We held our two-day workshop at Bahir Dar University on 22nd and 23rd February very successfully with over 50 participants. On the first day of the workshop, representatives of Ethiopian institutions reported on church forests, the biological and cultural relevance of church forests and on various conservation projects to preserve and promote church forests. The workshop was opened by Solomon Addisu and Habtamu Deffersha, as well as by Getachew Alemayehu (Dean) and Firew T Amogne (President of BDU). This was followed by an introduction to the Biocult Project by Mike Teucher and Jan C. Habel. In the following presentations, biodiversity and valuable ecosystem services of the church forests of Mitiku and Kifle were presented. In the afternoon, the focus was mainly on the protection of the last church forests, with presentations by Demamu, Beyene Belay, Peter Borchardt and Dessie Assefa. On the second day of the workshop, the leaders of the single working packages presented their topics, issues and methodology, focusing on the following: Vegetation Ecology – Christine Schmitt, Insects - Jonas Eberle and Martin Husemann, Butterfly Communities and Population Ecology of Butterflies - Thomas Schmitt and Eva Benkhoff, Bird Communities - Beate Apfelbeck and Onesmus Kioko, Ecosystem Functions - Jan C. Habel, and Social Sciences - Alexandra Reith. The full workshop programme is available here.
