The ever increasing demand of farmland, demand for fuel wood and charcoal coupled withrnpopulation growth has accelerated the rate of forest reduction in recent years in Ethiopia.rnDeforestation in Ethiopia was increasing at alarming rate and the rate of afforestation was velYrnnegligible in light of the very high rate of clearing for fuel, expanding agricultural land, forrnconstruction, urban development purposes, and also lack of awareness creation for therncommunities have contribution for deforestation. This study aims to explore local communityrnperception towards deforestation in the edigetber and selamber kebele around wolkite town.rnBoth qualitative and quantitative research design were employed in the study. Qualitativernresearch design was used to explore the perception of local community towards the majorrndrivers, causes and consequences of deforestation. Quantitative research design was used tornquantifY some numerical data which was collected in the study area and also likert scale wasrnemployed in order to gather information concerning perception of local community mainly onrndeforestation. Purposive sampling technique was applied to select the participants for in-depthrninterview, and focus group discussion. A total of 104 households were used for householdrnsurvey. The study findings indicated that according to the local community perception the majorrncauses of deforestation in the study area includes: agricultural expansion, urbanization, fuelrnwood consumption, and others drivers like population growth, land scarcity problem, informalrnsettlement, lack of awareness creation and accident fires on forests resource. These resulted inrngullies formation and soil erosion, loss of productivity, loss of biodiversity especially plants,rnanimals, interruption of water flows, and also climate changes. To alleviate such problems,rngovernments should create job opportunities for the communities in order to reduce theirrndependency on forests, there should be a promotion of environmental education and awareness,rnand the expansion of alternative energy sources, training, fuel saving technology diffusionrnshould be facilitated in order to reduce their dependency on fuel wood.