Review on Impacts of Protected Area on Local Communities’ Livelihoods in Ethiopia

Abstract

Protected areas are managed for different purposes, including the protection of species and ecosystems; safeguarding of landscapes, protection of watersheds and important   reserves of biological resources; and increasingly for the sustainable use of natural resources by local people. Although protected areas conserve many of the world’s habitats and species, human encroachment, especially in the tropics including Ethiopia, is severely degrading and destroying many of these areas. The impact of protected areas on local community and economy could be positive or negative. The positive impacts of local community can include direct revenue from environmental protection, and the maintenance of ecosystem services such as watershed protection. The negative impacts can range from displacement of local communities to crop damage by wildlife, and sometimes include restricted access to resources and changes in land tenure. Management of protected area and the level of community involvement vary greatly between individual protected areas, organizations and countries, and in relation to their management category and form of governance. All of these are discussed in this paper.

Keywords: protected area, positive impacts, negative impacts, livelihoods, Ethiopia