Wildlife conservation in Ethiopia

This video says about itself:

7 March 2012

Gambella – Ethiopia‘s wet western most region – shelters an important wildlife population. Livelihood and landscape are linked, with water as major resource. The Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority is responsible for the protection and management of the park. Gambella’s National Park is undergoing a major review. The region shares an important border with the republic of South-Sudan and animals should easily move from one country to the other. Gambella’s National Park also has potential for development of ecotourism.

From BirdLife:

Conservation management in the Guassa Plateau saves threatened biodiversity and helps disadvantaged groups

By nairobi.volunteer, Tue, 13/05/2014 – 08:08

The Guassa Plateau is an extraordinary area of biodiversity in Ethiopia. Rare and globally unique species occur across all taxa, with exceptional levels of endemism. The afromontane ecosystems of the Ethiopian highlands constitute over 80% of the entire continent’s land over 3000 m asl. There are number of charismatic flagship species such as the mountain nyala, Ethiopian wolf, and the walia ibex– all of which are listed as endangered by IUCN, as well as a plethora of other endemic and endangered birds, amphibians, insects and plants. The Guassa Plateau has therefore been identified as a priority Key Biodiversity Area (KBA) in the Eastern Afromontane Hotspot.

Currently the Guassa Plateau is the only portion of the Afromontane Hotspot in Ethiopia under community management after being formally gazetted as the Guassa Community Conservation Area (GCCA) in June 2012. A contemporary management institution with representatives from the 9 farmers associations (kebeles) that have natural resource user rights, oversees management of the area. The Guassa Conservation Council, the highest management body, operates community guards and monitors and prosecutes illegal users.

Together with the Guassa Conservation Council, Grzimek’s Help for Threatened Wildlife is implementing a project called Improved Community and Ecological Resilience for the Guassa Community Conservation Area. This project, funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund, aims to develop conservation-compatible income generating activities that will protect the Guassa landscape and provide alternative livelihoods for disadvantaged groups.

Work will focus on landless, marginalised and other disadvantaged groups who have limited livelihood options and capacity to develop sustainable alternatives for survival, and who are thus most likely to break existing bye-laws on natural resource use. The increasing demand for honey and associated price increase presents an opportunity as a supplemental livelihood option, given its ease of storage and transport. In addition, wool spinning with rug, blanket, curtains and mattress production is a traditional activity in Guassa but is not well developed as a commercial enterprise. The project will support the development of a “Guassa brand‟ to ensure high quality, facilitate marketing, and increase sales of these environmentally-friendly products.

The impact of the project is expected to enhance the economic wellbeing of the community who are already engaged in the conservation of the Guassa Area. Community-based tourism in the area is also developing, creating an alternative source of income.

This project is funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) and will run from January 2014 to December 2015.

BirdLife International, together with IUCN and the Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society, form the Regional Implementation Team that supports CEPF with their investment in the Eastern Afromontane Hotspot.

Read other Eastern Afromontane News.

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A call has been made for responsible use and a reduction of pesticides used in farm-based production in Ethiopia. This was during a stakeholder workshop held on 20th to 23rd February 2015 to raise awareness on safe use and mitigation of pesticides’ negative impacts on migratory soaring birds and other biodiversity in the Central Rift Ecosystems of Ethiopia. This event was organized under the auspices of the UNDP/GEF funded BirdLife Migratory Soaring Birds project: here.

Fifty years ago, in June 1966, a group of 32 environmentalists and nature lovers founded an environmental social club whose patron was the late Emperor Haile Selassie. In September 1966, this social club eventually evolved to become the first indigenous environmental non-governmental organization in Ethiopia. In 1993, EWNHS formally opened to the public with enormous support from key lecturers in the Biology Department of the Addis Ababa University. With EWNHS’s appearance as a conservation NGO, this year marked an important era in Ethiopian conservation, as this sector was the realm of the state up to this date: here.