Determinant Factors Predicting the Dependencies of Local Communities on Plantation Forests and Their Levels of Participation on Management Activities in Basona Worena District, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

Plantation forests provide numerous benefits to local communities that regularly interact with them. This study aimed at examining the determinant factors predicting the dependencies of local communities on plantation forests and their levels of participation on management activities in Basona Worena District, Ethiopia. To collect data, a survey questionnaire was developed by considering demographic, socio-economic, bio-physical, and institutional factors. The questionnaire was administered to a total of 92 randomly selected households. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression models were applied to analyze and interpret the data. The results suggested that the most preferred tree species planted by the local farmers included Eucalyptus, Vachellia abyssinica, and Sesbania sesban. Local communities mainly plant and grow plantation forests for fuelwood, construction materials, source of fodder, and income generation. The multiple linear regression models revealed that several independent variables derived from demographic (i.e., sex, age, and family size), socio-economic (i.e., level of education, annual income, livestock ownership, want to keep more livestock than they have at present, length of residence in the area, have the plan to stay in the area in the future, and have enough labor to manage the tree seedlings planted in their landholdings), bio-physical (i.e., distance between the nearby access road and the land of the respondents where they planted and grew trees), and institutional (i.e., have planted trees in their landholdings, get incentives to plant and grow trees in their landholdings, and have sufficient market to sell their plantation forest products obtained from their landholdings) factors significantly affected and predicted the two groups of the dependent variables, i.e., ‘the dependencies of local communities on plantation forests’ (49% variance explained) and ‘their levels of participation on management activities’ (53% variance explained). The study highlights existing concerns about planting, managing, developing, and sustainably utilizing plantation forests, which may in turn assist policy- and decision-makers, land use planners, environmental analysts, forest conservation and management experts to consider demographic, socio-economic, bio-physical, and institutional factors that affect the dependencies of local communities on plantation forests and their levels of participation on management activities.

KEYWORDS:

• Afforestation
• bio-physical
• demographic
• forestry extension
• institutional
• participation
• survey questionnaire

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to forward their gratitude to Debre Berhan University for the logistic support. They also extend their gratitude to the local people residing in Keyit Kebele for sharing their fruitful ideas and abundant experiences on the dependencies of local communities on plantation forests and their levels of participation in management activities in their localities during the questionnaire-based household survey. The authors wish to forward their warm gratitude to the leader of Keyit Kebele Administration Office who coordinated and encouraged the local people to willingly involve themselves and participate in the valuable questionnaire survey. We are indebted to thank Dr. Estifanos Lemma for his technical assistance and guidance to produce the map of the study site. The data enumerators are gratefully acknowledged for their assistance during the household survey.

Authors’ contributions

SAT designed and conducted the field research, analyzed the data, and drafted the manuscript. DT interpreted the results and helped in the manuscript writing. Both authors read, revised and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Data repository

We confirm that our data file should be uploaded in Dryad, (http://www.datadryad.org/), where any interested person can access it, but only for academic purpose.

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at DOI:10.17605/OSF.IO/TPA6U.

Notes

¹ 29.17 ETB = 1 USD at the time when this study was conducted.

Additional information

Funding

The authors are indebted to Debre Berhan University for providing funding for the study.