Amanit is a tabia or municipality in the Dogu'a Tembien district of the Tigray RegionofEthiopia. The tabia centre is Addi Qeshofo village, located approximately 15 km to the southeast of the woreda town Hagere Selam (as the crow flies).
The tabia stretches down southbound over an elongated ridge between Inda Sillasie River and Addi Keshofo River towards Giba River. The highest place is a hill east of Gudeli (2230 m a.s.l.) and the lowest place at the junction of Inda Sillasie and Giba Rivers (1448 m a.s.l.).
There is permanent water in the main rivers, but located deep in the gorges, they are difficult of access. It is used for irrigation, and occasionally for drinking water. Hence, the presence of springs is of utmost importance for the local people. The following are the springs in the tabia:[4]
In this area with rains that last only for a couple of months per year, reservoirs of different sizes allow harvesting runoff from the rainy season for further use in the dry season. There are many traditional surface water harvesting ponds, particularly in places without permanent springs, called rahaya; they continue to be maintained and expanded. In addition, Horoyo, household ponds, have recently been constructed through campaigns.[5]
The tabia holds several exclosures, areas that are set aside for regreening.[6] Wood harvesting and livestock range are not allowed there. Besides effects on biodiversity,[7][8][9]water infiltration, protection from flooding, sediment deposition,[10]carbon sequestration,[11] people commonly have economic benefits from these exclosures through grass harvesting, beekeeping and other non-timber forest products.[12] The local inhabitants also consider it as “land set aside for future generations”.[13] In this tabia, some exclosures are managed by the EthioTrees project. They have as an additional benefit that the villagers receive carbon credits for the sequesteredCO2,[14] as part of a carbon offset programme.[15] The revenues are then reinvested in the villages, according to the priorities of the communities;[16] it may be for an additional class in the village school, a water pond, conservation in the exclosures, or a store for incense.[17] The following exclosures are managed by the Ethiotrees project in Amanit municipality:[18]
Addi Lihtsi, near the homonymous village (415.65 ha)
Kidmi Gestet, near the village of Gestet (26.76 ha)
The population lives essentially from crop farming, supplemented with off-season work in nearby towns. The land is dominated by farmlands which are clearly demarcated and are cropped every year. Hence the agricultural system is a permanent upland farming system.[19]
Especially the youngsters will go to the deep gorge of Giba river to harvest incense from Boswellia papyrifera trees.[20]
The tabia centre Addi Qeshofo holds a few administrative offices, a health post, a primary school, and some small shops.[4] There are a few more primary schools across the tabia. The main other populated places are:[21]
Almost all children of the tabia are schooled,[22] though in some schools there is lack of classrooms, directly related to the large intake in primary schools over the last decades.[23] Schools in the tabia include Amanit school.
The high variability of geological formations and the rugged topography invites for geological and geographic tourism or "geotourism".[25] Geosites in the tabia include:
Birdwatching (for the species, see the main Dogu'a Tembien page) can be done particularly in exclosures and forests. The following bird-watching sites have been inventoried[7] in the tabia and mapped.[21]
Trekking routes have been established in this tabia.[26] The tracks are not marked on the ground but can be followed using downloaded .GPX files.[27]
Trek 15, from north to south across the tabia into Giba gorge
Trek 16, from Rubaksa (Mika'el Abiy) across Segenet and May Genet to Togogwa (Debre Nazret) (10 km)
Trek 18, from the old bridge on Giba River in Debre Nazret, up to the plateau and then westbound along the northern shoulder of the Giba Gorge to Addi Lihtsi (20 km)
Loops allow detailed visits of Addi Lihtsi village and its incense landscapes
In the main villages, there are traditional beer houses (Inda Siwa), often in unique settings, which are a good place for resting and chatting with the local people. Most renown are in May Genet:[4]
The facilities are very basic.[28] One may be invited to spend the night in a rural homestead or ask permission to pitch a tent. Hotels are available in Hagere Selam and Mekelle. Rooms are for rent in the nearby Togogwa (Debre Nazret), a place that hosts pilgrims on their way to the Dabba Hadera monastery.
^Moeyersons, J. and colleagues (2006). "Age and backfill/overfill stratigraphy of two tufa dams, Tigray Highlands, Ethiopia: Evidence for Late Pleistocene and Holocene wet conditions". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 230 (1–2): 162–178. Bibcode:2006PPP...230..165M. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2005.07.013.
^Mastewal Yami, and colleagues (2007). "Impact of Area Enclosures on Density and Diversity of Large Wild Mammals: The Case of May Ba'ati, Douga Tembien Woreda, Central Tigray, Ethiopia". East African Journal of Sciences. 1: 1–14.
^Wolde Mekuria, and colleagues (2011). "Restoration of Ecosystem Carbon Stocks Following Exclosure Establishment in Communal Grazing Lands in Tigray, Ethiopia". Soil Science Society of America Journal. 75 (1): 246–256. Bibcode:2011SSASJ..75..246M. doi:10.2136/sssaj2010.0176.
^Bedru Babulo, and colleagues (2006). "Economic valuation methods of forest rehabilitation in exclosures". Journal of the Drylands. 1: 165–170.
^De Deyn, Jonathan (2019). Benefits of reforestation on Carbon storage and water infiltration in the context of climate mitigation in North Ethiopia. Master thesis, Ghent University, Belgium.
^Naudts, J (2002). Les Hautes Terres de Tembien, Tigré, Ethiopie; Résistance et limites d'une ancienne civilisation agraire; Conséquences sur la dégradation des terres [MSc dissertation]. CNEARC, Montpellier, France.
^Hartjen, Clayton A.; Priyadarsini, S. (2012), Hartjen, Clayton A.; Priyadarsini, S. (eds.), "Denial of Education", The Global Victimization of Children: Problems and Solutions, Boston, MA: Springer US, pp. 271–321, doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-2179-5_8, ISBN978-1-4614-2179-5, retrieved 2023-10-13
