Bale–Shashemene Highlands · Ethiopia
A collaborative ethnobotanical research initiative preserving traditional medicinal plant knowledge for scientific study and community benefit.
Mission
Bridging traditional knowledge and modern biodiversity science in one of Ethiopia's most ecologically rich regions.
The Bale-Shashemene highlands hold centuries of indigenous knowledge about medicinal plants used by local communities for healing, nutrition, and cultural practice. Much of this knowledge exists only in oral tradition and faces erosion as ecosystems and livelihoods change.
Through systematic field documentation at the Shashemene Biodiversity Garden and surrounding sites, this initiative creates a permanent, accessible record of plant species — with names in Afaan Oromo, Amharic, and English — alongside their traditional uses, preparation methods, and collection metadata.
Our work supports grant applications, peer-reviewed publications, and institutional collaboration while ensuring that community knowledge-holders are acknowledged as primary sources of this research.
Impact
Specimen of Note
Cross-Referenced · Bale Mountain Foothills
Bark powder traditionally used as anthelmintic. One of the most documented Ethiopian medicinal plants in historical literature — now archived with full trilingual nomenclature and field metadata.
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Three pillars of our ongoing research documentation.
Searchable database of documented species with multilingual names, traditional uses, and verification status.
Browse the archive →
Methodology, site maps, and photographic documentation from ongoing collection work in the field.
View field work →
Peer-reviewed papers, preprints, and formal citations from our ethnobotanical research programme.
Read publications →Highlights
Every specimen recorded in English, Afaan Oromo, and Amharic (Ge'ez script) with scientific binomial identification.
Three-tier status system: Field Reported → Cross-Referenced → Lab Verified for scientific rigour.
Knowledge-holders acknowledged as primary sources with informed consent at every collection event.
The Team
Perspectives from the team leading this initiative.
Full profile →Traditional medicine is not folklore — it is empirical knowledge accumulated over generations. Our role is to document it with the rigour it deserves.
Lencho Taye — Lead Researcher
Full profile →Every plant we collect carries a story from the community that shared it. That story is as important as the specimen itself.
Derartu Taye — Field Data Researcher
In the Field
Systematic ethnobotanical documentation under EBI internship protocols. Ongoing through 2026.
Highland medicinal species survey with community knowledge-holder interviews.
Timeline
January 2026
Formal acceptance from EBI Shashemene Biodiversity Garden Director.
May 2026
Public launch of the digital plant database and research platform.
Scholarship
Preprint · March 2026
The first systematic documentation of medicinal plant species recorded during field surveys at EBI's Shashemene Biodiversity Garden.
All publications →