ETHIOPIA WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AUTHORITY, EWCA

Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority, EWCA

ETHIOPIAN WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AUTHORITY, EWCA:  Which are Ethiopia's Best National parks? Learn more....?

EWCA Address:

Ras Abebe Aregay Street (behind the Wabi Shebele Hotel)

Yobek Building, 9th floor

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

EWCA, ETHIOPIAN WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AUTHORITY, Read all about Its legal responsibilities, like managing 20 national parks, protecting biodiversity and regulating hunting. Its mission as defined by law is “the development, conservation, and sustainable utilization of the country’s wildlife resource”.

Our organization, the World Institute for Conservation and Environment, WICE, has had the honor and privilege to carry out the National Gap Analysis of Ethiopia, which you can download from one of our websites:

https://www.birdlist.org/downloads/parks/gap_analysis_protected_areas_system_of_ethiopia.pdf

Do download it, as you will find a lot of background information about Ethiopia in case you are interested to travel there. As a result of our recommendations, 6 areas have added to the national protected areas system. Our Ethiopia tour operator team, Daan Vreugdenhil and Tamirat Tilahun formed the core part of the study, for which they had to travel to every corner of the country. This allowed us to to gain a knowledge of the country that few other people of the world can match. Before traveling to Ethiopia, we recommend that you download the report and read it, as it gives a lot of information about the country in general and nature in particular.

The report also presents a thorough analysis about the tasks of EWCA and the legislation that regulates the mandate of EWCA, together with the international conventions, particularly the   that Ethiopia has signed and co-define the obligations that Ethiopia has signed to carry out, most notably, to be executed by EWCA. The difference between the international conventions and national legislation is that signed conventions are commitment taken up by the country, while legislation define de actual mandate to carry out what is agreed in the international conventions. Ethiopia is signatory to the following conventions:

• Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD);

• Convention on International Trade in En-dangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora(CITES);

• Conservation of Migratory Species of WildAnimals (CMS);

• Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA);

• Convention to Combat Desertification (UN-CCD);UN Framework Convention for ClimateChange ((UNFCCC);

• Ramsar Convention on migratory birds; and

• Kyoto Agreement.

A picture is worth a thousand words. Most of our hundreds of pictures are favored in Google! Why? Because no other website has so many beautiful high resolution pictures, all taken by ourselves. Our pictures not only show you the beauty of Ethiopia, but they also show that we have been everywhere when we researched all parks for the Ethiopian Wildlife Autharity, photographing wildlife, plants, people and culture. Read our PDF report to the Government on Parks an Culture! So why consider booking our our Ethiopia Culture & National Parks modules? Because only we combine the culture of Ethiopia with its nature. We don't mislead you like many tour operators do. When the Blue Nile falls are dry.... we tell you. When fog clouds the lava lake of Erte Ale Volcano? We let you know. Just drop us a mail info@nationalparks-worldwide.com  and we will check it out for you.

Our tours take you to ALL famous cultural places of Ethiopia, and on top of that, you get to see up to 20 large parks accompanied by a conservation professional, not a mere guide. There is nothing similar on the market. Check out our tours in modules like: Historical Circuit; Danakil Depression; Eastern Route; Simien Mountains; Bale Mountains; Southern Parks Safari; Gambella; Addis Ababa. BUT WAIT: if you buy your international ticket with Ethiopia Airlines, they will sell the internal flights at a price that you can't even ride the bus for. But you MUST plan it all in one package and making changes may be very costly. So let us help you plan your entire trip and book your local flights for an incredibly low price after you booked your international flight with Ethiopian Airlines! Also: Ethiopia can be combined with other East African countries, we organize.

Two proclamations shape the mandate of EWCA:

1. Development, Conservation and Utilization of Wildlife Proclamation 541 of 2007; and

2. Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority Establishment Proclamation3 575 of 2008.

Development, Conservation and Utilization of Wildlife Proclamation 541/2007

Established under the Ministry of Culture & Tourism, Some of the most relevant articles/subarticles in this proclamation relevant to the scope of this study are cited as follows:

Art. 2-1/ “wildlife” means any live or dead vertebrate or invertebrate animal, other than domestic animal, and includes its habitat;

Art. 2-7/ "wildlife conservation area means, an area designated for the conservation of wildlife, and includes national wildlife conservation parks, wildlife sanctuaries, wildlife reserves and wildlife controlled hunting areas;

Art. 2-8/ "national park" means an area designated to conserve wildlife and associated natural resources to preserve the scenic and scientific value, of the area, which may includes lakes and other aquatic areas;

Art. 2-9/ "wildlife sanctuary" means an area designated to conserve one or more species of wildlife that require high conservation priority;

Art. 2-10/ "wildlife reserve" means an area designated to conserve wildlife where indigenous local communities are allowed to live together with and conserve the wildlife;

Art. 2-11/ "wildlife controlled hunting area" means an area designated to conserve wildlife and to carry out legal and controlled hunting;

Article 3. Objectives

Art. 3-1/ to conserve, manage, develop and properly utilize the wildlife resources of Ethiopia;

Art. 3-2/ to create conditions necessary for discharging government obligations assumed under treaties regarding the conservation, development, and utilization of wildlife;

Art. 3-3/ to promote wildlife-based tourism and to encourage private investment.

Art. 4-1/ The following wildlife conservation areas shall be designated and administered by the Federal Government:

1. National parks that are nationally and globally significant and known to have representative ecological zones and embrace immense diversity of wildlife;

2. National parks and wildlife sanctuaries that are inhabited by the country's endemic and endangered species;

3. Any wildlife conservation areas geographically situated within two or more regions;

4. Any transboundary wildlife conservation areas that may be established in accordance with agreements with neighbouring countries.

Art. 5-1/ The following wildlife conservation areas, unless designated and administered by the Federal Government pursuant to Article 4 of this Proclamation, shall be designated and administered by regions:

1. National parks;

2. Wildlife sanctuaries;

Under the definition of the Proclamation, both national parks and wildlife sanctuaries fall under IUCN protected areas “Category 2” ( Dudley 2008, see Annex 5 for definition of all categories)

1. Wildlife reserves;

2. Wildlife controlled hunting areas.

EWCA does not manage controlled hunting areas, it merely regulates the hunting in those areas through licenses.
 

Art. 7. Wildlife Conservation Areas to be Administered by Local Communities

Wildlife habitats other than the conservation areas referred to in Articles 4, 5 and 6 of this Proclamation may be authorized by the concerned regions to be administered by the local communities. Articles 8 and 9 regulate permits for respectively hunting and the collection of wildlife and wildlife products for scientific purposes.
 

ETHIOPIAN WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AUTHORITY Establishment Proclamation 575/2008

Art. 3. Establishment

Art. 3-1/ The Ethiopian Wildlife Development and Conservation Authority (hereinafter referred to as the “Authority”) is hereby established as an autonomous public agency of the Federal Government.

While the name “Ethiopian Wildlife Development and Conservation Authority” is the legally established name, the authority is more commonly known as Ethiopian Wildlife and Conservation Authority “

Art. 4-2/ The Authority shall be accountable to the Ministry.

Art. 5. Objectives

The objectives of the Authority shall be to ensure the development, conservation, and sustainable utilization of the country’s wildlife resource.

1.6.3.1National and global significance

Proclamation 541/2007 focuses on “wildlife”. To what extend does the Proclamation coincide with the what is understood to be “biological diversity” and to what extend can it comply with the CBD?

Art. 2-2 defines that all fauna, including lower taxa as well as their habitat is included in the term wildlife.

In objective 3-2, the Proclamation is refers to the relevant international conventions, among which particularly the CBD is directly related with protected areas conservation. In Article 8 of the CBD, the parties agree to:

“Establish a system of protected areas or areas where special measures need to be taken to conserve biological diversity”. The question is

whether the proclamation only is mandated with the conservation of fauna elements. In order to comply with the CBD, which targets the conservation of both flora and fauna, the Proclamation implicitly in part assumes the mandate for fauna as well as for flora.

Art. 4-1/a determines that national parks and sanctuaries of global and national significance having representative ecological zones and embrace immense diversity of wildlife be administered by the Federal Government.

While the term “representative ecological zones” is not commonly used in international conventions, its closest interpretation is “ecosystems”. In the fourth section of its article 8 the CBD defines that the parties agree to: “Promote the protection of ecosystems, natural habitats and the maintenance of viable populations of species in natural surroundings”. Aforementioned interpretation of the term clearly requires the inclusion of entire ecosystems in the national parks, thus making flora elements in the ecosystems an explicit component of the national parks. The concept of “ecosystem” has been used as a definable and mappable unit.

Moreover, the Proclamation explicitly has added to the mandate of the Federation to administer “representative ecological zones” as areas of “immense diversity”. The highest biodiversity per land unit are found in the forests, and by defining the criterion “immense diversity”, no other legal interpretation is possible than that the Proclamation implicitly includes both fauna and flora elements as they live together in viable ecosystems.

Art. 4-1/a determines that national wildlife conservation parks and sanctuaries that include endemic and endangered species be administered by the Federal Government. In this article, the Proclamation does not restrict the protection to endemic and endangered wildlife species. As it is formulated, it refers to all endemic and endangered species, fauna and flora alike. With the forests and the forest plant and tree species being the most threatened ecosystems in the country, this sub-article once again corroborates that representative threatened natural forests fall under the mandate of the federation.

The Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority Establishment Proclamation, in its article 5, charges

the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority with

“the development, conservation, and sustainable utilization of the country’s wildlife resource”, which is the execution of the Development, Conservation and Utilization of Wildlife Proclamation.

The Development, Conservation and Utilization of Wildlife Proclamation 541/2007 sets out a holistic approach to the conservation and management of conservation of fauna, flora and ecosystems in protected areas of national and global significance.

To find out more about EWCA: https://www.ewca.gov.et/

African Buffalos are still fairly common in Gambela National Park.	Only small herds of Elephants roam Gambela National Park.
White Eared Kobs are the second most common migratory species in Africa.	White Eared Kob only occurs in the park during the rainy season, when is gathers in herds.
Giraffes are an uncommon sighting in Gambela National Park.	With so much water, Hippopotamus are very common in Gabella.
Possibly the most common hoofed animal in Ethiopia is the Wart Hog, which can be found in almost all lowland national parks.	The Nile Crocodile is widespread throughout Gambela National Park.
The Nile Lechwe can only be found in Gabella.	Burchell’s Zebras are rather widespread in the Southern and Western parks of Ethiopia.
Shoebilled Herons are a thrilling species to see in Gambela.	Weaver Birds are extremely common, occurring in large colonies in Gabella National Park.
Saddlebill Storks in the grasslands.	Crowned or Demoiselle Cranes in the park.

ETHIOPIA WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AUTHORITY, EWCA