Ethiopian orthodox tewahedo church sacred forests as sanctuaries for endangered species: Key roles, challenges and prospects

Abstract

This reviewed work aims to provide evidenced-based review of economic, environmental, ecological and socio-cultural roles of Ethiopia Orthodox Tewahedo Church (EOTC) forests, significant challenges threatening the survival and conservation of these sacred forest treasures of EOTC, and major opportunities and prospects for the conservation of native and endangered fauna and flora species hosted in EOTC forests. The review used Boolean operators AND OR as appropriate: ‘EOTC Forest’, ‘Sacred Forest’, ‘Church Forest’, ‘Amhara’ or ‘Tigray’ or ‘SNNPR’ or ‘Oromiya’, and ‘Ethiopia and finally 56 papers were identified for final review. The outcome of this review presented that EOTC forests have been islands for ecological, socio-economic, environmental, cultural, institutional and historical service stations and repositories for many native and endangered fauna and flora species. Although the EOTC forests have been threatened by different bottlenecks, there are also several opportunities and prospects emphasizing and strengthening the conservation of these forests. In general, developing and implementing more effective mechanisms to conserve the church forests, to save endemic and endangered fauna and flora species, to tackle encroachments and unfavorable edge effects against the church forests need collaborative effort of all the stakeholders including EOTC, the community, governmental and non-governmental organizations, scientists and youths.