The spiritual ecology of sacred landscapes: Evidence from sacred forests of the Sebat Bête Gurage, Central - South Ethiopia

Abstract Sacred landscapes are texts of sustainable human-ecological relationships with strong senses of spirituality. This article explores the sacred and dynamic aspects of the Sebat Bête Gurage landscapes using ethnographic research design. Furthermore, to grasp elements of sacred environments and their dynamics, a spiritual ecology perspective was used. The data was based on ethnographic sources, with original data gathered through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, observations, and an inventory of sacred sites. And data from sacred forest facts and people’s experiences were examined using ethnographic data analysis approaches such as thematization and meaning constructions generated from primary data sources through data triangulation. The study examines indigenous religious aspects and sacredness; the characteristics and spiritual dimensions of sacred forests; the nature of engagements and benefits obtained from sacred forests; governance practices and dynamics aspects of sacred forests; and the implications of dynamics on human-ecology interaction sustainability among the Gurage. The study’s findings also revealed the multi-functionalities of sacred forests for forest-surrounding communities, as well as the importance of managing sustainable nature-culture interactions in the quest for spiritual ecology and sustainable living. The research also portrays the effects of human intrusions on the state of sacred forests and their provisions. The article concludes with a call for concern for multifunctional sacred landscape governance.


Introduction
Places can possess meanings at different scales for spiritual potency, long-established engagement, and memory of a given landscape, events, or personal experiences of encounters associated with a given landscape (Allerton, 2009). Sacred landscapes are socially constructed places built from time immemorial and are humanity's important heritage (Sponsel, 2020). Historically, the conservation of natural resources has been an integral part of human culture, and such traditions are common in many parts of Asia and Africa (Dar et al., 2019;Dudley et al., 2010). Many sacred forests have great importance for biodiversity conservation, besides having spiritual values for one or more faith groups. They are often the only surviving patches of natural and semi-natural habitats in cultural landscapes (Alohou et al., 2017). These residual forest reserves preserve indigenous species and old-growth forest trees with cultural and/or religious significance to local people (Rath et al., 2020). Sacred forests can have significant contributions to local communities' socioeconomic demands and ecosystem provisions (Maru et al., 2022;Sahle et al., 2021). The longterm protection of sacred forests by traditional conservation mechanisms has received some international recognition (Maru et al., 2022;Mickey, 2020;Schaaf & Lee, 2006). Despite their importance for global biodiversity conservation goals and local-level benefits, many sacred forest systems have been overlooked by state agencies, conservation institutions, and broader civil society, leaving them vulnerable to various human and non-human land use changes (Rath et al., 2020;Sahle et al., 2021).
Sacred forests are protected through social laws and dedicated to cultural purposes. They are playing a significant role in combating climate change and enhancing biodiversity (Maru et al., 2022), and they are manifestations of an inextricable link between human cultural systems and nature. Sacred mountains, rivers, forests, groves, caves, wells, and islands are the world's oldest conservation areas (Dudley et al., 2010). Sacred forests are increasingly considered showcases for nature-culture interaction and biodiversity (Doda & Yildiz, 2017;Sponsel, 2020). Indigenous peoples in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Australia protected sacred forests for centuries because of their sacred associations, and they preserved several virgin forests in their pristine form by dedicating them to ancestral spirits (Dar et al., 2019;Khumbongmayum et al., 2005;Maru et al., 2022;Mavhura & Mushure, 2019). Sacred forests represent a long-held tradition of conserving specific land uses with cultural and often religious significance, including their survival (Mavhura & Mushure, 2019). Traditional societies are characterized by their close interconnection with nature and its resources and have a profound and comprehensive understanding of conservation and sustainable utilization of local biodiversity (Dar et al., 2019;Daye & Healey, 2015).
Traditional protected areas have consistently been found to have higher species diversity and greater biomass than surrounding non-sacred forest areas (Lynch et al., 2018). They have been recognized for their resiliency in the battle against the impacts of climate change and for halting desertification (IPCC Climate Change, 2011). Community forests, such as sacred forests, were neglected by countries' national policies of forest conservation for a long time, despite their importance in biodiversity conservation. But since the meeting on "The Sacred and the Environment" organized by UNESCO in Paris at the Tenth World Forestry Congress in 1991, great attention (increasing concern for environment policy revisions in line with indigenous forest reserves) has been paid to the contribution of sacred forests to biodiversity or bio-cultural conservation (UNESCO, 2019).
Aside from livelihoods and ecosystems (material and non-material services and support services), holy environments have numerous non-ecosystem provisions such as sociocultural, aesthetic, heritage, identity, and historical. The association of religion with ecosystem management is interwoven into symbolic networks and sociocultural fabrics (Negi, 2005). In northern and southern Ethiopia, sacred forests, primarily church forests, sustain the greatest diversity of species in the area as well as spiritual provisions and meanings (Cardelús et al., 2017;Maru et al., 2022;Sahle et al., 2021).
Ethiopia has many sacred forests under the religious authority and local community care (Cardelús et al., 2017;Daye, 2012;Doda & Yildiz, 2017;Maru et al., 2022;Sahle et al., 2021;Wassie et al., 2010). Sacred forests in Ethiopia have been safeguarded for centuries by strong local beliefs and traditions. The indigenous land uses and biodiversity protection practices of the Gurage people are well known Zerga et al., 2021). As part of the larger cultural landscape, the community has many sacred forests. These sacred forests are protected from encroachment and disturbance by certain taboos and sociocultural and physical limitations passed down through generations, ensuring cultural and biological survival in the region.
According to Sahle et al. (2021), the Gurage sacred forests had higher species variety and abundance than adjacent sacred forests. However, due to conflicting religious interests, infrastructure initiatives, and "modernity" contradictions, sacred environments are increasingly being converted from their initial purposes. This paper attempted to understand the characteristics and dynamics of Gurage's sacred environments, mainly non-church forest reserves, with these research questions: • Exploring aspects of the indigenous religions of the Sebat Bête Gurage, their sacred forests, and their provisions, • Identifying changing aspects of sacred forests and the consequences of changes on human-ecology relationships

Spiritual ecology
"Spiritual landscape" implies a perception of the environment set apart from the profane activities of daily life but is not necessarily recognized as "religious" (Sponsel, 2012). The notion of "Spiritual landscape" includes potent places such as pathways, rivers, trees, mountains, and forests, as well as places with negative potency such as places of death and burial during military conflict. An acknowledgment of the original owners of the donated farming land along ancestral lines with value affiliation remains part of sacred land (Allerton, 2009;Lee, 2013). Spiritual ecology deals with the spiritual and symbolic aspects of religion, myth, belief, values, and worldviews that govern human-ecology interactions (Mickey, 2020;Sponsel, 2002).
Landscapes can be symbolic, cosmological, and non-empirical, and there is growing interest in the spiritual and religious significance and values attributed to various aspects of nature (Daniel et al., 2012). Sacred landscapes would suggest a view of the world distinct from profane everyday actions (Jackson, 1997). Many historical and anthropological studies show the complexities of sacred landscape spiritual events (Sponsel, 2012). Sacred locations are regarded and venerated in a variety of ways: as cosmic centers, centers of power, centers of deities, forefathers, and spirits, sources of water, life, and other benefits, emblems of identity, or centers of insight and inspiration (Daniel et al., 2012;Lee, 2013). Sacred places, as well as the beliefs and practices connected with people of various cultures and traditions, are linked to a greater reality that provides meaning and energy to people's lives (Nelson et al., 2011).
Spiritual ecology as a concept broadens anthropological methods to the sacred meaning of landscapes by challenging the distinction between "natural" and "cultural" settings, as well as functional activities of everyday living centered on cultural landscapes (Taylor, 2009). In the course of daily living, people may participate in ceremonial activities with spiritual environments in a more pragmatic manner, including socio-livelihood and spiritual engagements (Dewsbury & Paul, 2009). Furthermore, even when a converted community abandons earlier ceremonial forms, many commonly held beliefs about spirits and their locations may persist (Forth, 1998). According to Taylor (2009), by emphasizing qualitative research and participant observation, one can better understand the spiritual aspects of human-ecology interactions and the environmental disasters that the world is currently facing and provide an alternative answer. Scholars of ecology noted that the destruction of values and spirituality among many modern cultures towards ecology is more obvious, so spirit (spiritual ecology) is the only plausible way to stop the ecological destruction of our planet. The paper also uncovered this by examining the sacred landscape orientation of Sebat Bête Gurage society from a spiritual ecology perspective by exposing aspects of Gurage sacred forests and the extent of their dynamics.

The study area
The Gurage region occupies a portion of the southernmost range of the Central Plateau of Ethiopia. Currently, the administrative zone consists of sixteen administrative districts and five town administrations. Geographically, the Gurage region covers an area of 5,932 km2 (see Figure 1). The landscape is semi-mountainous, ranging from 968 m to 3605 m above sea level Zerga et al., 2021). The Gurage Zone population is 1279,646 (622,078 men and 657,568 women), and the majority of this population (92.4%) lives in rural areas with agricultural livelihoods (Central Statistical Authority CSA, 2007). Currently, Christianity and Islam have remained dominant religions, and indigenous religious believers are found scattered among sub-clans of Gurage along sacred forests. Indigenous religious believers (ritual communities with clan affiliations) gather twice annually for ritual feasts around sacred sites. The Cheha land (the territory of one of the dominant sub-groups or federations of Gurage) is believed to be the historical home of indigenous religions or cults (Kirato, 2019).
The Gurage people speak a Semitic language. They are sedentary agriculturalists and densely settled in kin-group villages (William, 1966). Villages are marked by the extensive growth of towering banana trees, locally named "Enset," that command observers' attention (Geberemeskel, 1991). Enset dominates Gurage's modes of thought and interests and molds their livelihoods and sociocultural and technological fabrics. It has remained the cornerstone of Gurage sustenance, material and non-material cultures, and a component of identity. In the past, the structural features of Gurage society lacked centralized institutional political leadership (William, 1966). However, followed by anarchism, the elders thought of establishing machinery that could govern the people and regulate law and order locally, named Yejoka (a customary administrative system and law practices that control the Gurage people's socioeconomic, political, and ecological lives). This Yejoka was established in the sixteenth century because of mass complaints and public disobedience, such as a lack of social order, a loss of personal and communal security, growing antagonism or rivalry between factions or Gurage sub-groups, and mass looting (Geberemeskel, 1991). Among the Gurage, social, political, and economic relations are more consistent with the principles of genealogical ties between local descent groups. Social grouping based on lineages is still reflected in their territorial distributions. The principal Gurage indigenous religious cults are organized under Waq (the sky god and/or mediator of the sky god); Bozhe (the god of thunder); and Dammamuit (the fertility goddess) (William, 1966). However, the Gurage was directly confronted by the missionaries of both Ethiopic Christianity and Islam, who challenged the indigenous beliefs and practices of the area. Regarding Gurage origin, different discourses narrate how Gurage people came from different directions of the country to its current territory with diverse socio-cultural and ethnic backgrounds (Geberemeskel, 1991;William, 1966).

Methods
The study used ethnographic research design and approaches. A discursive ethnographic approach (an emic understanding of local cultures and perceptions) was used to comprehend the Sebat Bête Gurage sacred landscapes and people's experiences and engagements around sacred forests. Accordingly, with the research topic, the research targeted five sacred forests as basic data collection sites, such as Wegepecha, Yesewa, Yinangara, Koter, and Aftir, and communities around the sacred forest (having direct and indirect experiences of sacred forests with various engagements and associations) for primary data collection. To comprehend the study subject, ethnographic interviews, focus group discussions, observation, and a landscape inventory were conducted with communities in the forest surrounding it. In all sacred locations, key informant interviews were performed with senior people who had knowledge of and affiliation with sacred forests. Around forty (40) important informants were gathered from the sacred group and the neighboring forest's non-scared communities for in-depth interviews. The purposes of these interviews were to understand the background of sacred landscapes, people's perspectives and interactions, and dynamic experiences. Furthermore, around nine (9) districts, local administrative officials, and socio-environmental experts were interviewed about the state of the sacred forests and their perceptions of them.
Focus group discussion was another data-gathering tool used in this research. The focus group discussion aimed to trace the deeper meanings and experiences held by associations in the sacred forests surrounding communities about the sacred forests, their engagements, well-being associations, and perceptions about the ongoing dynamic around sacred forests. In this regard, four focus group discussions were conducted to trace various features (such as the state of the sacred forest, governance traditions, everyday living associations, and dynamic experiences) of the Sebat Bête Gurage sacred landscapes with a total of twenty-eight (28) participants. Out of four focus group discussions, three were conducted with men across sacred sites for their more powerful associations and one with women. Men have frequent contact with the sacred forests as guardians and observers on everyday occasions, with good socialization records about the sacred forests. Ethnographic conversations were conducted to understand ordinary people's views, experiences, and understanding of sacred forests. About twenty (20) conversations were conducted with people from diverse backgrounds and experiences to understand how ordinary people view sacred landscapes and how they engage with sacred forests. Observation was another method employed for the research. The Sebat Bête Gurage sacred landscapes present fascinating scenery that solicits observation. All sacred forest features and activities within and around sacred forests were observed. Core features of the sacred forests, such as sacred core sites (temples for scarifying or slaughtering, temples for ritual leader seating and communicating, and collection of gifts; thanksgiving/greeting pools; and ritual leader tombs; open fields for performances of horse riding, songs, and rituals); indigenous old tree compositions; failed but untouched or used trees; annual ritual performances and economic activities; and features of interventions and dynamics, were parts of our observation. Landscape inventory was one of our methods used to screen out basic facts. Basically, we inventoried tree compositions, graveyards, new interventions, resources, sacred forest provisions, community and stock engagements, and annual ritual activities. We have used thematic qualitative data analysis methods. The findings of the study were assigned initial codes for each theme based on the specific objectives described. After careful checking of the themes and sub-themes, the researchers narrated the existing data or facts gained from the study participants. Moreover, we employed ethnographic data presentation, analysis, and discussion approaches, as well as data source triangulations, to comprehend the wider aspects and meanings of the Gurage sacred landscapes.

Results and discussions
This section presented the cores of the Sebat Bête Gurage, such as indigenous religion, the notion of sacredness, the nature of sacred landscapes, ecological values and beliefs, the nature of engagements around sacred landscapes, and governance and dynamics aspects of the Gurage sacred forests.

Indigenous religion and sacredness
Currently, the Gurage people live a life of religious diversity. In Gurage, Christianity, Islam, and traditional religions coexist. They have been practicing traditional religion before the arrival of Christianity and Islam and call it the "religion" of their ancestors (Geberemeskel, 1991;Kirato, 2019;William, 1966). The Gurage sense of religion is always interrelated with its moral, social, political, and ecological life. Gurage's religious beliefs underpin moral values and govern human and ecological relations. Gurage's religious beliefs encourage good behavior towards others and nature. Each sub-group of Sebat Bête Gurage has its own Waq (as the Sky god and/or mediator of the Sky god) with a specific name, with the same concept of a Waq and a sacred shrine as a place of worship in their respective localities. For instance, Awghyet is the Waq of the Cheha clans; Enghyeber is the Waq of the Eza clans; Jabar is the Waq of the Ennemor-Enner clans; Samar is the Waq of the Endegane clan; Mando is the Waq of the Geto clans; Yamwarar is the Waq of the Aklil clan; and Iyesus is the Waq of the Muher clan. Sebat Bête Gurage groups worship Bozhe (the thunder god) and Demwamuit (the fertility goddess). The place of worship (shrine) of Bozhe is found in Ennemore, Yinangara, and the annual feast is called Nipuar. There are two shrines to the Demwamuit cult in Cheha: Yebitara and Moqarer. Demwamuit is worshiped by all groups of Gurage as a fertility goddess. Across villages, there are Yejefore Zigbas, where village communities perform sociocultural and ritual practices, mainly in the past and still today. The annual feat or ritual of Waq is locally named Chest.
In Gurage's worldview, the sacred and the profane are interdependent. The sacred protects the profane from disaster, and the profane should respect the sacred and show its dependence (Kirato, 2019). The intermediaries of Gueta/Egezer (God), among the Gurage), mainl Bozhe, Waq, and Demwamuit, are the main deities of Gurage and sacred objects (such as properties and territories of deities) in the traditional Gurage belief have due respect and fear. Among the Gurage, there are sacred places that are reserved or set apart from the profane. The three main deities of Gurage have reserved sacred places. These sacred places are surrounded by secular common ground. According to Kirato (2019), from a cultural point of view, there is the possibility of a sacred space becoming a common secular place outside of a certain moment of sacred activities without affecting physical and symbolic aspects like YeJefore Zigba (trees) and parts of sacred forest reserve areas' open spaces and pasture points, excluding core sacred spaces and inner circles of sacred forests. (see Figure 2) Notions of sacred cultural values, sacred people, sacred objects, sacred places, and sacred time are common among the Sebat Bête Gurage. There are sacred people having ritual positions and roles for deities such as Moeit, Demamwuit and Bozhe. Sacred objects, mainly sacred sites and properties, are common in line with Waq, Bozhe, and Demamwuit deities and are treated with great respect. Everything associated with the ritual leaders and the ritual rites is considered sacred. Sacred places are sacred elements of the main deities because of their religious meanings and associations. The three deities have their own sacred forests. Wegepecha, Yesewa, and Yinagara are sacred forests for Ye-Chaha-Waq, Ye-Ezha-Waq, and Bozhe cults, respectively. Yebitara and Mokarar are sacred places for Demwamuit. Similarly, each village has a big tree, Yejefore Zigba, considered a sacred place for the sociocultural and ritual practices of the village or villages. It is common to find small temples called Zeger for sacrifice for Waq, Bozhe, and Damwamuit cults at each sacred site. Sacred groves of ritual leaders are found within the sacred sites. Sacred times are common among the Sebat Bête Gurage for ritual engagements for the yearly celebration of annual feasts of deities (see Figure 2). The annual feasts of Waq, Bozhe, and Demwamuit are named Chest, Nipuar, and Senche, respectively (Kirato, 2019). Jefore (public common and wide local road networks of villages) and related old trees in villages are considered sacred. No one abuses them in any form. Sebat Bête villagers associate Jefore, old trees, and cultural forests with sociocultural and ancestral values. The proper use of natural resources and proper human-ecology interactions are part of sacred acts.

Debir-meanings
Forests, locally named Debirs, are important cultural landscape components found across Sebat Bête Gurage with different levels of coverage, ownership, purposes, and access. They can be classified as sacred or non-sacred. Those sacred forests can also be divided into church forests and indigenous sacred forests. According to our primary data sources, Debirs that are categorized under non-church indigenous sacred forests are community/cultural, sacred/ritual, and ancestors (Yeabe-Debir). Here we focus on forest domains under indigenous sacred forest categories for their spiritual, sociocultural, and ecological significance.

Yeabe Debir (Ancestors' Forest Reserve)
Traditionally, homesteads maintain a small forest (mostly less than 0.25 hectares or more) reserve dominated by naturally grown shrubs and local tree species within the home gardens (Zerga et al., 2021). This forest reserve is historic, with livelihood, social, and ecological significance for families. They are seen as a heritage for many households as they are passed over generations following generations' contributions to their biodiversity or tree compositions. But the diversity of tree species is different based on socioeconomic and cultural interests. For instance, families having historic associations with the village or direct links with the first settlement have better private forest reserves and compositions compared to ordinary farmers. Such small forest reserves have significant material and non-material provisions for families (see Table 1). Across villages, such reserves remain a core aspect of the cultural landscape framework of the Sebat Bête Gurage. However, as noted from the data sources, there have been shifts in this tradition of replacing indigenous trees and shrubs with eucalyptus for livelihood interests. Our informants and focus group discussants expressed great concern about the future well-being of their ancestors' forest reserves following the dominance of eucalyptus.
From a sociocultural viewpoint, many such forest reserves are considered the heritage of ancestors and sources of valuable spiritual connection with their past generations. Traditionally, such forest reserves are governed by families' values and spirits across generations. According to many informants and focus group discussants, each generation adds its indigenous trees and bush varieties as part of its cultural print, memory, and generation continuity. During our observations and inventorying of home-garden forest reserves, owners were able to narrate tree cases such as the age of trees, particular associations with family members, the purposes of certain trees, where they came from, and so on. A key informant noted that "indigenous trees and bushes in their backyard gardens are testimonies and memories as well as reflections of ancestors ' spirits, values, and efforts."

Debir as a culturally protected forest
This form of the forest reserve is found across Sebat and Bête Gurage districts. Historically, such forests were based on clan ownership. The governance of such forests is maintained by articulated myths, legends, oral traditions, and expressions over generations. They are governed by the frameworks of social organizations around the forest reserves. Especially in the past, communities that had ancestral rights around forest reserves benefited from all kinds of forest reserve provisions and services without discrimination. However, currently, such all-around provisions and services are restricted for the well-being of the forest reserves due to the growing overuse of forest resources by certain individuals and for public purposes (see Table 1). Thus, today, there is limited direct access to such forest reserves in the form of timber products. However, as compensation for direct access to forest reserves, such as timber products, the forest communities benefit from infrastructure provisions, including cash for any private and public interventions that cost sacred forests. There are well-known community-protected forests across the Sebat Bête Gurage (Kotir, Zharam, Grara, and Geche) that are maintained by community values, norms, social networks, and originations around forest reserves. These community forest reserves persist as the property of clans. Historically, all clan members have had access to forest resource provisions and are responsible for safeguarding such forest traditions and associated values.

Debir as a sacred forest
"Waq" is the sky god or mediator of the sky god. So, Waq-Debir is the forest reserve of Waq, the sky god. It is considered a sacred forest reserve for its purposes and safeguarding. Such forest reserves are governed by spiritual values, ritual practitioners, and sacred communities around them. These forest reserves are considered properties of all clans having religious associations with Waq across the Sebat Bête Gurage. Sacred forests such as Wegepecha, Yeswea, Yinangara, and Aftir are the spiritual forests of Cheha, Eza, and Enemor, respectively. (See Figure 3 umbrellas, farming, and domestic tools, mainly handmade or crafted, honey, local cloth, wood varieties, and money] during annual rituals. Bulls and heifers are slaughtered for ritual, and feasts are conducted within sacred forests. Beyond the protected sacred forests, scattered ritual trees are known locally as Yejefore Zigba (Adbar) can be found throughout Sebat Bête Gurage villages, where they are used for micro-level social and ritual practices. Those sacred trees in the village can be found in the center of the village, separated by single, two, or more collected trees (see Figure 3).
The sacred forests are composed of ecological, cultural, and spiritual characteristics. The sacred landscape includes indigenous or local tree varieties such as Zigba (Podocarpus falcatus), Shola (Ficus sur/sycomore), Wanza (Cordia africana), Kosso (Hagenia abyssinica), Tid (Juniperus procera), and others; small wildlife and bird varieties; open fields for horse riding and ritual and social practice performances; different pools with symbolic associations; and sacred groves of ritual leaders. During ritual festivals, many socioeconomic and ritual performances are conducted in the sacred forests, including ritual songs accompanied by horse riding, foot walking, and car dancing, with ritual attendants from different areas. Varieties of gifts, such as bulls, heifers, sheep, hens, honey, handmade domestic and farming tools, local cloth, umbrellas, money, and economic activities such as marketing of gift goods like honey and handmade products and food and drink, are common. Ritual attendants also gather in small groups to discuss the cases associated with their sacred landscapes (see Figure 2). Slaughtering is an important business during feasts with local drinks. (See Figure 5) Ritual participants came from Gurage areas and outside for Thanksgiving.

Ecological values and beliefs
Respect for sacredness among the Gurage is strong (Kirato, 2019). They have enormous values that ensure human and environmental well-being, including housing. The Gurage categorized their living environments and resources under Ye-Waq-Afer and Yeab-Afer, aiming to ensure sacredness, create a common understanding, and care for their environment. Among the Gurages', valuing the environment is a reflection of everyday living and engagements with sacred landscapes. Their ecological values and views have been long-standing sources of environmental wisdom and concern.
According to many key informants and focus group participants, the environment is the creation of Waq (a sky god, sometimes seen as a mediator of a sky god) as the source of wisdom for living. Accordingly, all common lands [Jefore, Serege, Debir, and water bodies] are part of or under Waq designation, property, and protection. Still today, such commons are considered "Ye-Waq-Afer"property (soil or earth) of Waq-where no one holds a private claim or access. Such a Ye-Waq-Afer division is designated by the ancestors' common goods through symbolic and spiritual impositions.
Similarly, Yeab-Afer, as a private home garden, is part of the ancestors' provisions. Ignoring it has the consequence of frustration among holders as imposed by an ancestor's spirit and moral judgments or values (Gurda), community backbiting, and non-compliance with village norms. Among the Gurage, the land is a gift from Waq. There should be an effort across the land to accept standards for care and productivity. So, everyone wants to go with an ancestor's efforts for homestead and home-garden quality and sustainability based on village values and norms. As an environmental ethicist, an individual has an equal responsibility to sustain the well-being of Ye-Waq-Afer (commons) and Ye-ab-Afer (private holdings) in their lifetime engagements. An individual with such virtue is considered worthy of his ancestors' values and norms; if not, he is considered worthless for their values and norms. Because of this, everybody tries to maintain a balance between nature and culture during interaction.
The Sebat Bête Gurage's community viewed their immediate environment from a socio-cultural point of view. They provide credit for Waq and their ancestors' ecological settings. There are spiritual and social norms and expectations for proper governance of landscape reserves, including remembering the deep-rooted efforts and experiences made by their ancestors. Goodness, respect, harmony, and mutuality are seen as aspects of everyday interactions. Socio-ecological norms serve as everyday living guides for human-human and human-ecology interactions. Social norms are sources of village harmony, whereas ecological norms are sources of ecological sustainability in the context of resource scarcity in the area.

values towards the sacred forests
As discussed earlier, the Sebat Bête Gurage sacred landscapes have a spiritual foundation for their origin and continuity. Debir (private, communal, and sacred) are directly spiritual in their origin, provision, and existence. Private landscapes such as home gardens and small forest reserves also maintain spirituality. However, each land has a unique spiritual affiliation and set of services in most cases. Private gardens and small forest reserves have an association with ancestors' spirits or values for their well-being as part of an ancestor's heritage. Genealogically, each generation has been remembered for the footprints it left for the continuity of home gardens and small forest reserves since their designation.
Home gardens and small forest reserves serve as texts for ancestors' land use efforts. Such reserves are places where generations learn values from their ancestors' efforts at landscape governance. For instance, in the home gardens and small forest reserve inventories of one family, a young man recounted each generation's contribution to the forest reserve and diversity by tracing or naming each major tree with past generations. Thus, big trees in private reserves have symbolic and spiritual representations of past ancestors and generations as their fingerprints.
The forest communities have ritual practices for blessing and cursing good and bad deeds on their sacred landscapes. Oral traditions and expressions that influence in-group and out-group attitudes, including blessing, cursing, and myths towards the sacred forests, either frustrate or empower people for their actions and conformity and non-conformity for values. Commonly, there are purification rituals and practices for those who engaged in wrong actions towards sacred landscapes (e.g., tree cutting, forest burning, downsizing ancestors' values and promises, neglecting of ritual and values, and destruction of sacred elements) by preparing purification rituals by community elders to liberate offenders from their ancestors' angry spirits, frustrations, and destructions. These enforce forest communities and other neighbors to bind with ancestors' values, beliefs, and norms (see Figure 4).
Currently, sacred landscapes provide spiritual services through memorials and practical associations with ancestors' spirits. (See Figure 4) Collectively, the ritual community traced and maintained ritual traditions with authentic rights for the forest reserves. They are associating emotion and spirituality with landscapes in their everyday lives. Spirituality is also generated from aesthetic, therapeutic, and symbolic gifts among individuals. For practitioners and followers, sacred sites are helping them to express and enact their religious values and practices as a sort of identity. However, sacred landscapes not only provide cultural services but also economic and ecosystem services.

Engagements and benefits
As noted by key informants from Cheha and Eza district natural resource departments, The three basic engagements in and around sacred forest reserves are spiritual, livelihood, and ecological. They also have aesthetic and therapeutic benefits. The overspill effects of sacred forest in our ecological settings are great for ecosystem provisions and ecological regulations of local weather, erosion control, and the dispersal of local seed or pollination.
Debir reflects frameworks of human-ecology interactions and the spiritual as well as historical roots of the people. They are not found in every settlement, unlike Yejefore Zigba and/or Adbar (single or collective trees as village social practices). Adbars are found across villages, mostly as single old trees. Sacred debirs protect the socio-cultural, spiritual, and ecological values as well as the livelihood interests of communities around and far beyond (see Table 2). Beyond the sacred or spiritual values of these forest reserves, they have concerted aesthetic and ecosystem provisions. Sacred reserves are also considered ancestors' provisions, and as such, respect for such forest reserves is great.
Composition, diversity, and specialization are important features of such forest reserves. Commonly, sacred forests are bounded by rivers, streams, and gorges with demarcated territory. Socially, sacred forests are also circled by villages. Villagers are considered the immediate guardians of the sacred forest reserve from human-induced degradation and have privileges for better ecosystem provisions beyond timber.
Human and stock engagements around sacred reserves are an everyday occasion. Human engagements are mostly sociocultural, aesthetic, and therapeutic. Stocks are distributed within the forest reserves for pasture, water, and shelter from heavy rain and sun. Engagements with different small wildlife, including a variety of birds and tree-born animals, are common (see Table 2). Enjoyment of big local tree varieties that stand and/or fail, open fields, horseriding, and other sacred compartments like ritual pools, scarify sites, and sacred groves are part of sacred forest experiences or embodiments.
There are different sites in the sacred forest that serve different purposes. Sacred symbols are marked, such as the grave of the queens, the scarify site for annual feasts, the well-coming and Thanksgiving pole and site for greeting, the horse riding and performance place for appeasing ancestors, or the forest spirit and old memorial trees. (See Figure 5) Sacred landscapes serve as a source of well-being, ecological knowledge, and sustainability as part of human-ecology interactions.
Sacred landscapes are everyday landscapes for livelihood engagement as pasture and water points, everyday recreation sites, market cores, and service provisions (food, drink, transport, and item transactions) during annual festivals for villagers and ritual communities. They are an annual economic landscape during ritual occasions for ritual and non-ritual (business) communities' presence around sacred forests (see Figure 6). Sacred sites serve during annual feasts as meeting points for ritual community members from different corners of Sebat Bête Gurage areas and outside of Gurageland to manage and discuss different cases. Annual ritual occasions strengthen unity, integrity, and continuity in sacred landscape traditions, as well as the exchange of ideas and concerns about the state of sacred landscape reserves (see Figure 4). However, engagements for humans and stocks are restricted within the sacred forests. The restriction is applied both to the sacred community and non-sacred community members found

2.
Daily pasture and water access, as well as shelter access for heavy rain and sun.
Such benefits are obtained by all forest-surrounded communities.

3.
Livelihoods, medical plants and roots, pasture, water, and economic transactions during ritual periods.
All sacred forests provide services for livelihood, mainly pasture and water sources for village stocks.

4.
Good weather, local climate regulation, control of erosion and water flow, and overspill pollination effects.
Still, it remains a persistent ecological gift for the surrounding community.

5.
Aesthetic, therapeutic, and leisure/ recreation services provisions for villagers and beyond.
Different people enjoy the aesthetic, therapeutic, and recreational provisions of sacred forest areas.
There are direct historical and identity connections as well as memorial and heritage associations among groups.

7
Ecosystems provide pest prevention, seed germination, and regeneration, biodiversity values, medical plants, etc.
These ecosystem provisions put sacred forest reserves as "mothers' of seed"' or springboards for biodiversity dispersion and regeneration, even for non-sacred forest reserves in the Sebat Bête Gurage areas. around sacred forest reserves. There are a series of restrictions on picking and using any piece of wood fragment unless for medication purposes (see Figure 7 and Table 2). The movement of stocks within the sacred forest is also restricted in some corners. The interior section of the sacred forest is merely reserved for sacred purposes. The taking of tree varieties from the forest for private use or plantation is forbidden. The entrance of goats to the sacred site, including providing them as a ritual gift, is also forbidden. Resource utilization and stock concentration are restricted so as not to anger the forest spirit as much as possible. Downed trees are not used for any purposes; rather, they serve as a symbol of decomposition and respect (see Figure 7).

Sacred forest governance
Among Gurage, land was designated as Ye-Waq-afer versus Yeab-afer proper for access and governance. Such divisions have historically contributed to the development of principles and norms for resource access and governance. Long-existing socio-ecological values and norms are frameworks for interactions. Engagement restrictions and taboos have been part of sacred landscape governance for generations. Villages' ecological governance values and networks secure scarce resource distribution and maintain ecological well-being. Gurage's customary institution, Yejoka Kitcha, provides a framework of governance and integrity for village landscapes.
Landscape governance practices are found as part of customary laws, oral traditions, and expressions. YeJoka Kitcha, which consists of different customary law versions such as social, cultural, economic, and ecological concerns, serves as a reference point for human-human and human-ecology interactions as well as the regulation of everyday living within cultural landscape frameworks. Socialization engagements for sustainable governance of everyday landscapes are common among villagers and are maintained through oral traditions and expressions. Among the Gurage, the sacred appears in myths, rituals, activities, seeds, traditions, expressions, and stories. Interview sources remarkably noted the contributions of oral traditions and expressions to the well-being of sacred landscapes. Commonly, our research participants noted, Among us [the Gurage], oral traditions and norms are framed, governed, and sustained over generations by conflicting interests and demands in the resource-scarce environment that we live in. We maintained our social and ecological well-being despite resource scarcity and diversification. We thank our ancestors for their wisdom and peacemaking provision through our long-lived traditions. We still respect what our forefathers designed as common lands [cultural landscapes] that serve different purposes in our lives, including our spiritual and ritual engagements with nature and our garden reserves too.
Many of our informants and focus group participants asserted that oral traditions and expressions still remain important agents of harmony for human-human and human-ecology interactions. It is also common to hear stories that narrate the bad consequences of immoral actions and violations of socio-ecological values and norms beyond the boundaries of their ancestors' frameworks. Among the Figure 7. A tree as a sign of sacredness without human action (researchers' photo, 2020).
Sebat Bête Gurage, folk songs, stories, and myths are strong as part of socio-ecological socialization and governance tools to frame desired values and norms along ancestral lines. Confession and ritual purification in cases of violations of ancestors' values, norms, or taboos in sacred forests are common. There are elders and ritual leaders who manage cases for confession and purification of social and ecological sins that are done on sacred landscapes of forests. As a result, the Gurage elders, councils, and ritual leaders of designated deities are responsible for bringing harmony among individuals, groups, and communities to their cultural landscape (see Figure 8).
For many focus group participants, what makes their sacred landscapes and villages attractive are strong socio-ecological norms for wise interactions and engagements. According to them, their socio-ecological tolerances are products of their ancestors' long-existing values and norms. There is no absolute right for people to affect or abuse villages' socio-ecological settings. The Gurage are also aware of the interdependence of the whole universe for their healthy existence (Kirato, 2019). As such, the abuse of the environment is like the abuse of one's own life.

Sacred forest dynamics
Sacred forests often contain remnants of original ecosystems with growing modifications (Dudley et al., 2010). Historically, they had a long history of sustainability; however, increasingly, they are losing their sustainability and potential for human-induced interventions and sociocultural crackdowns (Singh, 2005). Among the Gurage, sacred forests are becoming centers for public infrastructure such as school building, local road expansions, administration and health post building, local open market expansion, rural town expansion, farm expansion, centers for private investments, and competing religious interests.
For instance, the Kotir and Aftir forest reserves have become the core for rural town and market expansion as well as public and private infrastructure development, including the expansion of other religious territories with these sacred landscapes (see Figure 9 and Table 3). Wegepecha and Yesewa became centers for religious institutions' competitions and other infrastructure expansions. As well, overstocking is becoming a real problem for sacred forest reserves across sacred sites with the growing depletion of village commons or pasture land (Serege). In many cases, sacred forests today remain important sources of pasture and water for many villages around them. Villagers are affecting sacred forests' diversity and sustainability due to overstocking. The frequent expansion of churches, monasteries, and mosques is a significant sacred forest encounter (see Figure 9 and Table 3). There are direct attacks on sacred forests associated with values by other religions, mainly for big trees, ritual sites with fire, and the cutting of old symbolic trees.
The cutting and destroying of sacred and symbolic trees, the fires of temples, and frustrations among local believers are some of the pressures around sacred sites and followers. For instance, the Wegepecha and Yesewa have been experiencing three-round fires for their sacred temples since the 2010s, including disturbances in ritual activities. There are rejections of the sacred site norms among non-believers. The growing dynamics of sacred landscapes have challenged the nature of the sacredness of sacred sites. Our observations of annual feasts and competing religious festivals around sacred sites clearly showed the cracks and marginalization of sacred forests and their norms among non-believers.
From our data, the implications of sacred forest dynamics can be drawn from ecosystem and sociocultural services (e.g., loss of multifunctional landscape features and provisions such as ecosystem, socio-cultural, economic, spiritual, therapeutic, historical, heritage, and identity associations) as core implications of sacred forest dynamics. Our observations and inventorying also traced the decline of sacred landscapes multifunctionalities across sacred forest reserves.
At large, many direct and indirect benefits that were previously obtained from sacred landscapes have been displaced. The local environments and local knowledge systems that matter in everyday life are also affected by unregulated ecological interactions. Visibly, the embedding features of the Sebat Bête Gurage's sacred landscapes are at risk for their sustainability.

Discussion
Ethnographic accounts disclose a common understanding that the world inhabited by humans is intersected by a spiritual realm that ensures the long-term sustainability of ecology and humanenvironment interactions (Allerton, 2009a). Sacred sites are more important for bio-cultural diversity conservation than formally recognized conservation areas (Cardelús et al., 2017). Interest in the spiritual and religious significance and values attributed to certain aspects of nature has been growing among ecological scholars. As observed by observers, the sacred forest area increased on average despite apparent increasing land pressure and development initiatives in Ethiopia, demonstrating the protective effect of sacredness (Cardelús et al., 2017;Sahle et al., 2021). Apart from their environmental significance, the sacred forests are indicative of the phenomenon of ethnoenvironmental management (Negi, 2005) and the sociocultural and spiritual continuity of humanecology relationships.
The deep connection between humans and nature is reflected in the Gurage sacred landscapes. Such connections have been recognized by social groups that reside closer to villages and outsiders. Sacred landscape components such as graceful old trees, neat and green spaces, ritual and social engagement spaces, and attractive local weather around sacred landscapes matter for everyday living and well-being. Sacred landscape marks and dwelling units, such as landscape features and associated identities, memories, and experiences around living sacred historic and heritage associations towards sacred landscapes, impacted the mind and body of participants and observers.
The long-existing spiritual landscapes are growingly marginalized by formal religious institutions, dwellings, and non-dwelling interventions. Sacred sites are gradually losing their values, identities, and potential provisions within communities. Overtaking and competing over sacred places by mainstream religions remains a basic challenge for sacred sites continuity with their prior designations. Core sacred sites of the Sebat Bête Gurage are increasingly challenged by human-induced interventions and by new religious impositions. The conversion of such sacred landscapes erodes values that regulate human-ecology interactions and the state of the sacred forests.
Sacred forests are becoming a conflict zone among actors for access and dominance. Conflicts are caused by resource claims and attempts to gain the monopoly of such commons. Local governments, on the other hand, continue to be important sources of conflict by inciting competition among community groups. The conflict between indigenous believers and modern religious sects is growing. Historically, there were no conflicts of interest around sacred landscapes. Currently, conflicting interests are growing around sacred forests among indigenous believers and "modern" religious sects over sacred sites. This conflict is followed by the destruction or burning of sacred temples, the cutting down of symbolic trees, and the disturbance of sacred sites' ritual activity. As a result of new demands, sacred landscapes have become competing sites and have shifted from their original designation. This has brought fragmentation of sociocultural fabrics that have been maintained over generations about the sacred landscapes.
Sacred forests are endowed with cultural and ecological purposes and governed by traditions so as to ensure long-term human-ecology sustainability through spiritual endeavors. Long-lived traditions of human-ecology interaction, beliefs, and values are reflected within sacred landscapes. Sacred forests exist with multifunctional roles such as cultural, social, economic, and ecological provisions. Among the Sebat Bête Gurage, spirituality is at the core of sacred forest presence and governance. Traditional beliefs that are attached to sacred forest conservation have contributed to communities' preservation of sacred forests, human-ecology interaction values, and bio-cultural diversity over generations. Still today, sacred forests are home to ecosystem provisions, traditional beliefs and practices (taboos), and the preservation of socio-cultural heritage that are evidenced by the past Gurage worldview and values of human-ecology interactions. Sacred forests are also quiet places for personal demands and emotional associations, as noted from observations. In the context of religious conversion, the agency of the landscape often becomes a central concern as reformers and missionaries seek to "purify" the environment of such spiritual power (Nelson et al., 2011). In line with this observation, there are ongoing contradictions in safeguarding sacred forests. As noted in fieldwork, concerns for traditional taboos and norms at sacred sites are declining. Increasingly, the role of indigenous belief systems and practices that served as a guide for the sustainability of sacred forests is being disturbed. The enforcement of formal religions, which are considered part of "modernity" in the locality, is bringing new versions of humanecology interactions by removing human embeddedness within nature. In the midst of this new encounter, sociocultural systems (e.g., ecological wisdom, governance, and socialization practices) that have been maintained over generations towards sacred landscapes are being marginalized for their effectiveness in governing positive human-ecology interactions and nature potential. Largely, sacred forests are losing focus and becoming land use competition centers, which are resulting in socio-ecological depletions for the long history of sacred landscapes for sustainable nature-culture interactions.

Conclusion
In Gurage's historical ecology, the sacredness of nature has contributed to the protection of forest reserves in the midst of resource scarcity, increasing settlement, and demography. An article titled "More People and More Trees' thirty (30) years ago witnessed such facts still (Woldetasdik, 2004). The Gurageland, with a density of more than 400 people per square kilometer and a long history of settlement, maintained balanced human-ecology interactions with the notion of spiritual ecology. Thus, it is beyond speculation to say the Gurageland indigenous forest coverage and land use/ cover designations were products of spiritual realms that govern nature-culture interactions still today with strong pressures of production, demographics, settlement, and new religious encounters that have devalued the spiritual ecology of Gurageland.
Currently, there is a persistent and growing decline and shift in sacred forest reserves and associated values. Sacred forests have been forced to accommodate many activities, mainly nonspiritual ones, beyond their carrying capacity for livelihood and ecosystem services following villages' common encroachments and growing physical intervention and public infrastructure expansions. Sacred forest encroachments have been affecting their spiritual essence and multifunctional provision.
The recognition of sacred forests' multifunctionalities seems less understood by local actors, including their historical roles for ecological wellbeing, which further contributes to misunderstanding and aggressive actions towards sacred landscapes by ordinary people in the research community. Importantly, concern for protecting sacred reserves as well as reinforcing customary traditions to ensure harmony in human-ecology interactions is needed in the research localities with the power of spiritual ecology. Accordingly, all-round recognition is expected from diverse stakeholders, local and national, who have concern for culture and ecology to sustain sacred landscape identities and socio-ecological multifunctionalities. These forwards might contribute to the sustainable future of Gurage sacred landscapes for potential stakeholders' such as social, cultural, environmental, and development practitioners, formal religious agents as well as academicians and researchers institutes in the vicinity of our research area for their future actions: • Sacred environments are not only ecological reserves for the Sebat Bête Gurage; they are also heritage and identity reserves. So, stakeholders need to consider preserving such a sacred legacy as part of safeguarding the overall socio-cultural, historical, and ecological identifying features of the Gurage.
• The research area is human values towards nature (sacred landscapes) framed by values, beliefs, and historical connections. As a result, in the face of social changes such connections need to be honored and protected by potential socio-cultural and environmental stakeholders of the area.
• Sacred areas continue to be important for the forest surrounding community livelihoods, social services, ecosystem services, stock supplies, and the nature-culture link. Thus, there needs to be consideration of such potentials among local stakeholders for the conservation efforts of sacred landscapes.
• Sacred forests are still regarded as a springboard for local biodiversity and cultural survival. They are thought to be mothers' (springboards for seed areas' dispersions) of non-sacred woodland areas' biodiversity stability. Thus, preserving the sacred forests serves as a springboard for biodiversity conservation, which needs to be the task of the environment and biodiversity agents of the area.
• Competing religious interests and forces are increasingly affecting the status of sacred forests. Therefore, reducing such risk factors and contests may lower pressures on such reserves through awareness by local culture and environment agents.
• Finally, sacred environments have a long history of powerful conservation and territorial unity. But changing factors are jeopardizing their existence and territorial claims. For territorial unity, site maps that clearly demarcate sacred landscape sites are effective methods of preserving sacred forest areas from further intrusion and deterioration.