Establish Biodiversity & Restoration Core Areas
Only Assimba forest has a gazetted status as a park since2010. Conduct rapid appraisal to gazette Ayga, Dambakoma, Silaah mountain range as protected areas. Generate a boundary maps and register the sites as biodiversity centers.
Irob has very limited flat land. The land area of the region is about 90,000 ha. More than 70, 000 ha of this land is feasible for native vegetation restoration under the wide-scale restoration category based approach described on WRI landscape restoration map. The region also falls within the eastern most edge of the Africa’s Great Green Wall Initiative.
The population density is very sparse in Irob highlands. The region is in relatively better conditions compared to the surroundings regions in Tigray and could recover relatively quickly and easily minimal inputs if it is left alone for some time.
The ecological restoration will yield number of critical co-benefits to the Irob society from the restoration of ecosystem services like carbon sequestration, ecotourism, apiculture, restored hydrology and biodiversity.
Restoration Core Areas
The the core area will include, Assimba Mountain (gazetted Forest park), Aiga/Saragumbe/Dambakoma mountain chain, Are-Koma, Maawo, and Alogade/Silah. Irob is the only ethnic minority besides Kunama. It is relevant here to mention that the native language spoken by Irob is Saho (Cushitic) and not Tigrigna (Semitic). Hence, the unique native vegetation names is not yet documented because the names are not known by even regional language, Tigrigna.
Starting with core areas (brown above), restoration activities will expand to steep slopes (dark red below, slope>79%), particularly in higher elevation. Core Research Areas Sites
