Local Community Attitudes towards Conservation of Afroalpine Habitat in Chilalo-Galama Mountains Range, Arsi Mountains National Park, Ethiopia

Abstract

Three fourth of the populations of developing countries live in rural areas where they directly depend on biodiversity and ecosystem services for their livelihoods. Hence, any conservation practices to be successful highly requires the positive attitude and involvement of local community. The main objective of study is to gather information on local communities’ attitudes towards the protection of the climate change vulnerable Afroalpine Habitat of Chilalo-Galama Mountains Range which one of the four blocks of Arsi Mountains National Park from March 2014 to December 2015. Stratified random sampling technique was used to sample 370 households based on their settlement distance from the protected area. Both qualitative and quantitative data were gathered through observation, questionnaire and focus group discussion and analysed by simple descriptive statistics. More than 81% of the local communities were happy for the protection of Chilalo-Galama Mountains Range since it provides pasture land, water and possess endemic animals like Ethiopian wolf, Mountain Nyla and Hare which can be used for tourism attraction. About 54% of respondents used different resources inside the protected area and had different attitude on the priority of conservation for different groups of animals and plants. They also perceive differently the conservation and protection based on the distance of their settlement from the it. Providing management responsibility to the local community was supported by 98.11% of the respondents as effective conservation strategy. The local communities were also well perceived as climate change affecting the Afroalpine habitat. The local community positive perception on the conservation of area had tremendous contribution for the conservation of the highly Afroalpine habitat which is vulnerable to climate change and high-altitude encroachment pressure.