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!

Matthew Jellings is a photographer currently studying for a masters in wildlife conservation at Sheffield University. He specializes in close up and landscape photography. Mr. Jellings recently accompanied Dr. Lowman on an expedition to Ethiopia and captured some stunning images. You can view the photo gallery at here. Mr. Jellings is willing to work on future expeditions and may be contacted at photographyboy99@hotmail.com

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!

Our expedition of 13 arrived in Ethiopia, missing one suitcase and one participant — not a bad track record for travel into these remote places. Matt caught up 2 days later, as did Andrew’s luggage. We are now a team, and were joined by Rolex laureate Brukty Tigabu and her new TV show called Young Investigators who climbed and filmed our Zhara church forest work.

On day 1, we headed out to Zhara outside of Bahir Dar. it was an extraordinary feeling to be greeting by many villagers, and to see our TREE-foundation-funded wall encircling this special forest. The gates are in the right places, the locals used their own stone to build the walls and thus “own” it, and the new latrines have actually reduced the populations of dung beetles (or so we think!). I met with the priest who was terribly grateful that their Coptic church will now be steward of nature for generations to come.

This is our first full-completed conservation wall, and even better, they have become meeting places and conversation sites — with lots of kids and adults like sitting and relaxing on the wall itself. Best of all, the cows linger on the OUTSIDE of the forest, grazing on grass instead of on tree seedlings. And another wonderful observation was that the priests designated the perimeter construction to be at least 50 feet from the existing forest boundary, meaning that they have space to restore forest that had been destroyed due to overgrazing and pressures of clearing over the past decades.

One by one, Ethiopia’s forests and their treasure of fresh water, biodiversity, pollinators, soil conservation, spiritual heritage, and shade will be conserved for future generations. Thank you to everyone who has helped with this amazing success — it took a global village for this day to actually happen!

The naming opportunity for our new species of bark beetle (Cyclorhipidion “Your Name Here”) was “sold” for a five-figure sum to a couple who believe strongly in global forest conversation efforts.

Thanks to them, the remaining forests of Ethiopia will gain new expanses of stone walls to safeguard all the ecosystem services derived from these forests: native seed sources, honey medicines, freshwater springs, shade, soil conservation, biodiversity, spiritual sanctuary for millions of Christian Orthodox or Coptic followers in Ethiopia.

Stay tuned, as TREE Foundation works with entomologists around the world to process our collections, earmark the new species, and “auction” the naming rights in exchange for saving critical habitat.

A big thanks to: Betsy Cole for drawing the beetle, Jiri Hulcr for his classification efforts, and Andrea Lucky for finding it!

Go to http://www.churchforest.com to find out how you can help get this film made.

A portion of all money raised for this film will be used for stone walls around the forests, local labor, hygiene installations to insure that the church biodiversity has appropriate stewardship, gates, and a truly sustainable approach.

DESCRIPTION:
The Ethiopia of ancient times was verdant, flourishing country, frequented by the Egyptians and Romans for its natural resources and for the knowledge of its inhabitants. Ethiopia was also one of the earliest countries to adopt Christianity as its national religion, and in 500 AD Coptic churches sprouted up among the woodland.

Modern-day Ethiopia has been largely deforested for agricultural needs and to harvest building materials. When looking at Ethiopia from an aerial vantage point, however, one can make out thousands of tiny, wooded sanctuaries amidst the sprawling, arid farmlands – vestiges of the ancient Ethiopian forest. In the center of each one of these green oases lies a church.

These Ethiopian Othodox Christian churches take it as one of their fundamental tenets to preserve these ‘church forests,’ and the parishioners consider them to be reconstructions of the Garden of Eden. Some of these churches, and likewise the sacred forests that surround them, are 1500 years old. These sites are of enormous cultural and historical significance and also play a key role in the ecology of Ethiopia – as food sources, water cycling sources, seed banks, and sole habitats for the majority of the entire region’s biodiversity. However, these church forests are rapidly disappearing, with some estimates predicting that they will vanish entirely within 5 years.

Enter Meg Lowman, affectionately called the mother of canopy research as one of the first scientists to explore this “eighth continent.” For 30 years, she has designed hot-air balloons and walkways for treetop exploration to solve the mysteries of the world’s forests. She has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific publications, and her first book, “Life in the Treetops,” received a cover review in the New York Times Sunday Book Review.

This January, Meg will lead a team of researchers and conservationists to Ethiopia on a mission to work hand in hand with the local priests and parishioners to create and enact simple sustainable measures to forever preserve these sacred cultural and environmental havens. We will document the places, the people who live there, and the visitors who have come to help. This film will raise awareness about the church forests, the plight they are in, as well as highlight an unlikely story of collaboration between scientific and religious communities.