Assesement of Indigenous Knowledge of Community on Forest Conservation and Its Challenges: In Case Of Guda Forest Mari Mansa District Dawuro Zone South West Ethiopia.

Abstract

Indigenous Knowledge is defined as local knowledge of a community which is either generated locally or imported and transformed to be incorporated in the way life of the community. Forest is the major source of livelihood and a sign of the identity of the indigenous people. Indigenous conservation practices play a critical role in forest management especially outside protected areas. Perceptions of forest value are a valuable source of information on local perspectives, knowledge and beliefs. The forest cover in the Guda forest has been declining in terms of coverage and quality due to different threats.The main objective of this study is to assess and explain indigenous knowledge of the people related to practice of forest conservation among forest dependent community, challenges and the main threats to forest conservation in Dawuro Zone, Mari-Mansa District. During study both primary data and secondary data was used. The data gathered was entered into Spread Excel sheet and then results were described in tables, graphs, and chart. Most of the respondents 95 (89%) believes by the roles and function of indigenous knowledge and the day to day life with respect to environmental protection even though most people does not have enough knowledge and experience in documenting indigenous knowledge while 68.9% of the respondents are neutral in documenting indigenous knowledge. On the other hand there is more tendency to scientific knowledge on forest conservation than indigenous knowledge on forest conservation as 82.2% and 61.64% respectively as the results of study indicates so combining scientific knowledge with indigenous knowledge is better to forest conservation but it is needed to educate the community about conserving the forest by indigenous knowledge since the level of indigenous knowledge in forest conservation is not significant when we compare to the level of scientific knowledge. Finally; since the life style of the community 100% depends on forest while they use the forest they have to plant the tree or reforest.