The Mountainous Ankober Landscape – Future Home to SLM Research Centre

A protected forest on the hills of Ankober. Photo: HoA-REC

Addis Ababa - December 14, 2011 – The Horn of Africa Regional Environment Centre and Network (HoA-REC/N), in cooperation with Ankober Woreda Development Association (AWDA) and Increasing Peoples Opportunities (IPO), held a panel discussion on possible collaboration between the University of Perugia and Italian Geographical Society with concerned Ethiopian institutions working on research, conservation and management of ecosystems. The Italian delegation composed of seven scientists and researchers came to Ethiopia to inaugurate a special research centre being established in Ankober Woreda in memory of the Italian scientist Orazio Antinori (1811-1882), who lived and studied the ecology of the area from 1876 to 1882.

The research centre will facilitate research and development projects focused on conservation and sustainable management of the natural ecosystem of Ankober and its vicinity by researchers and students from Ethiopian and Italian universities and research institutions.

Panel discussants established a platform for future communications and agreed to collaborate on research and development endeavors between Addis Ababa University, the Center of Athenaeum for the Scientific Museums (CAMS) of the University of Perugia and the Italian Geographical Society. Participants emphasized the need to strengthen private sector participation in order to implement the development agenda and how to link rural investments with research outputs and objectives.

Furthermore, a working group for the initiative was formed and national efforts from Italy and Ethiopia will be coordinated by i) the Italian Geographical Society, and ii) HoA-REC/N and AWDA (working in partnership), respectively. The working group will develop an MOU for collaboration, research interest and intervention options, proposal development and schedules.

Subsequent interventions, to be coordinated by HoA-REC/N in collaboration with stakeholders (including AWDA), will include:

• Research on natural resource conservation,
• Biodiversity conservation and degraded landscape rehabilitation,
• Community forestry and carbon finance schemes,
• Ecotourism and livelihood development endeavors, and
• Energy intervention (renewable energy development).

Participants envisaged a Study and Research Centre that will operate in cooperation with Ethiopian universities and the local authorities to promote a better quality of life for the Ankober people through the enhancement of the natural, cultural, historical and economic heritage of the region.

Pictured are meeting participants deliberating on an overview of the Ankober community. Photo: Niels Kuiper

Institutions represented at the meeting included: the Italian delegation from the University of Perugia and Italian Geographical Society, Italian Embassy, various departments and institutes within Addis Ababa University (including the departments of geography, geology, biotechnology, botany, zoology, and the Institute of Ethiopian Studies), The National Herbarium of Ethiopia, Ethiopian Institute for Agricultural Research, Forum for Environment, Frankfurt Zoological Society, Ankober Woreda Administration, Ankober Woreda Development Association, and Increasing People Opportunity.

The Menelik II Palace Lodge of Ankober. Photo: HoA-REC