The Paradigm of Fuelwood Consumption around National Parks and Its Implication for National Policies: The Case of Nech Sar National Park, Ethiopia

摘要

Forests are vital land resources as they provide some of the essential goods and services for the sustenance of human life. In many developing countries, local communities still rely on forests as their prime source of energy in the form of fuel wood and charcoal. This phenomenon has also let many men and women to rely on fuelwood collection and charcoal making as their main stay of livelihoods. In line with this, in many instances, forests of National Parks are still going through illegal and immense deforestation actions as a result of the energy demand by the local communities. Nech Sar National Park, a jewel in the Rift Valley region of Ethiopia is also being affected by deforestation as it shares an immediate border with the city of Arba Minch, one of the heavily populated cities in the southern part of the country and heavily relies on the forest of the park for meeting the household energy demand of its inhabitants. This study was done to quantify the amount of fuelwood which comes out of the park and explore the severity a nd magnitude of the problem. Primary data on the amount of fuelwood were collected from the three major outlets of the park. Questionnaire and interviews were used to collect information from the local communities, the concerned local authorities, the operational and management staff of the park. Every day, an average of 2909 bundles of fuelwood comes out of the park, fuelwood collection being dominated by females. Therefore, alternative energy sources and energy saving stoves, environmental awareness development for the wider community members and the creation of alternative livelihood opportunities should be in place if the precious land resources of the park have to be conserved.