Community empowerment has become ropidly the most fimdamental instrument to meet sustainablerntourism development demand across the world at large and LDCs in particular. The main purpose ofrnthis research is to assess community empowerment and its contribution for sustainable tourismrndevelopment in Zege Peninsula. The study design is descriptive and employed both qualitative andrnquantitative approaches. Field survey, interviews and direct observation were the main data gatheringrninstruments employed. 96 household representatives and 24 key informants were taken from tourismrnofficials, tourism businesses and tourists through both probability and non-probability samplingrnmethods to understand the underlying scenarios. Qualitative approaches used to analysisrnpredominantly qualitative variables that are subject to descriptions of phenomena and narrationsrnwhere as quantitative analysis used for the quantifications of major themes and phenomena thatrnconsisted of quantifiable variables expressed in numerical figures and magnitudes using version J 9rnStatistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The results of the study showed that the statusrnofCE process is in its infant stage despite local communities showed high interest levels (mean 3.9) torninvolve in identifYing problems, management, decision-making, problem solving, equitable benefitrnsharing and tourism operation 76.87% (mean 4.03) of the respondents acknowledged the positiverneffects of community empowerment where as 53.9% (mean 3.1) of the respondents observed negativerneffects of community empowerment that deteriorate sustainable tourism development. Thus,rneconomical, social, political and psychological empowerments of community are not well practiced. Itrnwould have been strong support of sustainable tourism development in terms of socio-cultural,rneconomical and environmental dimensions within and around Zege Peninsula if there had beenrnsuffiCient community empowerment. Local people, tourism officials, tourism businesses and visitorsrnconveyed that community empowerment practice is very limited though it is the best alternative tornensure STD of Zege. To conclude, even if community empowerment can play central role to achievernsustainable tourism development, the process is velY limited and in its infant stage in terms ofrneconomical, social, political and psychological empowerments. The final consequence will be nonsustainablerntourism development characterized by dependency syndrome, diminishing livelihoodrnoptions, out breaks of confiicts, accumulations of benefits by few individuals, decrease in tourist fiows,rnpollution, displacement of communities, propagation of illegalities and aggressive degradation of nonrenewablerntourism resources.rnKey words:rnCommunity empowerment; Degradation; Equitable benefit sharing; Sustainable tourism development