Human ecology of sacred space: Church forests in the highlands of northwestern Ethiopia

Abstract

SUMMARYIn the highlands of northwestern Ethiopia, Orthodox Christian churches provide habitats for plants that have become rare in the surrounding agricultural landscapes. The objective of this paper is to investigate why and how the local clergy and laypeople protect and promote woody plants within their sacred spaces. Interviews at 11 churches in the Debark District of North Gonder generated a list of 47 woody species, of which most are rare in the rest of the landscape. Three tree species (indigenous cedar, Juniperus procera; indigenous olive, Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata; and exotic Eucalyptus globulus) were identified as most important. While cedar and olive are symbols of tradition and witnesses to church history, eucalyptus is a source of income and alternative material for church construction and repair. A significant proportion of indigenous species within Debark's church forests were said to have been planted, including cedars and olives. Knowledge that these species are cultivated enhances the conservation value of these forests by inspiring local people to continue planting trees and shrubs. In addition to serving as refugia for rare species, Ethiopia's church forests nurture the knowledge necessary to promote plant diversity in the rest of the landscape and serve as archetypes for community-driven conservation.

Greater tree community structure complexity in sacred forest compared to reserve forest land tenure systems in eastern India

“…Numerous studies on SFs support the view that the practice leads to tangible conservation benefits (Byers et al 2001, Boraiah et al 2003, Mgumia & Oba 2003, Bhagwat & Rutte 2006, Verschuuren 2010. Although such comparisons of SFs have often been made against intensively managed systems (Ambinakudige & Sathish 2009), this appears to hold true even with more equitable comparisons (Metcalfe et al 2010, Ruelle et al 2018, Pradhan et al 2019. For plant groups or resources that are intensively extracted (e.g., medicinal plants), the contrast is usually starker (Boraiah et al 2003).…”

“…The endogenous rules that govern SFs vary among regions (Virtanen 2002), but by design, resource extraction and human activities tend to be minimal (Gadgil & Vartak 1976, Ormsby & Bhagwat 2010. There is evidence that SFs preserve elements of biodiversity that are lost in intensively used forests (Ruelle et al 2018, Singh et al 2019, but this is not well known from many regions of the world that have significant numbers of SFs. How the community structure of SFs differs from that of intensively used forests is also not well known.…”

Disciplines, Sectors, Motivations and Power Relations in Forest Landscape Restoration

“…Motivations vary by stakeholder type and by region (Hagger et al 2017) and include complying with legislation; improving soil, water, and land; seeking to diversify available food or NTFPs; or to restore land for cultural or spiritual reasons. For example, in Ethiopia numerous religious forests have been established around Coptic churches (Ruelle et al 2017). Complying with legislation is frequently a motivation for both large and small economic actors (e.g., Aronson et al 2011).…”

Biocultural conservation in the sacred forests of Odisha, India

“…For example, many sacred groves have community rules against hunting or taking any resources from the groves. Sacred landscapes exist globally and are a form of biocultural conservation (Mgumia & Oba 2003, Bhagwat & Rutte 2006, Ormsby 2012, Ruelle et al 2018. India has the highest concentration of sacred groves in the world (Malhotra et al 2007, Ormsby & Bhagwat 2010, and these forests harbour greater species richness and diversity than adjacent non-sacred forests or surrounding landscapes (Mgumia & Oba 2003, Ambinakudige & Satish 2008, Rath et al 2020.…”