“Nature’s Sanctuary”: Ethiopian Church Forests, a Beacon of Hope for Environmental Conservation

The Council on African Studies at the Yale MacMillan Center celebrated Earth Day 2024 with an afternoon of environmentally themed events centered around “‘Nature’s Sanctuary’: Ethiopian Church Forests and the Interplay of Religion and Ecology.”

The focal point of “Nature’s Sanctuary” is a month-long exhibition of photographs by Scottish non-fiction photographer Kieran Dodds, depicting a story of ecological crisis and of hope, as a local nonprofit partners with communities to preserve some of the last remaining ancient forests of the Ethiopian highlands.

On April 16, council member Kyama Mugambi, Assistant Professor of World Christianity at Yale Divinity School, moderated a conversation with Dodds and Ethiopian conservationist Dr. Alemayehu Wassie Eshete. To set the scene, cantors from the Ethiopian Orthodox church performed poetry and sung prayer that introduced their tradition’s celebration of nature and the spiritual significance of trees.

“Within the landlocked nation of Ethiopia, the mighty Blue Nile emanates from Lake Tana, the country’s largest lake. Radiating outward from this sacred source, a scattering of forest islands dot the arid highlands, like a handful of emeralds strewn across the parched terrain,” Dodds explained in his audio guide. “At the heart of each verdant circle, nestled beneath ancient canopies and wrapped in lush vegetation, lie saucer-shaped churches—other-worldly structures that seem to emit a life force of their own.”

Ethiopia is the second-most populous country in Africa, and the most populated landlocked country on Earth. Ongoing inter-ethnic conflict within the country has boiled over into civil war several times in recent years, leaving many victims of violence and famine.

While working in Ethiopia on another assignment, Dodds met Alemayehu Wassie, Executive Director of ORDA Ethiopia, a nonprofit organization that takes a holistic approach to improving the lives of people living in extreme poverty in the Amhara region. Its mission recognizes the importance of protecting and restoring forests in the northern highlands of Ethiopia, the origin of most of the Nile River’s water. ORDA does this by conserving high-biodiversity ‘church forests’—small, lush oases that surround more than 30,000 churches spread across the region.

According to Eshete, in the last hundred years, forest cover in the region has declined from 40% to 4%. The remaining forests, ranging from half a hectare (about 1 acre) up to 19,000 hectares (about 47,000 acres), have survived under the care and protection of local churches, and they are the only places in northern Ethiopia where the natural ecosystem can still be found.

“In the Amhara province, the last remaining native forests encircle church buildings, protected for centuries as miniature Gardens of Eden,” Dodds explained. “The story of Eden has been shared in Ethiopia for millennia, well before the Aksumite Kingdom adopted Christianity around 340 CE, and before a tree came to symbolize the Christian faith.”

The biggest local threats to the church forests are accidental livestock grazing and cropland expansion by neighboring farmers. “The encroachment from farmers is a little bit every year, but the cumulative effect has become high,” said Alemayehu Wassie. He added, “In general, local farmers respect church forests and want these forests to be protected but can’t control their livestock.”

ORDA Ethiopia steps in to organize local volunteers from the communities to build stone walls around these forests, which protects them from free grazing livestock, and to plant native tree seeds and seedlings around the perimeter as natural buffers. The stones usually need to be bought and transported to the sites with donated funds.

Alemayehu Wassie hopes to expand the project to include creating green corridors to connect the church forest “islands” to restore more of the natural landscape and support the biodiversity of their plant and animal species. “We hope to restore the whole Ethiopian highlands,” Alemayehu Wassie said. “We need to act before it is too late.”

Although ORDA Ethiopia’s projects have been visited numerous times in recent years by researchers, and papers have been published in top journals such as Nature, the forests are still declining. Dodds hoped that publishing a photographic essay on these forest landscapes and their guardians would help raise awareness of the Amhara deforestation crisis in a powerfully visual way, inspiring the global community to act—and to give—before the forests are lost.

Through his photographs, Dodds also seeks to “reveal how spiritual ideas and long-held conservation practices have the power to nurture sustainable environments in an era of ecological crisis.”

“In the secular West, we can easily overlook spiritual viewpoints as we seek ways to restore and protect the environment,” said Dodds. Yet the modern environmental movement is historically rooted in religious ideas, Dodds argued, adding that the historic New Haven Green, surrounding three stately churches, is akin to Ethiopia’s church forests — a green space set aside for the public as a physical and spiritual sanctuary from the bustle of city life. Much of Yale University’s campus was shaped according to these principles as well, and the photographer felt that Yale’s Henry R. Luce Hall, with its beautiful tree-lined lawn, was an especially apt location for the exhibit.

“For most of the world today, faith remains a powerful force, shaping both daily lives and the surrounding landscapes,” Dodds explained. “As these photographs illustrate, spiritual beliefs retain the capacity to conserve and heal, a testament to their enduring influence.”

This event was coordinated by Michael Glerup, who directs the Council on African Studies’ Project on Religion and Society in Africa. The public is welcome to visit the exhibition in Luce Hall’s second floor common room through the end of the month. The curated photographs with their accompanying audio guide are also available online. 

View photos from this event and the accompanying tree planting.