Guassa
GUASSA
The Guassa conservation area is tucked away deep in the Amharaland placed on an elevation between 3200 and 3700 m a.s.l. People manage this area since more than 400 years sustainably under a unique community resource management system. As a positive „side effect“ of it, Guassa became home to the most endangered canid in the world, the Ethiopian wolf. About 40 individuals live in Guassa, without threatening people or livestock, as they fully depend on rodents on which they prey on. The conservation area covers about 100 km² and is home to another Ethiopian endemic, the Gelada monkey. The area also forms the watershed for the Nile to the west and the Awash Rivers system to the east, thus to conserve its biological integrity is vital to secure waterflow to downstream communities.
From 2014 – 2017 the German Frankfurt Zoological Society helped to develop micro-enterprises like bee-keeping and build a community lodge to cater for eco-tourists in order to create income opportunities for the poor communities. Still, as management plans came to an end, the level of self-sustaining is not sufficient to let people survive without help.
GrowMyFuture wants to step in, in order to keep pressure off from the fragile reserve. Our aim is to continue and katalyse these programmes to reach fast a higher level of sustainability for local farmers. Activities in the buffer areas around the reserve, like agroforestry will also prevent soil erosion, which is a major threat already.
GrowMyFuture wants to step in, in order to keep pressure off from the fragile reserve. Our aim is to continue and katalyse these programmes to reach fast a higher level of sustainability for local farmers. Activities in the buffer areas around the reserve, like agroforestry will also prevent soil erosion, which is a major threat already.
