Our aim is to assess two sites in the Southwest of Ethiopia, within the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region and the Gambela region. In the first, the Sheka Forest Biosphere Reserve in the Sheka zone, merits a thorough understanding of its herpetofauna to better assess the uniqueness of the forest, grasslands and highland moorlands. Secondly, the Baro watershed will be assessed up to its confluence with the Sobat river. The vast area under study includes different habitat types including riverine forest, broadleaf forest and bamboo forest. The combination with wetlands, moorland and forest edges provide for a rich habitat diversity, emphasizing the conservation importance of the area.

With this work we aim to contribute in two different ways: The first is to increase the knowledge of an under researched biodiversity hotspot being the Baro-watershed, nationally and internationally, and setting up a monitoring baseline for future biodiversity conservation efforts. The high species richness and degree of endemism that is expected from this area merits a thorough understanding of its biodiversity and the threats they face. Secondly, our aim is to also quantify the ecosystem service provisioning of the Baro watershed, as it is of great importance to the region feeding into the Gambella Swamps of Gambella National Park, which forms an integral part of the floodplains that feed the largest (terrestrial) mammal migration on Earth. Moreover, the Sheka Forest can be seen as the green lungs of Ethiopia, and a quantification of the carbon storage and sequestration potential will be crucial to highlight its importance.