About my work My prior work has combined both research and implementation to promote ecological integrity in degraded and deforested landscape. My research has involved studies of plant community composition to better understand factors that influence the regeneration dynamics of small forest patches preserved in agricultural landscape in the form of sacred forests to provide strong scientific basis for their conservation. My research use multidisciplinary approach and it has also focused on the relationship between people and these forests. It involves analysis of the relationship between cultural variables and biological diversity. This is mainly focused on the practical and theoretical exploration of the links between people and their local woodlands. It considered both the indigenous culture and biodiversity, and also the threat that both are under. My work has produced valuable evidence of the importance of fragmented woodlands as living indigenous sacred sites, with high bio-cultural value closely connected with traditional systems of management.
The results from research enable me to gain a better understanding in how to manage isolated sacred forests. Thus,the implementation aspect of my work has focused on the restoration of these forests. After discussing with the custodians and initiating larger community participations, I established community nursery sites that managed by the communities themselves as a source of seedling-pool. The native seed sources are the sacred forests and the remnant trees from the surrounding agricultural landscape. Under the agreement of land users, I applied “metapopulation” concept and established spatially separated woodlot with sub-population that will relate in the future through the dispersal of individuals to reduce the isolation effect.
Another major threat that sacred forest patches facing is edge effects from the surrounding matrix. To minimize these edge effects, I worked with the land owners to diversify the surrounding agro-forestry with similar species that are found in sacred forests. I have obtained more than $ 1,000,000 in support from conservation institutions, NGOs and other donors for research and implementation. Some of these grants collaborate with researchers from other discipline, such as Botany, Sociology and Anthropology. I have published research booklets and manuscripts to disseminate the information to large audiences (both scientific and non-scientific communities) and participate in numerous conference presentations including invited oral presentation and panel discussion on the topic of sacred forests/small forest patches importance for biodiversity conservation.
My current research involves use of plant functional groups (PFGs) approach to study plant response to fragmentation under broad research questions:
“What are the responses of plants of different functional groups to fragmentation and how this affects plant community composition in forest fragments?”
These research questions represent my current and future research interest. I began in this field while working on my PhD at Bangor University, School of Environment and Natural Resources and Geography, Department of Forestry. My PhD scholarship is grounded in theories and methods found in the field of landscape ecology and forest ecology. It combines i) analyzing landscape pattern change using remotely sensed data, GIS, spatial statistics to achieve forest habitat spatial changes (change in size, shape, edge density and fractal dimension), and ii) plot-based vegetation study in patches of fragmented forest. My research focus on quantifying human-induced forest fragmentation situated in south-west Ethiopia and how these affect the distribution, abundance and richness of plant species in forest patches. Because fragmentation interacts with a whole range of plant functional groups, knowledge of how it influences plant species of different functional groups and population dynamics is essential in order to predict and manage their habitats. During my graduate study and research, I used different plant functional groups i.e. plant life form, species specific habitat requirement and morphology to study effect of fragmentationfocusing on response to forest edge and interior environments, and the consequences of this for community composition of forest patches. I found that many forest specialists, especially vascular epiphyte and fern species are highly sensitive to forest fragmentation.