Photos of a few members of the biodiversity team working in the church forests of Ethiopia:

Dr. Cat Cardelus from Colgate University
Dr. Neville Winchester, University of British Columbia
Dr. Hal Heatwole, North Carolina State University

In addition to the 3 species we sampled in the Debresena church forest on our first day here in our second week of the expedition, we are focusing on a species in the same family as cherry trees. It is called Prunus africana (Prunus is also the genus of cherry). This Prunus is very important to the Ethiopians since it has not only medicinal values, but also (quote from the locals) MAGICAL VALUES as well. It is also used for treating prostate conditions. It has fairly high herbivory (translation: bugs love to eat it!) and this intrigues me, but also intrigues my colleagues who are looking at its epiphytes, its canopy soil communities, its fly populations, and other insects in general. So we will fully get the story on the African Prunus and look forward to more information as it happens.

We were so happy to find a newish hotel in Debre Tabor, complete with showers! However, last night was a huge and blustery rain storm, closing the noisy disco in the alley next door (a blessing!) but also flooding some of our rooms and also cutting off electricity. So we awoke to no showers, no lights, no hot coffee and a few other setbacks. However, we headed to our second forest site, knowing full well that most residents of this town do not even have electricty and that seasonal floods are a part of their lives.

We worked on 3 trees: local names Sehel (Teclea nobilis), Tife (Olinia rochetiana) and Donga (Apodytes dimidiata).

Some of our group are sending BIG thanks to our sponsors:

• National Geographic
• TREE Foundation
• North Carolina State University
• North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
• Picker Interdisciplinary Institute at Colgate University
• Fund for Teachers

Our group also sends big thanks to the Tommy Hilfiger Foundation, who donated bags for us to hand out filled with bug/kits for the local villagers and teachers here in Ethiopia. I have amazing photos of the kids with their bags, nets, vials, and pooters (aspirators), as well as neat insect and plant keys that our scientists made for them.

We are all enthused and passionate about conservation of these forests. Despite eating some Ethiopian food that disagreed with him, Canopy Phil made a noble effort today and we rigged 9 trees. More soon… photos will not upload in this very remote internet cafe.

Tommy Hilfiger bug kits for conservation education

Kids learn sweep net techniqes at Debresena church forest

We have finished our first church forest, called Zhara. Today we travel about 4 hours by four-wheel drive to a small town called Debre Tabor where we will work in a second church forest called Debresena. Ambitious students can probably locate them on Google-earth. We look forward to comparing the differences between the two, and adding these points to the slowly-growing sample sizes of biodiversity in Ethiopia.

Everyone really loves the food here — injera, the local bread, is quite sour and flat, and used as a dinner-plate as well as silverware. It is at least 12 inches and round in shape, and various sauces and vegetables come on top. The trick is to tear a piece of the bread with right hand only, and then sop up some of the sauce or vegetables into a nugget that fits into your mouth.

Good luck, but it sure tastes great. Culturally speaking, Ethiopians never use their left hand for eating — it is used instead for ablutions. We saw a hippo on the edge of Lake Tana last night, just at the junction of the Blue Nile. It was taking a bath, naturally. Almost more spectacular were some of the amazing birds — black-crowned cranes, sea eagle, sacred ibis, all flying over in the sunset. More soon —

Black-Crowned Cranes perched at mouth of Blue Nile.

Dr. Neville Winchester, our acclaimed micro-arthropod expert who managed not only to climb the church forest trees, but is harvesting many new records and (doubtless) species from this unexplored place on the planet, writes about his experiences so far:

“On the boat and out into a monster of a lake… Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile. Accompanied by vast flocks of sacred Ibis, punctuated with some 40 new species of birds (for us) as hammercops, gray herson, African spoonbills, etc — we landed on a church forest island. This is where you start to get a sense of history in Africa — the Ark of the Covenent os “quote… suspected to be here.” Keeping this short, the relics, birds, people and sense of exploration are incredible as we tackle canopy sampling an an effort to highlight the importance of conservation of these forests. Hippos, monitor lizards and more canopy adventures …. here we come. “

Our sampling has been very exciting. It would appear from the scientific literature that almost no records exist about insect biodiversity in the Ethiopian church forests. So almost everything is new. We have beetles from the canopy and ants from the tree bark, and amazing micro-arthropods from tiny bits of soil up in the tree crotches.

One of the most wonderful aspects of this National Geographic-funded expedition is the enthusiasm of the local children. They have laughed and learned the names of common insects, as we work with them to empower them about their own conservation. Here are images of the children learning how to sweep the vegetation for insects, and a general sense of curiosity that appears to never have entered their world.

Children take on stewardship of their forest

Ethiopia's next generation of scientists

It is now Day 3 and the internet was down for the entire town of Bahir Dar. But we are alive and well, and collecting amazing biodiversity in the church forest. Even the iPhone would not work from this town, despite the fact that I signed on for international connections. So we are working steadily, and learning so much about the Ethiopian culture, but quite cut off from our conventional ways of communication.
The church forest outside of Bahir Dar, called Zhara, had a big surprise for me upon arrival. Their priest had been at the workshop that Dr. Alemayehu Wassie and I hosted last year, where we explained the true value of the forests surrounding their churches. Low and behold, the Priest took our information to heart and his disciples are now building a wall around the church. Even better, the wall is about 100 feet from the shrinking perimeter of the church, meaning the new seedlings can be regenerated. It was a very heartfelt site — people stop and sit on the (stone) wall, and others make a bit of extra cash taking stones from their pastures and bringing them to the church. We still need funds for gates and access, but the notion of the local people taking their forest conservation so seriously is truly inspirational.

More bug details to come in the next blog!

New wall slowly encircling the Zhara church forest (not quite half way).

Meg and the Wall around the forest of Zhara

As a canopy biologist, I am intrigued by the nature of scaffolding in other countries which appears slightly akin to scaling trees and dangling on branches. Here at the Bahir Dar Airport, the traditional Ethiopian tree-branch scaffold spanned upwards of three stories, with a team of young boys but mainly women working atop this rickety structure. Like the bamboo scaffolds of China, the Africans use their local materials for the scaffold and construction supports. I think I will stick to ropes and harnesses, given a choice! I hope the airport expansion is constructed safely, and that these brave workers get a raise! What a vivid difference from the construction site for our Nature Research Center, NC Museum of Natural Sciences, in Raleigh NC.

We all arrived, except for one person late by one day, one suitcase lost in Washington DC, and several pairs of underwear pinched from the hotel laundry in Adis. Not bad, considering that we are a dozen passionate conservation biologists, on a mission to survey the bugs of the church forests in Ethiopia (photo is when we are showered, semi-rested, and eager to go!).

Our local flight to Bahir Dar was scenic, and we had a good traditional dinner at the Ghion Hotel in Bahir Dar. The Lonely Planet calls the Ghion a “tired hotel” due to the fact that almost everything needs replacing. But it has a million dollar view, on Lake Tana. Today we boated to the Misli Fasildes church forest, where bird rookeries abound: sacred ibis, sea eagles, different types of herons literally swooped around our boat. In the afternoon, we visited the church forest on Zegie Peninsula, where a dreadful fire destroyed their church only 2 months ago. Nonetheless, during this two week religious period of fasting, everyone was praying and paying respects to their religion. We gazed in awe at the 4th century hand-painted religious scripts, and also made our first insect collection — Hal with an ant!

Church forest near Debre Tabor, Ethiopia. Google Earth 3D and Google Maps 2D view: