Mizane Birhan is a tabia or municipality in the Dogu'a Tembien district of the Tigray RegionofEthiopia. The tabia centre is in Ma’idi village, located approximately 13 km to the southeast of the woreda town Hagere Selam (as the crow flies).
The tabia is astride the Imba Dogu’a ridge, between valleys of Rubaksa and Ruba Bich’i Rivers. The highest peak is Imba Dogu’a (2620 m a.s.l.) and the lowest place at east is along Ruba Bich’i (1960 m a.s.l.) and at west 2020 m, down from Addi Welo.
The rainfall pattern shows a very high seasonality with 70 to 80% of the annual rain falling in July and August. Mean temperature in Ma’idi is 19.8 °C, oscillating between average daily minimum of 11.1 °C and maximum of 28 °C. The contrasts between day and night air temperatures are much larger than seasonal contrasts.[6]
The Giba River is the most important river in the surroundings of the tabia. It flows towards Tekezze River and further on to the Nile.[7]
The drainage network of the tabia is organised as follows:[8]
Tsigaba River, draining the northern part of Mizane Birhan
Whereas they are (nearly) dry during most of the year, during the main rainy season, these rivers carry high runoff discharges, sometimes in the form of flash floods. Especially at the beginning of the rainy season, they are brown-coloured, evidencing high soil erosion rates.
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.
Traditional surface water harvesting ponds, particularly in places without permanent springs, called rahaya
Horoyo, household ponds, recently constructed through campaigns[10]
The tabia holds several exclosures, areas that are set aside for regreening.[11] Wood harvesting and livestock range are not allowed there. Besides effects on biodiversity,[12][13][14]water infiltration, protection from flooding, sediment deposition,[15]carbon sequestration,[16] people commonly have economic benefits from these exclosures through grass harvesting, beekeeping and other non-timber forest products.[17] The local inhabitants also consider it as “land set aside for future generations”.[18] 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,[19] as part of a carbon offset programme.[20] The revenues are then reinvested in the villages, according to the priorities of the communities;[21] it may be for an additional class in the village school, a water pond, or conservation in the exclosures. Lafa (exclosure), near the homonymous village (44.44 ha) is managed by the Ethiotrees project.[22]
The tabia centre Ma’idi holds a few administrative offices, a health post, a primary school, and some small shops.[9] There are a few more primary schools across the tabia. The main other populated places are:[8]
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.[23] The farmers have adapted their cropping systems to the spatio-temporal variability in rainfall.[24]
The main road Mekelle – Hagere Selam – Abiy Addi runs 8 km north of the tabia. There is a good dirt road across the tabia with regular bus services to the main asphalt road and directly to MekelleorHagere Selam these towns.
Its mountainous nature and proximity to Mekelle make the tabia fit for tourism.[25] As compared to many other mountain areas in Ethiopia the villages are quite accessible, and during walks visitors may be invited for coffee, lunch or even for an overnight stay in a rural homestead.[26]
The large batholite made of dolerite, the high variability of geological formations and the rugged topography invite for geological and geographic tourism or "geotourism".[28]
Birdwatching can be done particularly in the bushlands of the eastern slopes op Imba Dogu’a.[29] in the tabia and mapped.[8] The main Dogu'a Tembien page holds more details on the bird species.
^Tefera, M.; Chernet, T.; Haro, W. Geological Map of Ethiopia (1:2,000,000). Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: Ethiopian Institute of Geological Survey.
^Bosellini, A.; Russo, A.; Fantozzi, P.; Assefa, G.; Tadesse, S. (1997). "The Mesozoic succession of the Mekelle Outlier (Tigrai Province, Ethiopia)". Mem. Sci. Geol. 49: 95–116.
^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.
^Amanuel Zenebe, and colleagues (2019). "The Giba, Tanqwa and Tsaliet Rivers in the Headwaters of the Tekezze Basin". Geo-trekking in Ethiopia's Tropical Mountains. GeoGuide. SpringerNature. pp. 215–230. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-04955-3_14. ISBN978-3-030-04954-6. S2CID199099067.
^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.
^Nyssen, J.; Naudts, J.; De Geyndt, K.; Haile, Mitiku; Poesen, J.; Moeyersons, J.; Deckers, J. (2008). "Soils and land use in the Tigray highlands (Northern Ethiopia)". Land Degradation and Development. 19 (3): 257–274. doi:10.1002/ldr.840. S2CID128492271.
