The Church Forests of Ethiopia are lush, green oases of biodiversity

A compelling mini-documentary tells the story of the Ethiopia’s Church Forests — pockets of lush biodiversity that are protected by hundreds of churches “scattered like emerald pearls across the brown sea of farm fields.”

Ethiopian Church Forests: A unique Model of biodiversity Protection

Over the past century, farming and the needs of a growing population have replaced nearly all of Ethiopia’s old-growth forests with agricultural fields. A compelling mini-documentary tells the story of the country’s Church Forests–pockets of lush biodiversity that are protected by hundreds of churches “scattered like emerald pearls across the brown sea of farm fields.”

“scattered like emerald pearls across the brown sea of farm fields.”

Over the past century, farming and the needs of a growing population have replaced nearly all of Ethiopia’s old-growth forests with agricultural fields. A compelling mini-documentary tells the story of the country’s Church Forests–pockets of lush biodiversity that are protected by hundreds of churches “scattered like emerald pearls across the brown sea of farm fields.”

Filmmaker Jeremy Seifert grew up attending churches surrounded by parking lots and populated by congregations that didn’t connect their spirituality to ecology. So when he first heard about the Church Forests of Ethiopia, he was intrigued.

Seifert wrote in the New York Times in 2019, ‘One of my great passions has been the environment, fighting for it, telling stories of its abuse and our need to be caretakers and champions of our shared home. I was eager to meet people whose religion had some built-in practice of respecting trees and preserving biodiversity. And that belief, coupled with the ballooning threat of climate change and a growing sense of despair, propelled me to visit the church forests of Ethiopia.’ 

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Source: NewYorkTimes

“A church, to be a church, must be enveloped by a forest.”

A few months later and Seifert stood in the office of a forest ecologist, Alemayehu Wassie Eshete, who started his interview by telling him, “A church, to be a church, must be enveloped by a forest.”

‘I had never heard those words before or that idea, but I was hearing a truth I already knew,’ wrote Seifert. ‘The church should be immersed in creation, enjoying and protecting the forest and shores and mountains, the whole earth.’

As Seifert spent time with Dr. Alemayehu and filmed in the little pockets of old-growth forest that surround the churches of Ethiopia, he experienced moments of awe at the beauty of the church forests, however, they were countered by feelings of despair. They were so small. So much of the surrounding forest had already disappeared.

‘I wrestled with judging the Ethiopian Church for holding its beliefs imperfectly, like all things human. Why not save more of the forest than just a small patch around the church? Where was the church when 97 percent of Ethiopia’s primary forest was destroyed?’

‘For me, these little blips of green forest rising out of vast swaths of deforested brown earth represent hope. They are a powerful intersection of faith and science doing some good in the world.’

E.O. Wilson, in his book “Half-Earth,” declared the church forests of Ethiopia “one of the best places in the biosphere.” They are proof that when faith and science make common cause on ecological issues, it results in a model that bears repeating. We have the blueprint of life held in these tiny circles of faith, and that’s something to rejoice over and protect and expand with every resource we can muster.

Jeremy Seifert is a documentary filmmaker based in North Carolina.

Source: NewYorkTimes

Ethiopian Church Forests: A Hybrid Model of Protection

Protection of forests because of their association with religious traditions is a worldwide phenomenon. These sacred forests play a key role in maintaining ecosystem services in regions affected by land system change. In the northern highlands of Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church controls the majority of the surviving native forest. 

However, the reasons why communities value the forests and the ways they use and manage them are not well understood. Researchers used data and analysis from an interdisciplinary project and ethnographic research, in particular, to explain how Ethiopian church forests function. 

Church forests represent an unusual form of community-based protection that integrates locally controlled common property with external institutional arrangements: this hybrid system is highly effective at protecting the forest while maintaining cultural practices. 

Research informs theoretical debates about models of tropical forest protection and question assumptions about church forests being the product of a nature conservation imperative.

Source: Researchgate/SpringerScience