Farmer’s Participation in Participatory Forest Management and Factors Affecting its Performance (The Case of Sodo Zuriya District, Wolaita Zone , Ethiopia)

Community forest management seeks to initiate the process of eliminating the main causes of forest depletion through participation of local communities. The study attempted to analyze the participatory forest management in Sodo Zuriya District, Wolaita Zone, and SNNPR region with the objectives of investigating participatory forest management for sustainable livelihood, factors that determine the effects of economic, social and biophysical factors on participation. Primary data collected from 183 household respondents who were selected randomly, Secondary data were collected from published and unpublished sources. Descriptive statistical tools such as ratio, frequency, percentage, and mean value addressed to evaluate the contribution of different variables and logistic regression model was used to identify factors that affect community participation in forest management. The major findings from descriptive analysis result indicate that the performance of forest management has contributed to household income of 59%. 9% reported sustaining food security, 22% reported conserving soil and water and 10% mitigating climate change. The result of the logistic regression model revealed that out of 12 variables included in the model, 7 explanatory variables were found to be significant at 1%, 5% and 10% level. Accordingly, household head sex, household age, household size, annual household income, Land productivity, forest income and Land size were found to have positive association with Participatory forest management and statistically significant. The findings of the study reported that participatory forest management enhanced the livelihood, the natural resource and the social assets of the local communities. It was found that this forest management strategy could attain the sustainability of the forest and accelerate the standard of household’s livelihood and finally based the study results appropriate recommendation was given. Keywords: Forest, household, Logit Model, Participatory forest management, Sustainable Livelihoo