Non-timber forest products and local peoples forest dependence: a case of babiya folla forest, south west Ethiopia.

Abstract

Forest of southwest Ethiopia has a huge ecological and economic importance, but due to human induced factors, there is constantly high rate of forest degradation. There is need of sustainable use of forest resource through NTFP based forest management .Understanding forest resources use in terms of NTFPs helps in designing forest resource management through improving rural livelihood. The objective of the study was to assess contribution of Non-Timber Forest Products. The study was conducted at Babiya Folla Forest, southwest Ethiopia. Data were collected from 138 households through household interview by using structured questionnaire. The study results showed that the forest in the study area contribute different forest product in the form of NTFPs. About nine categories of NTFPs used by local communities were identified, namely forest coffee, honey, fuel wood, charcoal, bamboo, Liana, medicinal plant, material and animal feed. Almost the entire sampled household’s harvested and used at least one type of NTFP. But distribution of the products among wealth categories were varies. Coffee is the major source of forest product to rich and medium category people, whereas charcoal, fuel wood and bamboo are the most source of forest product to poor people. The implication is that forest product utilization pattern varies with the value of the products among wealth categories. The forest product diversity index Result show that diversity of forest product obtained among wealth categories were 1.905, 1.683 and 1.075, poor, medium and rich respectively. Therefore, it indicates that poor are obtained more variety of forest products than the riches and medium. Relative percentage contribution of forest income of rich HHs was 46 % while the contribution for medium and poor HHs was 38 % and 19 % respectively. The relative importance of forest income varied significantly (P=0.00) across wealth categories. In terms of magnitude, forest income differed significantly (P< 0.05) with wealth category of households. The HH in the rich category benefited more than the poor. Forest income of a household is regressed against some household characteristics that may influence income levels. Forest income level was significantly and positively influenced by family size while distance from forest, land holding size and educational level were significantly and negatively related to forest income. Generally Income derived from forest product collection in the form of NTFPs contributes significantly to the annual income of sampled households in the study area. Therefore, policies and strategies that aim to improve the well-being of rural people and natural resource conservation should give attention to the contribution of NTFPs to the livelihoods of local people.