Impact Of Resettlement On Woody Plant Species And Local Livelihood The Case Of Guraferda Woreda In Bench Maji Zone South Western Ethiopia

The study was carried out at Guraferda Woreda in Bench Maji Zone, South Western part ofrnEthiopia aimed at analyzing the impacts of resettlement on woody plant species and localrnlivelihood. A total of 64 plots, 400m2 plots at 300m intervals within sixteen transect line werernlaid and taken to identify woody tree and shrubs species composition on both Intact andrndisturbed area. Subplots having equal size of 4m2 at the four corners and the center within eachrnmain plot were laid out to collect seedlings and saplings from the two study sites. A total of 120rnhousehold heads were interviewed on resettlement and its impact in Guraferda out of which 53rnNatives and 67resettlers. The SPSS version 13 was used for data analysis. Focus GrouprnDiscussion (FGD) with Native, resettlers, Developmental agents (DAs) and official’s peoplernwere conducted to get information on their perception towards resettlement. Results from thernwoody vegetation, socio-economic survey analyses and the summary of the focus grouprndiscussions showed that a total of fifty-six woody tree and shrub species belonging to 28 familiesrnwere recorded in the study sites. Forty-seven woody species were recorded in intact siternbelonging to 26 families, whereas forty –two woody species belonging to 24 families werernrecorded in disturbed area. The diversity index value showed that intact area (H’=3.3270050)rnand evenness value (E= 0.8641241) and (H'=3.3203220) and evenness value (E=0.8883401) ofrnthe disturbed area i.e.; the two sites had high diversity indexes that indicate the species richnessrnof the area. Regeneration status of the two study sites showed inverted ‘J’ shaped distributionrnwhich is the sign of good regeneration status. In addition the socio-economic assessment resultrnshowed that out of the total respondents 56.0 Percent of them have 2 ha farmland and 15.0 andrn18.3 percents of the respondent have 3 ha and 4 ha respectively. Again the household’s with landrnholding of greater than 5 ha were 10.0 percent. This is actually above the minimum requirementrnstandard of 2 ha per head for farm land. The majority 51.0 percent of the native people gets theirrnfire wood demand from farm land as a source of house hold energy, while 35.8 percent of thernresettlers respondents use wood from both natural vegetation and farm land as a source ofrnhousehold energy but the rest gets from natural vegetation. All in all about 85% of the nativernpeople opposed resettlement because it has influence on their livelihood. The current studyrnshows the area is in problem of deforestation of the intact forest and needs immediate attentionrnfrom all concerned bodies and implements land use on the natives need. Agro forestry andrnfarmland tree planting will also help to reduce the pressure on the natural vegetation. To thisrnend protect and preserve the existing intact forests; planting valuable tree species andrnrehabilitation programme is needed to the study area.rnKeywords: Guraferda, Perception, Resettlement, Species diversity

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