The Majang Forest Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO recognized and protected forest in the Gambella Regional State, has fallen victim to an onslaught of illicit trade operations turning the once pristine natural preserve into a territory rife with trade investment and exploitation.
An investigation conducted by The Reporter reveals the area now hosts traders and laborers who chop down the forest’s trees for timber and charcoal, as well as investors who are utilizing the land for commercial farming and mining operations.
The Majang Forest Reserve is composed of 44,000 hectares of core biosphere land covering the Mangashi and Godere woredas in Gambella, divided into eight biosphere cores. The total Majang forest coverage, including buffer zones, sits at more than 108,000 hectares.
Three of the eight biosphere cores have been destroyed by heavy logging and other commercial activity, according to a local official who spoke to The Reporter on condition of anonymity.
“The illegal operators have come largely from central and northern Ethiopia,” said the official.
He and several of his peers in the local administration allege the destruction taking place in Majang is intentional.
“Until last year, Majang was under the protection of the Environmental Protection Bureau. But a year ago, a letter from the regional government stated that the Majang Forest Area had been transferred to the Agricultural and Rural Development Bureau. However, a vacuum was intentionally created during the transition period,” said one official.
The letter was dispatched to local officials in both woredas covering the forest, and as a result, jurisdiction remains unclear and neither of them has the authority to act. NGOs like MELCA Ethiopia and Farm Africa, which had been involved in conservation works in the area, left Majang following the receipt of the letter last year, according to local officials.
Officials of the Gambella regional administration did not respond to requests for comment.
The Majang Forest is one of 23 registered reserves that border the Sheka and Bench Maji zones of the Southern regional state to the southeast, Oromia’s Illubabor zone to the north, and the Anyuak Zone to the west.
Majang consists of moist Afromontane forest, transitional rainforest, and combretum-terminalia woodland, a lake, and several rivers. It is home to 39 threatened species, many of which are rare plant species.
The Majang Forest Biosphere was granted official recognition in June 2017.
Between 2020 and 2023, Ethiopia generated 666 million birr from royalty revenues and other revenues from the sales of forest products under government control, according to a recent report from the Ethiopian Forestry Development (EFD).
