Guassa Community Conservation Area

Guassa is remarkable less for its landscape, which is high open moorland at around 3,200 to 3,700 metres, than for how it has been managed: the surrounding communities have regulated grazing and the cutting of guassa grass here under their own system, the qero, since roughly the seventeenth century, closing and opening the area on a cycle, which is among the oldest documented community conservation arrangements anywhere. The result is intact Afroalpine habitat supporting Ethiopian wolves, which are seen here with reasonable regularity, along with large gelada troops, klipspringer, and endemic birds. A community lodge provides accommodation and local guides walk visitors across the plateau. It is far less visited than the Simiens and considerably easier to reach from Addis Ababa.

What you actually see

• Ethiopian wolves - hunting rodents on the open moorland.
• Gelada troops - large groups grazing the plateau grass.
• Afroalpine moorland - giant lobelia, heather and tussock grass.
• Community management - the centuries-old grazing system in operation.

When to go

October to March for dry walking and the clearest air. Wolves are most active in the early morning and late afternoon. Nights are freezing at this altitude in any month. June to September is wet and the tracks become difficult.

Honest expectations

Accommodation is a community lodge with basic facilities and no heating; it is genuinely cold. Wolf sightings are likely but never guaranteed. Walking is at altitude on open moor with no shelter from wind or rain. The drive from Addis Ababa takes most of a day.

Nearby

Debre Birhan lies south; Ankober is southeast.