BY LAKACHEW ATINAFU
Historical documents have it that the Gambella National Park was established few decades ago aiming to conserve wild animals. Situated in western Ethiopia some 776 Kilometer from the Capital Addis Ababa, the park is the habitat of varied biodiversity. It is the second largest in terms of variety and concentration of wild species.
This spectacular blessing covers 4 thousand 575 square kilometers and it is home to 69 mammals, 327 bird species, 7 classes of arboreal and 493 plant species.
Albeit the park is one of the untapped tourist attraction sites and the greatest wild show at a huge number of animals and diversity, illegal hunt is challenging its existence. According to the empirics of the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority, (EWCA) five elephants have been killed over the preceding year alone. The Authority has called on stakeholders engage in integrated cooperation to rescue the park from such precarious threats.
Henock Tamru, Senior Expert at the Parks Office unveiled that there has been prevalence of illegal hunting in the park mainly targeting elephants and white eared kob bushpig. Though efforts have been made to avert the scenario, it was in vain to achieve the desired out comes.
On the recent discussion, the former Head of the Parks Office Dr. Galwak Kort said that previously, there have been more than 550 elephants and over one million white eared kob bushpig; however the population has been reducing at alarming rate.
On the other hand State Culture and Tourism Deputy Head Dr. Low Obup on his part said that agricultural investment without impact analysis plus insurgent pastoralists have been posing a threat on the park so that the State will devise mechanisms to avert such complications
Gambella National Park has one of the highest concentrations of wildlife in Ethiopia. 69 mammal species sheltered in the protected area including African elephant, African buffalo, White-eared kob bushpig, common warthog, giraffe, hippopotamus, kéwel, Nile lechwe, sable, tiang, topi, and waterbuck, cheetah, leopard, lion, mantled guereza, olive baboon, patas monkey, and spotted hyena.
The park also hosts herds of Bohor reedbuck, bushbuck, Lelwel hartebeest, oribi, reedbuck, roan antelope, and white-eared kob. The white-eared kob migration is Africa’s second largest mammal migration. Such grand mammals’ exodus can be visited using air crafts.
In the rainy season, as the park gets flooded, the animals head to South Sudan, stay there and comeback when the weather is favorable.
In 2015, African Parks and the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority surveyed the park’s giraffe population for the first time, and estimated there were between 100 and 120 giraffes. Gambella’s giraffes were once thought to belong to the Nubian subspecies.
327 bird species, including seasonal migrants, have been recorded, including the African skimmer, black-faced fire finch, Carmine bee-eater, cisticolas, crowned cranes, Egyptian plover, exclamatory paradise whydah, green bee-eater, pelicans, approximately 40 species of raptors, red-necked buzzard, red-throated bee-eater, storks, warblers, and vultures.
Plant species along the Akobo and Baro rivers include: Acacia victoria, Arundo donax, shenkorageda (Saccharum officinalis), and temba (Pennisetum petiolare). The invasive Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth) has also been reported.
Since 2005, the protected area is considered a Lion Conservation Unit. Efforts to reduce poaching doubled the number of wild animals in the park between 2008 and 2012.
Though the park was established during 1974–1975 to protect habitat and wildlife, especially the Nile lechwe and white-eared kob, two endangered antelope species, animal populations in the park have declined because of agriculture, cotton farming, hunting, poaching, and the establishment of refugee camps, especially following the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia and displaced people from Sudan. Illegal deforestation by local communities has also challenging the area.
In 2012, Bantayehu Wasyihun, Head of the park’s office, said infrastructure development was underway to make Gambella more accommodating to tourists. The conservation organization African Parks and Addis Ababa University’s Horn of Africa Research Centre worked with park officials to draft plans to improve Gambella’s security and structure.
Gambella is unrivalled in Ethiopia for wildlife experiences. With population numbers challenging that of the large game reserves in Tanzania and Kenya, Gambella offers a unique safari opportunity in East Africa – the chance to journey into a remote and difficult to access wilderness, retreating to exclusive tented camps after a day’s adventuring.
Huge migrating herds of antelope and buffalo can be found here, along with elephants, giraffes, warthogs, lions, warthog, hippo, cheetah, leopard, hyena, and more.
This National Park is Ethiopia’s greatest wildlife show-in-waiting, and being difficult to get to does not change that. It has vast herds of migrating antelope species and what are thought to be sizeable populations of predators, so if current predictions are borne out in ongoing surveys, this park – along with Boma National Park across the border in South Sudan – could have wildlife numbers to rival the famous reserves of Kenya and Tanzania. It is also rather beautiful, with savannah, flood plains and riverine forests.
But, for the moment at least, such a bounty remains almost impossible to access. This is a very remote and swampy park with absolutely nothing in the way of infrastructure. Further, the animals are thought to be concentrated in the southwestern parts of the park – the swampiest and hardest-to-reach area.
Visiting Gambella National Park offers incredible experiences. It is also an adventure of the highest order, so if visitors do decide to head out there, they will need to have a reliable 4WD (preferably rented from Addis) and be entirely self-sufficient in food, water and camping equipment. They will need a local guide, and we strongly recommend that they inform the local authorities of about their plans. The Gambela National Park Headquarters in Gambela organizes the compulsory guides.
(This piece is mainly translated from Al Ayen News and documents produced by Lonely Planet are used.)
The Ethiopian Herald February 11/2021
