to impart the required knowledge and skills to FBOs leaders and followers. Government and other able stakeholders should support FBOs in their endeavor to conduct environmental management activities in Uganda.

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Consumed from within? Social and ecological drivers of internal clearings in Ethiopian Orthodox church forests

Zebrowski,

Reynolds

2023

Land Degrad Dev

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In a largely deforested landscape, thousands of small pockets of indigenous forest remain in Ethiopia's northern highlands. These “church forests” are maintained by Ethiopian Orthodox church communities, and they provide valuable reserves of indigenous species diversity and ecosystem services. However, there are important trade‐offs between the different ecosystem services church forests provide: the size of community‐made clearings within church forests used for prayer and other church services have to be balanced with services derived from intact forest cover and dense vegetation. This research uses a spatial, social–ecological model to examine patterns in church forest size and vegetation density across 2743 church forests in the Amhara Region. Results suggest that larger internal clearings correlate with larger forest area, and clearings also scale with population size. We also find that greater elevation and distance to population centers are associated with higher church forest density, while greater community wealth is associated with reduced forest density and area. These trends initially suggest that internal clearings can support conservation efforts, but they are nuanced by prevalent non‐native Eucalyptus planting and increasing internal deforestation for graveyard space for wealthier communities. Additionally, we find that internal clearings are an important source of omitted variable bias in estimating the relationship between density and area in church forests. As a consequence, incorporating church clearings into social–ecological models leads to meaningful differences in church forest density and area estimates. Ultimately, this study suggests that church forests in Ethiopia may be sustained rather than consumed from within.

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Ethiopian church forests: a socio-religious conservation model under change

Cited by 23 publications

References 36 publications

Tree Community Composition and Dispersal Syndrome Vary with Human Disturbance in Sacred Church Forests in Ethiopia

Tree Community Composition and Dispersal Syndrome Vary with Human Disturbance in Sacred Church Forests in Ethiopia

Environmental Management by Faith Based Organizations in Uganda: A SWOT Analysis

Consumed from within? Social and ecological drivers of internal clearings in Ethiopian Orthodox church forests

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