After a long walk through the 2025 restoration site of Desa’a), we took a moment to rest in the juniper-Olea dominated patch of Desa’a Forest. These trees are some centuries old-stand as evidence of survival in one of Ethiopia’s last dry Afromontane forests. As we gazed at the trees, their silent presence witnessed centuries of change. Beneath our feet, fossils scattered across the forest floor whispered of an ancient era, remnants of life that once enjoyed here.

Desa’a Forest is far more than a collection of trees or an ecological landmark. It is a living archive of Ethiopia’s geological evolution, cultural heritage, and societal transformation. Located on the edge of the Great Rift Valley and shaped by its active tectonics, Desa’a’s sedimentary layers preserve traces of an ancient sea once stretching across this land, revealed in fossilized marine life embedded in stone. Here, not far from the Afar region where 'Lucy,' the 3.2-million-year-old hominid, reshaped our understanding of human origins, geological wonder meets ancestral memory.

Since 2016, WeForest Ethiopia and local partners have worked to restore Desa’a’s fragile ecosystem through Forest and Landscape Restoration approach, erosion control, and deep-rooted community collaboration. This effort aims not only just to bring back the forest, but to rekindle the resilience of the people who live alongside it. Every seedling planted is a gesture toward a future that honors the past.

Desa’a remains a living link between past and present, intertwining geological evolution, biodiversity, and human resilience within one remarkable landscape. It is undoubtedly an extraordinary place where scientific discovery meets ancient vegetation, uncovering geological footprints and mysteries preserved deeper into the soil, roots, rocks, and society. A convincing destination for reservationists, researchers and explorers, eager to unveil its hidden connections.