Borena-Sayint National Park (formerly known as denkoro Chaka state reserve) is found in the central Amhara development corridor of Ethiopia, which is about 600km from Addis Ababa through Debre Birhan, 300km from Bahir-Dar through Merto Lemariam and 200km south west of Dessie.
Borena-Sayint National Park is sharing a boundary with Borena, Mehal Saynt, and Saynt woredas. Most part of the park is found in Borena wereda.
It is bordered by nine kebeles in the side of Borenawereda namely, Miskabie, Fati-Janeberu, Abu-Aderie, Jelisa-Jibanos, Anferfra, Chero-Cherkos, Chiro-Kadis, Dega-Dibi, and Hawey-Betaso.
It also shares a common boundary with three Kebeles (namely Kotet, Wejed, and Samayie) from Mehal Sayntwereda and one kebele (namely Beja-Chilaga) in the side of Saynt wereda.
Borena-Sayint National Park has an exaggerated length and narrow width and of rectangular shape. It has been surrounded by traditional agricultural practice. As such environmental degradation is a common phenomenon in the highland.
Although it is found in a highly degraded, eroded and isolated ecosystem; The park can be said an “island” within a highly modified environment.
The park total area covered 15262 hectares of land, harbours a significant number of large and small mammals, birds, amphibians, and plant.
The landscape of the park is composed of rough topography, deeply incised valleys, escarpments, plateau, cone-shaped peaks and fascinating cliffs. It has different topographical features ranging from low land to highland mountains.
The altitude ranges between 1900 to 4280m above sea level. The topography of Borena wereda is dominated by mountains (10%), plain (20%), valley (30%) and ups and downs (40%).
There are around six caves along the cliff, which separate the Afromontane forest from the upper part of the park. The park has some amazing peaks such as Kabu Kora, Mossebit, Galokab, Shiftoch Kora, Gulas, Kerkeha Ras; which is covered by trees peaks also serve as a natural watching tower for tourists.
Due to high variation of altitude, agro-climatically the park is classified within three belts of weather, Woina Dega (temperate), Dega (cool zone) and Wurch (alpine).
Being dominated by typical Sub afro-alpine areas vegetation, the park is a natural habitat for large mammals and endemic birds.
Sedentary agriculture, where crop cultivation complemented by a strong livestock rearing, which is the primary occupation of the community. Moreover, the area is characterized by a minimum of socio-economic infrastructure and administrative institutions.
The afro-alpine strip of forest encompasses Afromontane forest in its lower part of sub-afro-alpine and afro-alpine vegetation types in its upper part. The Afromontane one is a narrow of forest and its occurrence is largely restricted to Borena wereda.
It is dominated by big trees and different types of shrubs. The afro-alpine and sub-afro alpine part are dominated by species of Erica trees and shrubs, interspersed with tussock grass or Guassa (Festuca spp.) and Lobelia rhynchopetalum populations.
The incredible vegetation resources of the park are main ecotourism resources. According to ANRSP, there are around 66 families vegitation species, consisting of 174 species of plants which are higher species diversity in comparison to other Afromontane forests of the country.
Gaint lobelia (Jibera), Bidens pachyloma (Adey-Abeba), Plectocephalus, Euphorbia dumalis, Acanthus sennii (Shekori), Solanaceous gigas (Yeshikoko Gomen), Echinops longisetus and Echinops kebericho are endemic to the park. Both the Afromontane forest and the upper part of the park have a very attractive view for the tourists.