AFROALPINE HIGHLANDS ► The Guassa range

The Guassa area of Menz in North Shoa is one of the highest ranges in the Central Highlands. The traditional indigenous management of the area’s natural resource has helped the survival of various species of endemic fauna and flora that are locally extinct in similar parts of the country. For example, recently Ethiopian wolves became locally extinct from the Kundi and Goshe Meda areas nearby. This is mainly due to habitat destruction, as a result of increased demand for farmland, and the expansion of plantation forestry.

The Guassa are is one of the smallest Afroalpine ranges in Ethiopia. It contains 100km2 of continuous natural habitats between 3,200 to 3,700m asl and aorund 25 Ethiopian wolves. The area is bounded by a steep escarpment of the Rift Valley in the east and by low-lying agricultural areas of Menz in the west.

A common property resource regime in Guassa has been managed under an indigenous institution known as the Qero system, which allowed equitable use and distribution of highly sought natural resources that were, and still are, important for the livelihood security of the community. The livelihood of the Menz community is heavily associated with the resources found in the Guassa area. These include: grass for roof thatching, household materials and farm implements; fuelwood; and, grazing grounds. The entire community of Menz obtains its grass, with which nearly all the houses in Menz are thatched, from the Guassa area. Hence, the community frequently refers to the Festuca grass as “our cloth bread and butter”. Nevertheless, cutting grass for thatching and sale at market does not seem to result in over exploitation of the resource at present.

The Guassa area is an important refuge and grazing ground for the livestock of the adjacent communities. With repeated redistributions of land to allow for the increasing human population, the land available for grazing and farming has decreased in the past few decades, which in turn has increased the importance of the Guassa area. Grazing in the Guassa area follows a seasonal pattern, with most grazing occurring at the height of the dry season and early wet season, when private grazing land and other sources of fodder run out. The seasonal movement of livestock in and out of Guassa has helped to regulate the extent of grazing.

The Ethiopian wolf in Guassa feed primarily on three species of diurnal rodents (Arvicanthis abyssinicus, Lophuromys flavopunctatus and Otomys typus) as well as on common mole rat Tachyoryctes splendens. Like in the Bale Mountains, Ethiopian wolves occur in discrete social groups occupying a defined home range. Resource utilisation by people do not seems to adversely affect the total biomass and population structure of the rodent community, but the proportion of each species of rodent differs between the types of human use.