Photographs by Will Baxter

To protect our people against strong winds.To protect us against the strong sun.To protect us against droughts.To protect us against diseases.We don't chop these trees. Because we relate all things to these trees.Dakito Atestata (Clan leader)

For Dakito Atestata, a Shekacho clan leader in the Sheka region of Ethiopia, the forest means everything and protecting it is of utmost importance: "The Forest is my home. It's my life, and my soul. It's the lung through which we breathe. It's Ethiopia's lung..."

But both he, and the many others who live in and around the Sheka forest, have not always been able to uphold their intimate relationship with this sacred place. Under the oppression of the Derg Regime a policy of villagization was put in place. This meant that new boundaries were imposed on communities and their traditional practices and ceremonies were suppressed. During this period of oppression, many traditional practices for forest protection - practices which depended on both rituals and respect - were almost lost forever.

Today, Elders like Dakito are fighting to revive these traditions, and to revive their threatened culture. Whilst many of the younger generation are losing sight of the value of their heritage, Dakito knows all too well that the knowledge that he and his fellow clansmen hold - about the forest, the habits and habitats of the many species which occupy the forest - is vital in maintaining the health of the forest and of their wider environment.

The reason Dakito and others like him are striving to save their culture, as well as their rainforest, is that the two are inextricably linked. The community elders, who can still remember the old traditions from before the Derg Regime, explain how their cultural system came from their forefathers and was a culture of protecting the forest. Sadly, in today's fast changing and fast paced world, it has never been more real that:

It takes everybody to protect a forest. It only takes a few to destroy it.

Working with Gaia's partner, MELCA Ethiopia, the community has once again found its centre around the importance of preserving their forest. And not just the forest but the water, the wetlands, the forests itself and it's sacred sites.

We had an extensive mapping of the whole of the forest. We finished that mapping and now are in the process of developing a plan, a management plan, which the local community and also the local government have participated in. Million Belay, MELCA Mahiber

Since creating these maps, the clan leaders, MELCA, and local Government have been working together to understand the complex combination of international, federal and local legislation which supports forest protection. The local clan leaders began meeting regularly, for the first time in decades, to preserve their forest. And in 2007, with support from MELCA, they registered their committee as an official legal entity. Now, their association works with the Government to marry traditional and government laws. This unity has not only allowed clans to continue to live in the forest and in accordance with their traditions, but it has also strengthened their role and given them a voice as protectors of the forest.

By working together, the community and local officials have understood that destroying the forest will only worsen issues of unemployment, health and social welfare. A participatory process of natural resource management has reminded all those concerned that it takes everyone to protect a forest, but only a few to destroy it.

Watch the film The Sheka Forest Story for more insight into this amazing community. To see the mapping that took place, take a look at the 3D Mapping photostory.