Abstract
Much of the available land in Dogu’a Tembien is under cultivation or is used as grazing land. Open woodland of small shrub and tree species has regenerated during the past decades in exclosures (see Chap. 18), but semi-natural forest vegetation remains largely restricted to small, isolated patches. These patches are most often church yards and other sacred sites. In this chapter, the historical forest vegetation of the Ethiopian highlands and how this vegetation changed are briefly described, an overview of the different Afromontane forest types of the Ethiopian highlands is given and the present vegetation of church forests in the dry Afromontane forest zone is described. Against this broad ecological background of the dry Afromontane forests, the forest and woodland vegetation of Dogu’a Tembien is discussed.
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Further Reading
Aerts R, Van Overtveld K, Haile M, Hermy M, Deckers J, Muys B (2006) Species composition and diversity of small Afromontane forest fragments in northern Ethiopia. Plant Ecology 187:127–142.
Aerts R, Van Overtveld K, November E, Wassie A, Abiyu A, Demissew S, Daye DD, Giday K, Haile M, TewoldeBerhan S, Teketay D, Teklehaimanot Z, Binggeli P, Deckers J, Friis I, Gratzer G, Hermy M, Heyn M, Honnay O, Paris M, Sterck FJ, Muys B, Bongers F, Healey JR (2016) Conservation of the Ethiopian church forests: threats, opportunities and implications for their management. Science of the Total Environment 551–552:404–414.
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Aynekulu E, Aerts R, Denich M, Negussie A, Friis I, Demissew S, Boehmer HJ (2016) Plant diversity and regeneration in a disturbed isolated dry Afromontane forest in northern Ethiopia. Folia Geobotanica 51:115–127.
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Klepeis P, Orlowska IA, Kent EF, Cardelús CL, Scull P, Eshete AW, Woods C (2016) Ethiopian church forests: a hybrid model of protection. Human Ecology 44:715–730.
Scull P, Cardelús CL, Klepeis P, Woods CL, Frankl A, Nyssen J (2017) The resilience of Ethiopian church forests: interpreting aerial photographs, 1938–2015. Land Degradation and Development 28: 450–458.
Woods CL, Cardelús CL, Scull P, Wassie A, Baez M, Klepeis P (2017) Stone walls and sacred forest conservation in Ethiopia. Biodiversity and Conservation 26: 209–221.
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Aerts, R. (2019). Forest and Woodland Vegetation in the Highlands of Dogu’a Tembien. In: Nyssen, J., Jacob, M., Frankl, A. (eds) Geo-trekking in Ethiopia’s Tropical Mountains. GeoGuide. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04955-3_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04955-3_15
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