Below are some photos taken by Phil Harpootlian when he accompanied Dr. Lowman on an expedition to Ethiopia in January of 2012.

TREE Foundation has generated countrywide inspiration by priests to conserve their church forests. Our team presented information in ecosystem services at this meeting of 700+ religious leaders in Ethiopia. A WIN for the trees!

A critical element of our “conservation of Ethiopian church forests” project, Alemayehu and I hosted a worksohp for priests. TREE Foundation “funded” the per diem for each priest to attend. For 2 days of travel to the workshop, one day in attendance, 2 days returning, and all their lodging/meals, Alemayehu calculated that we would give each priest the birre equivalent of $10 US (amazing difference in costs of living!!!)

The goals were twofold: 1. to educate them about the ecosystem services that their forests provide for surrounding communities; and 2. to share our solutions, which included information about the stone walls, the latrines, and also the notion of forest restoration (once the fences are completed). The priests came from the northeast (or Gondor District) of the Coptic or Christian Orthodox Church, some walking for 2 days to reach their church headquarters in Debre Tabor. We had 81 priests, and the event was a huge success. The Arch-Bishop blessed our project, and at the end of the day, pledged that his church and their disciples will prioritize conservation of these green emeralds that dot the landscape. The partnership of science and religion is proving to be a powerful conservation tool.

Some photos from the workshop (photos by Jan Ceigler):

Our biodiversity team just attended a workshop of the Coptic (Christian Orthodox) priest leadership in Debra Tabor, Ethiopia — chaired by my local colleague, Dr. Alemayehu Wassie Eshete, and myself. I presented a visual lecture (with a very challenging electricity situation where we actually taped the wires together — my laptop may never survive this experience!). The priests TOTALLY get the ecological issues at stake — if their forests shrink beyond recovery, they will suffer amazing problems including lack of fresh water, no pollinators, absence (and extinction) of biodiversity, flooding and other episodes, and essentially a lack of the spiritual links between religion and trees (which they view as essential).

Here are some images of our partnership between religion and science. the outcomes include building stone walls around critical church forests (donations on this website!), hosting workshops to educate the religious community about the ecosystem services that church forests provide, and linking to some international organizations that can fund these walls in a timely fashion (Gates Foundation? UN? USAID? etc).

workshop with Coptic priest leadership in Northeast Ethiopia, to discuss conserving the last remaining forests which are located in the church yards (called "church forests")

workshop attendees, including the Arch-bishop of the Gondor district and also some of our team of biodiversity scientists (front row, kneeling).

Monday, January 8 – Today we started sampling at our largest church forest site — Gelawdios — which is 100 hectares in size and dates back to 1500. We met with the head priest of this district, who cares passionately about conserving their church forests. He also is concerned about the increase of eucalypt planting; although everyone needs firewood, he sees the native tree species declining and the water table shrinking. He is a perceptive church leader! We conducted biodiversity surveys at the edge and also the interior of this site. Flies RULE! Our Diptera expert, Erica McAlister from the London Museum of Natural History, is in heaven. We also had a generous smattering of Coleoptera for our beetle team, including a tree totally consumed by an outbreak.

Meeting with the Priest (including a video session for our film crew, translated by Alemayehu Wassie Eshete)

The Priest visited our field sampling sites in the forest

My photo (from the canopy) of our intrepid team, back on the ground (including Priest with his umbrella)

Some of our great field team in action during the Ethiopia Church Forest expedition:

Erica McAlister, curator of Diptera from the London Museum of Natural History - trapping flies!

Magdalena Sorger, PhD ant researcher from Rob Dunn's lab at North Carolina State University - finding new ants!

Mark Moffett, ant biologist and wildlife photographer -- doing both at the same time!

May 2011 – Tree climbing class from NC Museum of Natural Sciences and NC State University biology department under a giant willow oak after the first climb!

(click image to enlarge)

Progress is being made in the “Saving the Forests of Ethiopia – one church at a time” project. Below are photos of the Zahara church forest wall under construction:

Thank you to TREE Foundation donors who sponsored this wall, to save the forests of Ethiopia! To learn more about how you can help please visit our “Saving the Forests of Ethiopia – one church at a time” page.

An artwork of Meg-as-Canopy by Indian canopy ecology student, M. Paramesh, marks a successful visit to work on India’s critical forest conservation.

Meg-as-Canopy by M. Paramesh

Brian Malow (science comedian) and Canopymeg (geek scientist), speakers at ScienceOnline 2011!