Exclosures in the Ethiopian Great Rift Valley

Ethiopia is a country which is suffering from severe deforestation and land degradation due to prolonged overgrazing and conversion of forests to agricultural and pasture lands. The consequences of unsustainable land use are a multitude of ecological, economical as well as social problems. One means to combat deforestation is to establish land exclosures in suitable areas in order to keep grazing animals out of the seedlings and allow the forest cover to re-establish. The method is cheap and simple to carry out and benefits attainable can be remarkable. This study investigates how the local people in the orbit of the rehabilitation act perceive the exclosures and actions carried out related to them, and what is the level of participation into exclosure management within the communities. The study is a socio-economic research and the informants for the study were the local people from Gubeta Arjo and Ada Boso - peasant associations located in the Ethiopian Great Rift Valley.