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
and 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.
Cite this paper
Alemu, M. M. (2017). The Paradigm of Fuelwood Consumption around National Parks and Its Implication for National Policies: The Case of Nech Sar National Park, Ethiopia. Open Access Library Journal, 4, e3385. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1103385.
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