Arboretum of Haramaya
Torsten Melzer travelled for ARBONETH to the Harari Region in east Ethiopia near to the UNESCO World Heritage Harar. The Haramaya University was founded in 1954 and the oldest arboretum of Ethiopia can be found here. 1997 the Forest Department left from Haramaya to Wondo Genet and the arboretum, named by the famous runner Adunya, was forgotten. That means, there was almost no tree care until 20 years.
Hyenas family living in a cave under the arboretum
Mixed methods: Tree inventory, risk management and condition of the quadrants
Torsten started his work in March 2017 for 15 days and determines 13 indigenous and 26 exotic tree species and counts around 1200 trees. He gathered accurate information’s about the height, the size and health of single trees or tree populations, the diversity and the condition of the arboretum.
Adunya Park / Arboretum
Resume
The Arboretum of the Haramaya University is in a worse condition, but the potential for the region is highly important. With an ecological and sustainable development concept and care work this place can be revived in a few years. There are beautiful middle age and mature trees and there is a special biodiversity with different birds, deer’s and hyenas. Every evening the human friendly hyenas cross the streets around the Arboretum and Torsten observed these usually dangerous animals after his work.