Nechisar National Park (or Nech-Sar National Park) is a national park in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Region of Ethiopia. It is in the Great Rift Valley within the southwestern Ethiopian Highlands. It covers 750 sqaure km (290 square miles) and includes a feature called the “Bridge of God” which is an isthmus between Lake Abaya and Lake Chamo, and the white grass plains east of the two lakes. It lies between 1100m and 1650m in elevation.

Nile Crocodile and the flock of Pelicans settled at Lake Chamo

Nechsar National Park was proposed in 1967, then officially established in 1974. Since then it has not legally been gazetted, but has functioned as de facto national park. Following the recommendations of the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture recommendation, in 1982 the local Guji, who had been living as pastoralists in the lowlands beside Lake Abaya and Chamo “were forcibly evicted from the park at gun point”. This was reversed several times, in the first few decades of its existence, as the park was not functioning in a full capacity until recent times. While in 2004 the African Parks took over management, as a result of several causes, this was terminated in 2007. Since then it falls under the Ethiopian Wildlife and Conservation Authority (EWCA)

In 2004, the management responsibility for Nechisar National Park was handed over to African Parks. Due to several causes African Parks terminated all activities in Nechisar by the end of 2007. The management is since then under the Ethiopian Wildlife and Conservation Authority (EWCA). In a magazine article reprinted on their website, African Parks claims that sustainable management of the Ethiopian parks is incompatible with “the irresponsible way of living of some of the ethnic groups”. African Parks added that the emphasis for resettling inhabitants out of the park, rather than educating them to work with them, came from the Ethiopian government. African Parks was told that the Guji were an Oromo people, and “they belong in the adjoining Oromiya province, not among the Gamo and Gofa peoples of the Southern District, where the park is”.

Wildlife in the park include plains zebra, Grant’s gazelle (the population of this species is quite significant), dik-dik, hippopotamus, African leopard, spotted hyena, and greater kudu, lion, and cheetah. The park also harbours bushbuck, waterbuck, bushpig, Anubis baboon, vervet monkeys, and black-backed jackal. 

It also hosted one of the last three populations of Swayne’s hartebeest, but given it has not been seen in the last 7 years it is considered locally extinct.

The African wild dog once existed in the park, but may now be locally extinct due to human population pressures in this region. In 2009, a small group of less than 23 lions were estimated in and around the protected area. Having said this, African wild dog can survive, while not being seen for quite some time and have been known to repopulate an area after extinction.

Nechisar National Park is considered an important habitat for birds including kingfishers, storks, pelicans, flamingos and African fish eagles.] A stretch of the northwest shore of Lake Chamo is known as Crocodile Market, where hundreds of Nile crocodiles gather to bask.