Addis Ababa, September 18, 2023 (Addis Walta) United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in its 45th assembly held at Saudi Arabia inscribed Ethiopian Bale Mountains National Park (BMNP) and Gedeo Cultural Landscape.
BMNP, covered area of 2,150 square kilometer and comprising five major vegetation zones, inscribed as UNESCO natural heritage for its exceptional natural beauty, rare and endangered plants and animal species.
BMNP becomes the second Ethiopian natural heritage after Semien Mountains National Park to be enlisted as UNESCO world natural heritage.
BMNP is home for 26 per cent of Ethiopian flora and fauna endemic species. Bale Monkey, Ethiopian Wolf, Mountain Nyala, Rock Hyrax, Giant Molerat , Starck’s Hare, Blue Winged Goose and Menelik’s Bushbuck are few of the many endemic wildlife at BMNP.
For its diverse ecosystem, the park is sometimes referred as ”one park many world”.
The Gedeo cultural landscape, located in the Gedeo zone of southern Ethiopia Regional State, is also the second UNESCO world heritage Ethiopia manage to get registered for its harmoniously woven multiple cultural and natural elements.
The agroforestry practice by Gedeo people utilizes multilayer cultivation with large trees sheltering indigenous enset (false banana, main staple food), under which grow coffee and other shrubs. Within the cultivated mountain slopes are sacred forests traditionally used by local communities for rituals associated with the Gedeo religion.
Gedo has a reputation for the thousands of megalithic monuments that sprouted along the landscape.
Until today the Gedeo elders’ upkeep sacred forests and sites under a cultural management system named the Songo which serves for conflict resolution, rituals, and protection of sacred places.
Along the mountain ridges are dense clusters of megalithic monuments, which came to be revered by the Gedeo and cared for by their elders.
This year, UNESCO in its 45th assembly, inscribed 22 heritages-19 cultural and 3 natural properties.