By Margaret Lowman
In the East African country of Ethiopia, a mostly arid expanse of grassy savannah, much of the fertile land has been cleared to make way for agriculture. In this dry, treeless landscape there remain a few oases of green: the sacred forests that ring Ethiopia’s Orthodox churches. There are an estimated 35,000 church forests in Ethiopia, most of which are located in the north of the country, particularly in the Lake Tana area. Their size ranges from a few acres to 300 hectares. Followers of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church believe that "all of God’s creatures should have a home around men’s places of worship". They see the forests as a living symbol of the Garden of Eden. As such, church forests are among the last places where Ethiopia’s endangered native plant species have been left untouched...[continued]
