Aerial Images of Ethiopian Church Forests

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.

[slideshow id=26]