Conservation of the Ethiopian church forests: Threats, opportunities and implications for their management.

In the central and northern highlands of Ethiopia, native forest and forest biodiversity is almost confined to sacred groves associated with churches. Local communities rely on these 'church forests' for essential ecosystem services including shade and fresh water but little is known about their region-wide distribution and conservation value. We (1) performed the first large-scale spatially-explicit assessment of church forests, combining remote-sensing and field data, to assess the number of forests, their size, shape, isolation and woody plant species composition, (2) determined their plant communities and related these to environmental variables and potential natural vegetation, (3) identified the main challenges to biodiversity conservation in view of plant population dynamics and anthropogenic disturbances, and (4) present guidelines for management and policy.

Thyroid disease in Tikur Anbessa Hospital: a five-year review.

Diseases of the thyroid are not uncommon particularly in the highlands of Ethiopia. To see the pattern of surgical thyroid disorders, a review of operated cases of thyroid diseases in the period 1997-2001 was conducted in Tikur Anbessa Hospital, Addis Ababa. During the period, 472 patients underwent surgery for goiter.