Contribution of the Guassa Community Eco-Lodge to the Conservation of Wild Mammals, Birds and Woody Plants in Menz-Gera Midir District, North Shewa Administrative Zone, Ethiopia

In recent decades, several eco-lodges have been established in biodiversity areas of Ethiopia. For example, plenty of eco-lodges are found in Amhara, Oromia and Southern Nation, Nationalities and People’s National Regional States. Most of the times, as eco-lodges are established from environmentally friendly, economically feasible and socially acceptable local materials, we argue that eco-lodges contribute much to the conservation of the local biodiversity. As biodiversity is one of the topmost attractions to tourists, eco-lodges conserve the local biodiversity from human and livestock induced disturbances. For example, when natural plants existing in the compounds of eco-lodges are protected from illegal human and livestock induced encroachments, they attract plenty of wild mammal and bird species from the adjacent open fields. This is because they provide the incoming wild mammal and bird species with quality food [1,2], suitable cover from environmental extremes [3], breeding sites [4] and concealment from risk of predation [5]. Therefore, to maintain the long term survival of our natural ecosystems, eco-lodges play a central role in local biodiversity conservation in Figure 1. Despite the tremendous contributions of eco-lodges to local biodiversity conservation, there is a lack of scientifically tested quantitative information that addresses this issue in Ethiopia. In an attempt to bridge the gap of scientific knowledge, this study focused on assessing the role of the GCEL in the conservation of wild mammals, birds and woody plants in Menz-Gera Midir District, North Shewa Administrative Zone, Ethiopia. The reason why this site was selected as area of the study is that no study was done so far on the role of eco-lodge in biodiversity conservation. Volume 2 Issue 4 2017