Some various photos from our activities in the field here in Ethiopia:

Short pictorial guide to our first “base camp”, Hotel Ghion, in the town of Bahir Dar in Ethiopia:

In the northeastern highlands of Ethiopia, agriculture and encroaching desert has replaced most of the original dry Afro-montane forests. These remaining patches of forest usually surround the Ethipian Orthodox Tewahido churches, since they are considered sacred and spiritual. Some of these church forests are over 1500 years old, and their size ranges from 3 acres to 300 hectares. When travelers see green forests on the distant horizon in Ethiopia, they can be certain to find a church. The words “debr” or “geddam” are terms for these churches surrounded by trees. Dr. Alemayehu Wassie Eshete, our local host in Ethiopia, wrote his PhD thesis on the church forests of Ethiopia, with a special focus on identifying the trees found. He recognized that the church forests provide important ecosystem services (meaning they provide benefits from their natural systems that would be very expensive if humans had to artificially replicate them). Such ecosystem services provided by the Ethiopian church forests include:

1. home for insects that provide the services of pollination and production of honey
2. source of fresh water, since many fresh water springs are situated within the boundaries of the church forest
3. genetic library, housing the native seed sources for Ethiopian plants and many wildlife
4. spiritual and religious sanctuary
5. Shade and soil conservation

Locals harvest timber in the church forests as well as plant coffee and non-native, fast-growing trees such as eucalypt, resulting in decline of the native trees

Currently, the forest boundaries are eroding due to subtle pressure by the surrounding agriculture. Farmers have a high respect for the church, but inadvertently trim back the tree boundaries, especially since the trees often die back around the edges due to drought and exposure. The temptation to take some timber, and/or plow a few more rows, results in serious shrinkage of the church forests, to the extent that some are predicted to disappear in the next decade.

Thanks to National Geographic funding, we hope to survey the insect biodiversity of these forests. Even more important, we hope to initiate, with Alemayehu’s help, education of the children about the pollinators found in their church forests. This will not necessarily halt the shrinkage of the forests, but such education may give the next generation more incentive to conserve these precious circles of green.

Lake Tana at dawn, just offshore from Bahir Dar

We will be based in Bahir Dar, on the edge of Lake Tana. This region boasts thousands of church forests, but we will focus on just a few as a pilot study to survey their ants, beetles, canopy insect life, pollinators, and tardigrades (translation: water bears, which are microscopic critters found in droplets of water almost throughout the world). We hope to not only create the first-ever lists of arthropod biodiversity in these church forests, but also educate the local villagers (including the clergy) about the wealth of creatures who depend upon these forests for their survival. In addition, the importance of pollinators and fresh water and other ecosystem services can not be underestimated.

Island church forests in Lake Tana

On Saturday, Ethiopians walk to market, to trade goods and to have social interaction. But for many , the walk is tens of miles — and conditions are dusty, hot, and rugged on the feet (especially without shoes). The scenery is breath-taking, but obviously no one is taking pictures or stopping to admire the view, when they are more concerned about finding water for their children.

When my Ethiopian colleague, Dr. Alemayehu Wassie Eshete, visited me at New College of Florida, he made the amazing discovery of Google-Earth. Subsequently, he stayed up into the wee hours of the night, printing out Google images of many of the church forests for which he had studied. He was amazed, and we were both also saddened, because the images illustrated the soil color changes where shrinkage of the original forests had occurred. This made our conservation project all the more urgent and compelling. These images also illustrate the arid, stressed agricultural landscapes surrounding the church forests, which indicates the importance of working on increasing the crop yields as well as conserving the native seed sources, pollinators and fresh water springs (all of which tend to be inside the church forests). Fortunately, the Coptic bishops recognize the urgency of conserving their boundaries, as a spiritual as well as an ecosystem services, priority for the quality of the next generation. Together, we hope to creative some innovative solutions and educate the people about ecosystem services. A BIG thanks to Google-Earth whose images really brought home the conservation message to the Bishops of the Coptic churches in Ethiopia, when I showed them these pictures last year in our first meeting.

The Ethiopians are ruggedly handsome, beautiful people. Here are some images of some of the wonderful people that I met during my first visit to meet with the Bishops and determine if we could work together on this important conservation project.

Popular Science Magazine is doing an article on the 10 coolest college classes in the country. One of their selections was Canopy Ecology with CanopyMeg. Canopy ecology has been taught at New College (FL) for 7 years, but will be taught at North Carolina State University (NC) in the next few years. So, hopefully canopy students can take flight to all different types of forests in USA.
Photos of our demonstration — with students — in Myakka River State Park, FL are below.

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Students in pictures include: Christine McCormick, Taylor Jamrok, Meghan McAvoy, Sun, Ling

Since March 2009, the study of insects that inhabit the forest canopy has a space in the Collserola Park, in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. As a pioneering study in the Iberian Peninsula, almost everything is a surprise in relation to phenology and composition of groups and species in the Mediterranean mixed forest. In addition to traditional sampling by Malaise traps, each month I tracked continuously for 48 hours, watching the peaks of activity of insect groups during the day and night, to determine vertical migrations between the canopy and the understory, strata preferences, etc.

Jorge Mederos (Zoology Museum of Barcelona)

From O, The Oprah Magazine, May 11, 2010 and on Oprah.com:

Saw the world from the top of a 16-story tree?

“It’s like climbing to outer space. There are millions of undiscovered creatures in every nook and cranny. Some are two feet long, some smaller than a raindrop. At 165 feet up, I’m the first to see rain on the horizon. There are 1,000 shades of green, and I usually can’t see the forest floor. Sometimes I stay overnight, and it’s too much fun to sleep. The tree’s strong architecture is very protecting. The swaying lulls me like I’m a baby. At night the insects chew and chirp—it’s a symphony by Mother Nature, Times Square in the forest.” — Tropical rainforest canopy biologist and conservationist Margaret D. Lowman, PhD, who began taking her two children up with her into the treetops when they were 4 and 6 years old

Quote online at Oprah Magazine

On January 20-28, 2010, students and families joined CanopyMeg for the Amazon Rainforest Workshop: The Ecology and Culture of the Amazon Jungle. Below are student photos from the trip. (Student logs can be found here.)

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