Biodiversity Importance
Conversion of natural area into intensive land-use under cultivation and settlement in highlands of Ethiopia has left small isolated afromontane forest remnants as sacred forests. The importance of these isolated sacred forest patches in biodiversity conservation is not well known. We carried out survey of sacred forests in southwest Ethiopian highlands between 2005 and 2008 sponsored by The Christensen Fund and recorded 272 forest patches ranging in size from 0.5 ha to 100 ha that managed by the custodians. Plot based vegetation survey in six sacred forests and four non-sacred forests in equal number of plots (n=56) showed the superiority of sacred forests in species richness and species endemic to Ethiopia. We recorded 19 endemic species in sacred forests and 13 endemics in non-sacred forests. Sacred forests contained a higher density of national priority species for conservation, e.g. Cordia african and Hagenia abyssinica and species recognized as internationally vulnerable, Prunus africana |
Cultural importance
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