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The Murulle Foundation
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Updated: December 11, 2007

Habitat Analysis of the Galama Mountains
(January 2001)

In 2000 and 2001, TMF conducted a rapid landscape assessment of the natural resources of the Galama mountains. This assessment included vegetation sampling, wildlife surveys, community forums, and money to aid infrastructure development in several surrounding communities.

The rare habitats of the Galama Mountains are distinguished by their high elevations and close proximity to the equator. The region's unique flora and fauna are a result of frequent frost, hailstorms and intense radiation. Despite the inhospitable climate, growing human populations are encroaching on the higher elevations of these isolated mountains. The cumulative effects of cultivation, overgrazing and burning to facilitate growth of nutritional forage are detrimental to these fragile ecosystems, causing loss of native vegetation and wildlife habitat.

Endemic wildlife species in the area include the Ethiopian wolf, mountain nyala, Abyssinian Bohor reedbuck, and Menelik's bushbuck. The Galama Mountains are home to the second largest population of Ethiopian wolves and one the ten known populations of mountian nyala. Although the Galama Mountains have been designated a National Forest Priority Area and recognized as a hotspot for biodiversity by the Ethiopian government, land managers receive little economic or logistical support to conduct scientific research and have little data on the abundance and distribution of flora and fauna. The lack of scientific data, poor understanding of land-use impacts, and the increasing extent of land-use practices inhibit the ability to develop and implement sustainable management plans, formulate environmental policy or create conservation strategies.