Transect design for the quantification of plant species richness, density, and biomass in 44 church forests in northern Ethiopia. The country's South Gondar region contains 1,022 of these forests, which are considered sacred, as each surrounds a church of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. Protective walls built to keep out grazing animals, which surround some of the sacred forests, had only a small positive effect on seedling communities. Unexpectedly, distance from the nearest city did not appear to affect a forest's level of human disturbance. Cardelús adds: "Ethiopian sacred church forests are the last remaining forests in northern Ethiopia and are biodiversity refugia and integral to the lives of local people.

Source: Ethiopian News March 06, 2019 18:56 UTC