Qualla: Abijatta-Shalla National Park

Abijatta-Shalla National Park: Introduction

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ninaras, CC BY 4.0. Drive too close to the edge of Lake Abijatta and the ground may swallow your vehicle. The lake's shoreline is a treacherous crust of dried alkaline mud, thin enough to collapse without warning beneath the weight of a car. It is a fitting introduction to Abijatta-Shalla National Park, a place where the earth's surface cannot be trusted to stay put. Located 200 kilometers south of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia's Oromia Region, the park's 887 square kilometers straddle two alkaline lakes that were once a single, much larger body of water. Volcanic activity from the O'a Caldera split them apart, leaving Lake Abijatta shallow and receding and Lake Shalla plunging to depths that make it the deepest lake in Ethiopia. Between them rises Mount Fike, the park's highest point at 2,075 meters, offering a vantage from which three lakes are visible: Abijatta, Shalla, and neighboring Langano.

Image: Ninaras | CC BY 4.0

Abijatta-Shalla National Park: Where the Rift Cracked Open

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ninara from Helsinki, Finland, CC BY 2.0. The Great Rift Valley runs like a scar through eastern Africa, and Abijatta-Shalla sits squarely in the wound. Both lakes are alkaline, their waters shaped by millennia of volcanic mineral deposits and the absence of any outflowing river. Hot springs bubble along the northeast sh...

Image: Ninara from Helsinki, Finland | CC BY 2.0

Abijatta-Shalla National Park: A Kingdom of Wings

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Seifu Kidane, CC BY 3.0. More than 300 bird species have been recorded in and around the park, making it one of Ethiopia's premier birding destinations. Flamingoes mass on the shallow, alkaline waters of Lake Abijatta in concentrations large enough to tint the shoreline pink. The park harbors wattled ibi...

Image: Seifu Kidane | CC BY 3.0

Abijatta-Shalla National Park: A Park Under Siege

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ninara from Helsinki, Finland, CC BY 2.0. Abijatta-Shalla was established to protect wildlife, but the protection has largely failed. During the final chaotic years of the Derg regime in the early 1990s and the instability that followed, nomadic herders moved into the park with their livestock, exploiting the power vacuu...

Image: Ninara from Helsinki, Finland | CC BY 2.0

Abijatta-Shalla National Park: Fragile Renewal

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ninara from Helsinki, Finland, CC BY 2.0. Rehabilitation efforts began in 1996, with plans to integrate local communities into the park's management and development. The challenge is formidable: reversing decades of deforestation, overgrazing, and resource extraction requires persuading people whose livelihoods depend on...

Image: Ninara from Helsinki, Finland | CC BY 2.0