Paper On Manjo

ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES
FACTORS AFFECTING THE KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND

PRACTICE OF FOREST DEPENDENT MANJA COMMUNITY
TOWARDS FOREST CONSERVATION
IN KAFFA ZONE, SNNPR
TEWODROS WULETAW
JUNE, 2008
1

TEWODROS WULETAW WUBETU
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES OF ADDIS

ABABA UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN POPULATION STUDIES
(POPULATION, ENVIRONMENT, AND DEVELOPMENT)
JUNE, 2008
2

TEWODROS WULETAW WUBETU
INSTITUTE OF POPULATION STUDIES

COLLEGE OF DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
APPROVED BY BOARD OF EXAMINERS

_____________________________ _____________
CHAIRMAN (DEPARTMENT GRADUATE COMMITTEE) SIGNATURE

______________________________ _____________
ADVISOR SIGNATURE
__________________________________ _____________
EXTERNAL EXAMINER SIGNATURE

___________________________________ _____________
INTERNAL EXAMINER SIGNATURE
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Above all I mention the Almighty God for his care for all what I have ever achieved.
Moreover, the success of this research work is the cumulative output of the contributions
of different individuals, who must be acknowledged. First and foremost my earnest
gratitude goes to my thesis advisor, Dr. Terefe Degefa, for his comfortable academic
supervision and constructive comment. He patiently tolerated my ignorance; and my
open and lively discussion with him cleared my confusion about the issue to be
researched.
My parents, fountains of encouragement, worth thanks beyond what words can express.
They have shared my pains and helped me in order for my dream came true. Your
patience, understanding, and concern will always be remembered with warmth.
I am enormously grateful to my friends. I am most thankful to Temsgen Werkayehu who

made critical comments for in all areas of the research. And last but not least, Ato Salah
Yesuf must be thanked for his too much help.
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TABLE OF CONTENT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ----------------------------------------------------------------------I
TABLE OF CONTENT------------------- ------------------------------------------------------II
LIST OF TABLES--------------------------------------------------------------------------------IV
LIST OF FIGURES--------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---V
LIST OF ANNEXES------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----VI
ACRONYMS--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---VII
ABSTRACT----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -VIII
CHAPTR ONE: INTRODUCTION-----------------------------------------------------------1
1.1 Background----------------------------------------------------------------------------1
1.2 Statement of the Problem------------------------------------------------------------3
1.3 Objectives of the Study------------------------------------------------------------- -5
1.4 Research Questions----------------------------------------------------------------- -6
1.5 Significance of the Study---------------------------------------------------------- --6
1.6 Limitations of the Study------------------------------------------------------------- 6
1.7 Organization of the Study---------------------------------------------------------- -7
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND CONCEPTUAL
FRAMEWORK-------------------------------------------------------------8
2.1 Literature Review-----------------------------------------------------------------------8
2.1.1 Theoretical Literature---------------------------------------------------------------8
2.1.2 The Concept and Methods of Conservation--------------------------------10
2.1.3 Forest Resource and Livelihood----------------------------------------------11
2.1.4 Social Exclusion of Manja Community-------------------------------------12
2.1.5 The Need for National Forest Policy in the Ethiopian Context----------13
2.1.6 Factors Affecting Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) towards
Forest Conservation-------------------------------------------------------- ----14
2.1.6.1 Demographic Factors---------------------------------------------------14
2.1.6.2. Socio-economic Factors--------------------------------------------- -17
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2.1.7 Definition of Terms ----------------------------------------------------------- 21
2.2 Conceptual Framework--------------------------------------------------------------- -22
CHAPTER THREE: METHODS AND MATERIALS OF ANALYSIS---------------24
3.1 Data Sources ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 24
3.2 Sampling Method--------------------------------------------------------------------- --24
3.3 Sample Size Determination- ----------------------------------------------------------25
3.4 Method of Data Analysis---------------------------------------------------------------26
3.5 Description of the variables------------------------------------------------------------28
CHAPTER FOUR: BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY AREA AND THE STUDY
POPULATION-------------------------------------------------------------29
4.1 Background of the Study Area--------------------------------------------------------- 29
4.2 Background Characteristic of the Study Population------------------------------- -32
4.2.1 Demographic Characteristics-----------------------------------------------------32
4.2.2 Socio-economic Characteristics--------------------------------------------------33
CHAPTER FIVE: PRESENTATION AND DATA ANALYSIS------------------------36
5.1 Knowledge of the Environment and Environmental change--------------------------36
5.1.1 Knowledge of Environmental Change ------------------------------------------36
5.1.2 Knowledge of Bio-diversity and the Nexus between Poverty and Forest
Depletion-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 38
5.1.3 Knowledge on the Impact of Forest Destruction ------------------------------38
5.2 Correlates of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Forest Conservation --------39
5.2.1 Demographic Factors and KAP towards Forest conservation-----------------40
5.2.2 Socio-economic Factors and KAP towards Forest conservation--------------44
5.3 Predictions of Knowledge and Attitude towards Forest Conservation------------48
CHAPTER SIX: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS---58
6.1 Summary------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 59
6.2 Conclusions--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 62
6.3 Recommendations --------------------------------------------------------------------------63
REFERENCE--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------65
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Description of Dependent and Independent Variables-----------------------------28

Table 2: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents by Age and Sex --------------------32
Table 3: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents by Marital Status-------------------33
Table 4: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents by Household Size-----------------33
Table 5: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents by Literacy Status------------------34
Table 6: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents by types of Occupation------------34
Table 7: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents by Land Ownership--------------- 35
Table 8: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents by Contact with Conservation
Agents------------------------------------------------------------------------------------35
Table 9: Percentage Distribution of Respondents by Knowledge of Bio-diversity and
the Nexus between Forest Depletion and Poverty---------------------------------38
Table 10: Percentage Distribution of Respondents by Demographic Characteristics and
KAP towards Conservation---------------------------------------------------------- 44
Table11: Percentage Distribution of Respondents by Socio-economic Characteristics
and KAP towards Conservation-----------------------------------------------------47
Table 12: Predictors Used in Multivariate Binary Logistic Regression Analysis and
Categorical Variable Coding for Knowledge and Attitude---------------------50
Table 13: Classification Table for Knowledge-------------------------------------------------51
Table.14: Hosmer and Lemeshow Test of goodness of Fit for Knowledge------------ ---51
Table 15: Logistic Regression Result of the Effect of Predictor Variables on
Knowledge----------------------------------------------------------------------------54
Table 16: Classification Table for Attitude-----------------------------------------------------55
Table 17: Hosmer and Lemeshow Test of Goodness of Fit for Attitude-------------------55
Table 18: Logistic Regression Result of the Effect of Predictor Variables on
Attitude-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --58
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure1: Conceptual Framework of the Study----------------------------------------------- 23

Figure 2: Stages of Sample Selection----------------------------------------------------------25
Figure 3: Map of the Study Area---------------------------------------------------------------31
Figure 4: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents by Mentioned Causes of
Deforestation--------------------------------------------------------------------------37
Figure 5: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents by suggested solution for
Deforestation---------------------------------------------------------------------------37
Figure 5: Percentage Distribution of Respondents by Knowledge of the Impact of
Deforestation-------------------------------------------------------------------------- 39
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LIST OF ANNEXES
Annex I: Survey Questionnaire---------------------------------------------------------------69
Annex II: FGD and Key Informant Check Lists--------------------------------------------83
Annex III: Listing Form------------------------------------------------------------------------84
Annex IV: Coefficient of Contingency Table ----------------------------------------------85
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9
ACRONYMS
BoFED Bureau of Finance and Economic Development

BNFPA Bonga Natural Forest Priority Area
CIFOR Center for International Forestry Research
CSA Central Statistical Authority
CSE Conservation Strategy of Ethiopia
EDHS Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey
EFAP Ethiopian Forest Action Plan
EPA Environmental Protection Authority
FAO Food and Agricultural Organization
FGD Focused Group Discussion
ICDP Integrated Conservation and Development Project
KAP Knowledge, Attitude and Practice
MNRDEP Ministry of Natural Resource Development and Environmental
Protection
NFPAs National Forest Priority Areas
NGO Non Governmental Organization
NLFS National Labour Force Survey
OGRBMPS Omo-Gibe River Basin Development Master Plan Study
PRB Population Reference Bureau
PFM Participatory Forest Management
RCS Regional Conservation Strategy
SPSS Statistical Package for Social Science
SNNPR Southern Nation Nationalities and People’s Region
ZoFED Zonal department of Finance and Economic Development
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Abstract
A significant percentage of the world population has a direct relationship with forest and
trees. Specifically in the developing countries there are communities that live within or
immediately adjacent to forested land and obtain their livelihood directly from the forest.
As part of this the Manja community in Ethiopia, one of the community in the Kefa zone
of SNNPR, inhabits in and around Bonga natural forest and depends on the forest for
their subsistence. This study was conducted to assess and explain factors that influence
the knowledge, attitude and practice of the Manja community towards forest
conservation. In light of this, both primary data and secondary data were used. Primary
data was obtained through structured questionnaire, key informant information and focus
group discussion. Secondary data was obtained from published and unpublished
materials, books, journals, project reports and maps. A total of 422 sample respondents
were identified using simple random sampling technique. The analysis is made at
individual level on the basis of bi-variate and multi-variate methods. The result of bi-
variate analysis showed that the demographic and socio-economic factors had
relationship with respondents’ knowledge, attitude and practice. Moreover, large
proportion of the respondents had no knowledge, negative attitude and poor practice of
forest conservation. This situation had been observed across all the demographic and
socio-economic characteristics of the respondents. The multi-variate analysis also
showed that sex, marital status, family size, literacy status, and occupation were found to
be significantly related to knowledge and attitude. However, age, land ownership and
contact with conservation agents were only significantly related to attitude. Based on the
findings, the following points of recommendations were stated: providing environmental
education, improving the social dimension of the Manja community, searching
alternative sources of income and continuing the work done by NGOs.
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1. 1 Background
Forest coverage is one of the indicators of the level of environmental degradation .The
higher the percentage of land under forest cover, the lower is the degree of resource
degradation (Kuris, 2000).
Deforestation directly threatens as many as 400 million people – including 50 million

indigenous forest people who depend on forest for subsistence (World Bank, 1994).
Evidences, therefore, point to the ability of forest dwellers to directly access and use
forest as the main source of livelihood.
A significant percentage of the world population has a direct relationship with forests and
trees. Specifically in the developing countries, there are communities that live within or
adjacent to forest areas and make their livelihood out of this resource. For instance,
Bonga forest and its surrounding area is the cultural wealth of the Keficho and the Manja
communities. The Manja community, one of the societies in the Kafa Zone of the
Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Region (SNNPR), inhabit within and
around Bonga natural forest. This community is one of the pioneer forest dwellers and
who earn their daily consumption by cutting down forest trees for firewood and selling
them.
According to Huntingford (1955), the Manjo had a sub-king in Kefa, who represented
them at the king’s council and retained his status in recognition of the autonomy of the
Manjo before Kefa settled. As the Manjo in many ways identify themselves with the
Sheko-Majenger, there were also some minor uprisings of the Manjo to protest against
their own discrimination. Also the Manjo are demanding land, however agricultural land,
not forest land, and there was an ongoing debate, if they wanted to demand an own
territory in the forest like the Majenger did, or live mixed in villages with the Shekacho
like now. Finally, they found it more preferable to live with the Shekacho, as they were
fearing, social exclusion might be aggravated by living separately (Hartmann, 2003)
Farm-Africa's case studies of 2002 showed that when we investigate deep into the
relationship of Manja and the Bonga forest, we recognize that the forest is directly linked
to their survival, it is their life. Even other local communities are living in and around the
Bonga forest and they consider it as their source of life. The dependence of the
community on the forest has taken various forms over different periods. The communities
that are now exercising the role of managers were at one time used the forest unwisely.
The Manja community was neglected by the other communities in the Kafa Zone because
some of their cultural practices are thought to be against other communities’ culture,
religion and socially acceptable norms. Due to these reasons, the neighboring
communities are not willing to have social and economic relationship with Manjas (Farm
Africa, 2002).
Now a day, due to the financial and technical assistance of NGOs, the manjas are
practicing farming activities. Now it is very common to see a variety of crops such as
maize, sorghum, enset, and godere on their farmlands. Thus, this community is gradually
extricating itself from absolute poverty that emanates both from inaccessibility to natural
resources and discrimination. The Manjas, who previously had hardly any permanent
dwelling, are now building their own houses (Henok, 2007).
According to Farm Africa and SOS Sahel’s assessment, the social dimension of the above
improvement in livelihood is the fact that it is slowly boosting their self esteem and
bringing about attitudinal change among those who previously considered them inferior,
thus improving social integration (Ibid).
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1.2 Statement of the Problem
Forest decline is the result of action by a number of agents. These agents are generally
considered as individuals, groups of individuals or institutes that directly convert forest
lands to other uses or that intervene in forest without necessarily causing deforestation
but substantially reducing their productive capacity. Agents include shifting cultivators,
private and government logging companies, mining and oil farming corporation, forest
concessionaries and ranchers. Besides, rapid population growth, expansion of cropland
and intensive harvesting of forest for fuel wood and wood export contribute to
deforestation in different areas of the world. According to the World Bank (1994), the
world has lost about half of its forest cover and continues to lose some 15 million
hectares of forest every year. Deforestation over the period 1980-1990 reached 8.2
percent of the total forest area in Asia, 6.1 percent in Latin America and 4.8 percent in
Africa.
In many developing countries, environmental and natural resource degradation have been
taking place in disastrous extent. According to FAO (1998) estimate between 1980 and
1990 forest cover decreased at an average of 0.8 percent per year in the developing
countries of the tropics. This represents the loss of 154 million hectares over a ten years
period. Particularly, there is a growing concern that much of Sub-Saharan Africa natural
resource base and ecological environment are deteriorating mainly due to high population
growth combined with unsuitable energy consumption patterns.
The main problems related to environment in Ethiopia are the loss of natural vegetation
because of accelerating deforestation, intensive cultivation and grazing land. Thus, it is
widely believed that Ethiopia provides a well known example of a severely degraded
African environment with the consequent implication for food shortage and famine
(Cambell, 1991).
It is believed that about 50 percent of the land area of Ethiopia was covered with high
forest before human settlement took place. The results of different forest assessment
indicate that the high forest cover has depleted by the early 1950s and reduced to 16
3
percent of the total land area. In 1989, 2.7 percent of the total land area was covered by
high forest (EFAP, 1994).Because of such an extensive deforestation experience; the land
has been exposed for wide scale soil erosion and declining of crop yields. Out of the
remaining 2.7 percent of country’s forest area, 45 percent is found under pressure from
the expanding agriculture, increasing demand of energy and settlement (Shibru and
Lemma, 1998).
In Ethiopia the large majority of people’s lives are closely linked to natural resource,
particularly forests. However, the absence of appropriate forest use and benefit sharing
mechanisms are resulted in a situation where by forest dependents are forced to over
utilize forest resource to the extent of irreversible distraction. For instance, Ethiopia loses
about 141,000 hectares of natural forest each year due to firewood collection, conversion
to farm land, overgrazing and uses of forest wood for building material (FAO, 1998).
Extensive forest fire in the early 2000 has resulted in further losses.
A growing consensus is emerging that deforestation must be viewed as more than an

outcome of farming, timber extraction, fuel wood collection and infrastructural
development. But its causes are also inherently social in nature. Based on a recent forest
monitoring study for Southwest Ethiopia, till the 1980s, already 60 percent of the natural
high forest of the area becomes victim of human expansion due to mainly population
pressure, migration and resettlement program of military (Derg) regime. Increasing
human impact on the forest resource is most significant around settlement in south west
highland such as Mizan Teferi, Tepi, Gore, Metu and Bonga. It is evident that if the
described trends continue, the last natural high forest of south west Ethiopia will get lost
in the near future (OGRBMPS, 1994 cited by Henok, 2007).
In the SNNPR, the average fuel wood consumption around the high forest area is about
1200 kg per annum per household. It was also projected that by the year 2015 about
89,293 hectares of forest coverage will be cleared for agricultural expansion purpose
(RCS of SNNPR, 2003).
4
Bonga forest is one of the declining forest areas of Ethiopia. The forest cover has been
declining in terms of coverage and quality. In Bonga forest, there is an estimated annual
deforestation rate of 22,500 hectares (Bench, 2002). The main threat is clearance of
forest land for charcoal making and fuel wood gathering by Manja people. These people
are the main users of the forest and were very much involved in fuel wood and charcoal
sale. According to Farm Africa report (2002), the Manja community for instance
extracted 20,000 loads of fire wood per year from the forest.
By realizing the fact, government has been trying to implement different forest
conservation approaches over time in the country. The Ministry of Agriculture has
designated 58 of forest as National Forest Priority areas (NFPAs) at the beginning of the
1980s.For example; in 1986 Bonga forest was also demarcated as “Bonga Natural Forest
Priority Area” (BNFPA) (Henok, 2007). The main objective behind the identification was
to implement integrated management system with the ultimate goal that each become a
self financing and sustainable enterprise (EFAP, 1994).
Despite these efforts, forest land is used by local people for cultivating crops, grazing and
for collecting fuel wood and building materials. This uncontrolled advance and clearing
of forest land has been on progress and will continue until management plans are put in
place which balance the objective of protection, conservation and sustainable production.
The degradation and depletion of the forest resource base has major effects on other
resource use and sector in the economy. The main impact of the loss in forest cover is
specifically on agriculture, water resources and bio- diversity. In light of this, this study
was conducted to examine factors that promote or inhibit the KAP to wards forest
conservation of the Manja community.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The general objective of the study was to investigate factors affecting knowledge, attitude
and practice of the Manja community towards forest conservation.
In line with the above general objective, the study attempted to achieve the following
specific objectives. These were:
to investigate Manja community’s awareness about the natural environment,
5
to assess the status of knowledge, attitude and practice towards forest
conservation of the community,
to identify different demographic and socio-economic factors affecting the KAP
concerning forest conservation of the study population and
to examine the understanding of the community about the impact of deforestation.
1.4 Research Questions

1. What is the knowledge of the Manja community concerning the natural
environment?
2. What is the status of knowledge, attitude and practice of Manja community
towards forest conservation?
3. What are the different demographic and socio- economic factors affecting the
KAP towards forest conservation in Manja community?
4. How does the Manja community understand the impact of deforestation?
1.5 Significance of the Study

The findings of this study are expected to have a contribution in indicating the
demographic and socio-economic correlates of knowledge, attitude and practice of forest
dependent community. With regard to policy implication, the research may contribute to
the revision of forest policies and strategies that designed to facilitate the work to address
the problem of forest degradation. The study might help to utilize the bio-diversity
resource of the country for development in a sustainable manner.
1.6 Limitations of the Study
It is difficult to address all issues in this study due to limited time and resource. The
researcher tried to address the most important points by focusing on the selected variables
in order to attain the objective of the study. The other limitation of this study is the
absence of related researches which were useful for comparison purpose. Further the
study was conducted under several constraint and challenges particularly during the
process of data collection since some of the households were inaccessible, scattered and
found inside the natural forest. Even though, there were some challenges and constraints
6
during data collection, the researcher organized interviewers and supervisors so as to find
solutions to collect the desired data. The main solution were getting guiders, who know
the surrounding very well and spending more time on the field work. Hence, reasonably
the results can reflect the general picture of the communities’ knowledge, attitude and
practice towards forest conservation to the extent possible.
1.7 Organization of the Study
The study is classified into six chapters. The first chapter introduces the thesis
incorporating statement of the problem, objectives, research questions, significance of the
study, and limitations of the study. The second chapter present review of literature and
conceptual frame work of the study. The research methodology is explained under the
third chapter where data source of the study, sampling methods, sample size
determination method of data of analysis, and variables to be analyzed are explained.
Chapter four presents the general background of the study area and the sample
population. Chapter five discusses the results of the study. The final section is devoted to
summary of the study, conclusive remarks, and recommendations.
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CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE AND CONCEPTUAL
FRAMEWORK
2.1 Literature Review
This chapter attempted to look at theoretical and related literature including conceptual
framework of the study.
2.1.1 Theoretical Literature

According to classical resource economics theory, maximum sustainable yield, as stands
for an increment in the quality of renewable resources, through growth and reproduction,
which can be exploited continuously without causing harm to capital stock. If
exploitation of resource is confined within maximum sustainable yield limit, human
population tends to establish themselves in an ecological balance situation. Moreover, the
concept of ecological balance implies method or rate of resource use, which maintains the
sustainable use of resource through wise managerial decision such as limiting harvest
with in maximum sustainable yield or increasing the capacity of the resource base to
carrying capacity. It can serve us a useful conceptual tool in diagnosing a given society’s
interaction with the environment (Terefe, 2004).
The attainment of ecological balance can conveniently be traced back to the time when
human society and environment were in harmonic relation to each other. Among various
mechanisms enabling society to establish such a relation with environment are wise
resource use and conservation (Terefe, 2004). In short, indigenous society as often
mentioned has managed to keep the environment without much disturbance and
maintained livelihood on reasonable standard. This was true in most parts of the world.
Pre colonial Africa achieved fair environmental integrity and secure livelihood through
indigenous system of environmental and/or resource management (Ghai, 1992 cited by
Terefe, 2004).
A wide range of indigenous environmental management technique and principles were

practiced to prevent the environment. For instance in Cameron Oku area, before the
8
government issued permit to exploit resource, local communities were exercising cultural
sanction to protect land resource(Terefe, 2004).This norm indicate societies need to
manage resource with utmost care and reverence to past onto the coming generation
forming the core and legacy of indigenous knowledge.
According to many observers, population growth has been the major cause of
environmental problems in recent years. The relationship between population growth,
human welfare and the natural environment continue to be widely debatable (Livernash et
al, 1998).
The assumption that population growth adversely affects economic growth and natural
resource came under fire beginning in the late 1970s with the work of Juliin Simon.
Simon’s view was that moderate population growth is beneficial, not detrimental,
because it brings technical innovation (Anne, 1990 cited by Muluneh, 2003). While,
Malthus argued “with growing population, resource depletion is accelerated resulting in
wide spread deforestation, overgrazing, bio-diversity loss, etc. the ultimate destination of
which is poverty and starvation”. Therefore, the core of Maltusian theory may be best
captured by the dependent role he assigned to population growth to the independent
factor of environment and technology (Marquette, 1997).
Boserupian theory similarly focused on the relationship between these three variables
population, environment and technology. Boserup focused her attention on exploring the
rule of population as independent variable that influences both the development of
agricultural technology which, in turn, shapes the productive capacity of the resource
(Marquette, 1997). Similarly, Durkheim proposed “a threshold dynamic density” of
population that will support the necessary division of labor and more efficient production
(Marquette, 1997).
There is an emergent more neutral view that considers population growth neither strongly
positive nor negatively impacting on environment and suggests that the environment and
agricultural problem have social, political or economic causes (Lockwood, 1995 cited by
Muluneh, 2003). Many writers for example Templeton and Scherr(1997), argued that
9
population growth in developing countries can lead to either land or environmental
degradation depending upon micro-economic situation such as institutional and
organizational factor, information and technology for resource management, market
condition (transport facilities, crop price, fertilizers cost and non farm opportunity. Like
wise, Blaike and Brook (1997) reported that the population pressure on resource can
operate on both sides contributing to degradation or aiding management and repair
(Muluneh, 2003).
2.1.2 The Concept and Methods of Conservation

Conservation is defined as the rational use of the earth’s resource to achieve the highest
quality of living for mankind (FAO, 1998). This implies that the maintaining of viable
species populations, to sustain ecological process, and be responsive to short and long
term environmental changes (Oslon et.al, 2002). The concept varies with the type of the
resource weather it is renewable or non renewable. Therefore, for renewable resources,
conservation does mean reducing the exploitation of the resources below the resources
rate of replacement. On the other hand, for nonrenewable resources, conservation is an
activity of maintaining an adequate supply of these resources well into the future. The
purposes of natural resources conservation is therefore multi dimensional out of which
humanity secure biological, economic, ecological benefits and insure his survival (Ibid).
There are several conservation methods, but in the broader terms we can generalize all
into two methods of conservation namely in-situ and ex-situ methods. In situ
conservation focuses on conserving the genetic resource in their original ecosystem,
irrespective of whether such ecosystems have been subject to human interference. This
method implies that a given population is maintained within the community of which it
forms a part, in the environment in which it has developed (Frankel, 1995). The term is
frequently applied to naturally regenerating wild populations in protected areas, and can
be integrated into managed production and multiple-use forests. In situ conservation in
general has the advantage of conserving the function of an ecosystem rather than just
species. Hence, it is better to use both conservation methods simultaneously.
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Ex situ conservation of forest tree genetic resources is mainly concerned with sampling
and maintaining as much of the genetic variation as possible that resides within and
among populations of selected target species. Ex situ conservation requires substantial
levels of human intervention, in the form either of simple seed collections, storage and
field plantings or of more intensive plant breeding and improvement approaches (Muller-
Strack and Schubert, 2001).
2.1.3 Forest Resource and Livelihood
By livelihood we mean the capabilities, assets and activities required for a means of
living. And a livelihood is said to be sustainable when it can cope with and recover from
stresses and shocks and maintain its capabilities and assets both now and in the future,
with out undermining the natural resource base (CIFOR, 2001).Access to forest or tree
resource can also help rural household diversify their livelihood base and reduced their
exposure to the risk. Forests can thus form an important safety net for the very poor in
time of hardship (CIFOR, 2001). In addition, Forests serve as an important means of rural
livelihood through providing inputs like fuel, medicinal and food products. Besides these,
they diversify the farm household economy for they are characterized by easy access and
require low skill and capital to be exploited (Campbell, 2002). Although richer rural
households within the community may be large users of forest products, the poorer
households usually depend on the forest for large share of their over all livelihood inputs.
The fact in the developing countries rural households shows that there is high level of
dependency on forest resources for their subsistence (CIFOR, 2001). This situation in the
case of SNNPR shows an increasing trend as it is indicated in the regional gross
production estimates (BoFED, 2002).
As a source of income commercial forest products activities have important potential to

help households move out of poverty. Indeed it has been argued that where the poor do
have high level of reliance on forest products activities, this likely to mean that they are
facing persistent poverty (Dove, 1993).
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2.1.4 Social Exclusion of the Manja Community
Social exclusion is a practice of the more powerful groups in a society to structure the
possible field of action of the less powerful ones (GORE, 1994). This does not
completely block any possibility of agency on the part of excluded groups, but structures
their field of action.
In case of Manja, Shekacho do not greet Manjo, do not shake hands with them, do not
visit them in their houses and especially do not eat with them One Manja man described
the situation of his group as follows:
“Socially we are outcast, they (the Shekacho) don’t even greet.
They (the Manjo) do not even consider themselves as human
and are not considered as human. They themselves assume
that they themselves are responsible for their bad treatment.
They even think they are not able to work on a farm.” (Pankhurst, 1999).
More or less any contact between Shekacho and Manjo is forbidden. Socially the Manjo
are excluded from any reciprocal relationship with other social groups, an exclusion
which includes any social interaction, commensality and membership in associations,
joint labour and intermarriage. At funeral and weddings Manjo are obliged to attend and
carry out certain tasks, such as carrying the corpse. However they can never enter a
house during those ceremonies or otherwise they have to sit outside on the floor, where
they are served drinks in enset leaves (Bovensiepen, 2003).
There is a long list of what is perceived as the “bad habits” of the Manjo by the Shekacho
(Gudeta, 2003). “Bad” in this sense is perceived by the Shekacho as what is “not allowed
by the bible” and connected to paganism, superstition and what moreover is seen as
harmful to the physical integrity of the Manjo themselves, like “keeping the dead body
for a long time in the home, blackening clothes with charcoal as a sign of grief, cutting
the tip part of the uvula with a sharp blade to protect against tonsillitis” etc. However, the
reason for their outcast status is that they are seen as polluted. Pankhurst (2001) notes that
it is a wide spread phenomenon in South-western Ethiopia that the “polluting” nature of
12
minorities is explained as the result of eating habits. Also in this case, the main reason
given for their exclusion is the eating of Guerezas and dead animals (scientific name:
Abyssinian black and white colubus monkey).
2.1.5 The Need for National Forest Policy in the Ethiopian Context
The need for national forest policy lies in the process of contributing solution for the
existing problems in the area of our forest and forest land (World Bank, 2000). We all
know that having a beautiful forest policy document by itself does not mean
implementing it .Be it policy, be it strategy, or proclamation, the important thing is
whether the document can help to solve the problem faced in the implementation process.
If the document can provide a legal framework, it shows political commitment, and if it
allows creation of a strong and more responsible implementing institution for national
resources especially for the forest (Hailesellassie, 2004).
The history of conservation in Ethiopia dates back to the early 1960s, along with the
green revolution movement which was aimed at ensuring the country with food security.
Activities like hillside closure, wood lots terracing, etc, were among the solutions
suggested by the then conservation oriented projects. However, the measures taken
during that time were not successful (Keely and Scoones, 2000).
Ethiopia is owner of an environmental policy that identifies issues like integration of

gender, social and cultural issues and public awareness and promoting understanding of
the essential linkage between environment and development as important agents of
promoting conservation of resources (EPA, 1997). But, the process of the national forest
policy formation in Ethiopia has a long and complicated history. The country is still
performing forestry activities without a national forest policy document. In 1994, the
Ethiopian Forestry Action Program (EFAP) reports were finalized and similar documents
were prepared in each of the regional states of the country. But there is the gap between
demand and supply of forest product and services in Ethiopia. EFAP in 1994 estimated
13
that the fuel wood demand and supply for the year 2020 would reach to 100 million m3
against a supply projection of 7.7 m3 (Hailesellassie, 2004)
Another effort done in the sector was also formulating the Conservation Strategy of
Ethiopia (CSE) at the federal level and similar strategy document were preparing at the
regional levels. But unfortunately, all of these documents were not put into practice; they
were put on the shelves and perhaps by now they might even be forgotten or considered
as outdated and unnecessary documents (Ibid).
The conservation efforts that have been made in Ethiopia have basically one common
characteristic that they all have been drafted based on particular events like famine,
particular scientific studies and the interest of supporting groups. So that, the
environmental problems in the country continued to be an issue ( Keely and Scoones,
2000).Therefore, issues that need to be tackled include fully responsive legislation, strong
and responsible implementing institutions and the government’s political commitment
(Hailesellassie, 2004).
2.1.6 Factors Affecting Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP)

towards Forest Conservation
2.1.6.1 Demographic Factors
Sex is one factor that substantially affects people’s knowledge, attitude and practice
towards conservation (Hayes, 2001).Concerning gender differences in knowledge and
attitude towards environment, there are basically three types of arguments. The first line
of argument (Knowledgeable Support Hypothesis) bases itself on the view that western
society considers the environment to be developed by science and technology. So that for
men have got the opportunity to command techno scientific component of the society that
enabled them acquire scientific and technological knowledge to dominate nature and
socialized un-ecological attitude towards environment. On the contrary women,
according to the same line of argument, are denied of acquiring this knowledge because
they have no access to the techno scientific knowledge. Despite this fact, they are
socialized to ecological helpful roles of mother and nurture, as it is observed in their
14
reproductive and child rearing activity in the community. So, for those who promote this
view, men have more exploitive and negative view to the environment than women
(Hayes, 2001)
On the second line of argument the eco-feminist theorists like Merchant support this line
of argument and describe environmental problems as the result of men domination. For
these eco feminists, female inequality and environmental problems are the result of male
domination. It is thus this similarity between female and nature that made women have
positive attitude towards nature than men (Tiondi, 2000).
In the third line of argument, (the Safety corner Hypothesis) women are more likely to
express concern about the environment only when environmental issues directly threat
the health of their families. For them such disparity in environmental attitude have strong
correlation with selected phenomena when in one or the other way the phenomena is an
environmental issue that could threat their life.
Age is also other demographic factors that affect the knowledge, attitude and practice of
individuals towards environmental management (Torgler et.al, 2005). As theorists
hypostasized it, the age- environment relationship is either the cohort effect which is
generational differences in socialization and experience or aging process. People in the
same cohort would have similar attitudes towards certain issue as compared to those in
different cohorts. In the case of aging, older people are taught to be more interested in
protecting their social stand and wealth therefore they are less likely interested to invest
in the prevailing social system for good of the future. Unlike the older people, the
younger ones are more willing to attach to the new social system from which they taught
is beneficiary in the future (Vlosky et.al, 1999).
In some studies negative correlation between age and attitude towards the environment is
observed. For instance, older people are found to be more risk averters than the younger
ones (Torgler and Gracia, 2005). On the other hand, International Institute for
15
Environment and Development indicated that, in Tanzania there are positive attitudes
towards environmental conservation at the younger and older ages (Flintan, 2003).
The impact of age could also be seen from the people’s consumption behavior
perspective. As per capita consumption increases through time, distinct expenditures will
follow distinct age pattern. Accordingly, studies show that there is higher consumption
behavior at middle age and lower consumption at younger and older ages. As people
become more consumers, they are more likely to negatively affect the environment
(Pebly, 1998). Therefore, their knowledge and attitude would be under the domain of
their consumption behavior.
There is also variation between those ever married and never married in knowledge and
attitude towards the conservation of the environment. When people get married, they
establish strong social network with in the community, therefore, they are expected to
involve in community activities than never married. Their parental effect also makes
them wish have conducive environment so that the future of their children is secured.
Therefore, they are more concerned with environmental problems than never married. So
that, according to Torgler study married people are expected to have better knowledge of
the environment and better attitude than the single ones (Torgler et.al:2005).
On the contrary, Flintan (2003) showed that married women as compared to the
unmarried ones are busy of activities like house keeping, raising families, cooking and
other activities as a result of which they are less involved in the community based
activities. This, therefore, has limited their knowledge of environmental conservation
activities.
For instance, Flintan (2003) further indicated that in Ethiopia women on average spend
six hours a day in coffee making activities. In Mali also they spend 10-14 hours a day in
preparing meal for husbands. This has made them little time to participate in conservation
activities than men so that they tend to compromise long-term environmental
conservation activities to short term needs.
16
It is also tried to look the impact of marital status in knowledge, attitude and practice of
environmental conservation from the household formation and consumption behavior
perspective. As household formation occurs, the consumption behavior of the household
will automatically be changed. Therefore with increasing number of households, there is
always growth in the volume of consumption (Pebly, 1998). Therefore, with the change
in consumption behavior like growth in the energy consumption and increasing volume
of waste disposal, people tend to be more destructive to the physical environment.
2.1.6.2. Socio-economic Factors

People’s Knowledge, attitude and practice towards forest conservation is also affected by
socio economic factors like education, type of activity or industry, access to farm land,
contact with conservation agents, and place of residence, access to media and income.
The researcher will try to look into the correlation between these variables and the
dependent variables as follow.
Education could be taken as an optimal measure of the socio economic status. As a result
it has strong correlation with economic status, access to information, resource and many
other benefits.
Educating women, raises women level of awareness on environmental issues and

increases their role in the conservation activities. For instance, universal primary
education is given due emphasis in the Millennium Development Goals of United
Nations implying that it is one of the development challenges of the developing countries.
Once women are educated, because of their role in the household and the community,
they could serve as conservation knowledge conveying agents to the rest of the
communities.
Studies indicate that women in the developing countries, as compared to men, have less
access to education and resources. This fact has been confirmed in the EDHS (2005) that
there is large disparity between the educational attainment level of men and women in
17
Ethiopia. According to this survey, out of the total women population 24 percent in the
urban and 74 percent in the rural areas of women have no education. The percentage for
men in the respective areas is about 7.9 percent and 49.2 percent respectively. When we
see SNNPR EDHS 2005 shows that 65.7 percent women and 32.6 percent of men have
no education (Temesgen, 2007)
Education, therefore, will have a remarkable impact on women’s relation with the
physical environment through affecting their social and economical status. So that
uneducated women are highly likely to lack knowledge and resource to be invested on
environmental conservation as compared to men. In the study of Flintan (2003)
uneducated women failed to understand the link between conservation and development
as compared to men and have also little understanding about linkages between rights to
resources and conservation responsibilities.
The type of activity or industry that an individual engaged has also impact on his/her
knowledge and attitude towards the environment. There is a consideration that there are
occupations identified and assigned to men and women in developing. Such division of
labor is very common phenomena in Africa. Men are mostly assigned to field activities
while women to house hold activities. As a result of this, there is an important difference
in knowledge concerning the environment and attitude towards environment between
men and women depending on their industry (Flintan, 2003).
For instance in Ethiopia, according to the 2005 National Labor Force Survey, 75 percent
of women and 84.3 percent of men are engaged in Agriculture, Hunting and Forestry
related activities. Based on the type of individual’s economic activity, it is expected that
men who deal with the environment in larger proportion than women have better
knowledge of the environment and attitude towards it (Temesgen, 2007)
Urban areas have better infrastructural development like education, health, media (radio,
television, newspaper etc.) than rural areas. People in urban areas have better access to
make use of these opportunities and they could easily access different environmental
18
research findings and become aware of issues concerning the environment. The Study
conducted in Costa Rica shows that urban lower class feels more strongly the effect of
environmental degradation than the rural groups (Holl et.al, 1995). There is also variation
between the lower and upper classes in Costa Rica where lower classes have better
knowledge than the upper classes (Holl et.al, 1995).
Despite this fact the Ethiopian Forestry Action Programm identified large section of the
urban population in Ethiopia is an aware of environmental issues while the reverse is true
for the rural people. According to the action program, rural people are against their
environment not because they have no knowledge of the environment but it is their
poverty that leaves them to over utilize the resource (MNRDEP, 1994).
The type of activities at the two places of residences also differs. In urban areas, non
agricultural activities are dominant while the reverse is true in the rural areas. So that it is
obvious that their perception towards the environment vary accordingly. Out of the total
population of the country, 80.2 percent are engaged Agriculture related and, forestry
activities. Of these, only 13.0 percent are living in urban while 88.5 percent are living in
rural areas. The employment to population ratio is also high in rural areas, which is about
82.0 percent and 50 percent in urban areas (CSA, 2005). As described earlier, the largest
proportion the ratio in rural areas is engaged in agriculture and related activities and the
reverse is true in urban areas. Therefore, rural people as compared to their urban
counterpart, have close day to day interaction with their environment in order to sustain
their life. Moreover, they are expected to develop positive attitude towards the
environment and acquire better knowledge of the environment.
The environmental policy of Ethiopia has recognized and identified Environmental

education and awareness as a key strategy to transform knowledge of environmental
issues to the people. For instance, among the many strategies of the policy, the articles
stated below could tell us how access to media is crucial in changing knowledge and
attitude of people towards the environment.
19
Strategy 1
• To formulate environmental awareness programmes in such a way as to make
them address specific environmental problems of particular localities in view of
the extreme variability of environmental conditions and problems in Ethiopia;
(Environmental Policy of Ethiopia,1997)
Strategy2
• To recognize the important role the mass media play and to effectively use them in
creating and promoting environmental awareness in view of the physical
problems of access and communications in Ethiopia; (Environmental policy of
Ethiopia,1997)
The statement in the stated strategy implies that to have or have not access to media
matters the opportunity of being informed and uninformed about the environmental
issues.
According to the Integrated Conservation and development Project (ICDP) in Africa

gender inequality in access to land is widespread. For instance In Zimbabwe, Ethiopia,
Burkina Faso and Cameron women have the legal right to own land and trees, but in
practices , men control nearly all the of the property and women only have use right.
Because of access to land women have little incentive to invest in conservation practice.
Research conducted in Zimbabwe revealed that women are also significantly less likely
to plant trees in area where future access is uncertain (PRB, 2000).
Involving in Participatory forest management is also another factor to determine the

level of individual’s knowledge and attitude towards the environment. Participatory
forest management can simply be defined as a “situation in which two or more social
actors negotiate, define and guarantee amongst themselves a fair sharing of the
management function, entitlements and responsibilities for a given territory, area or set of
natural resource”(Zelalem, 2000).
20
Participatory forest management is a process oriented development and in the process the
main actors are the government and communities where their roles and responsibilities
can vary depend on the resource base” (Ibid).
The economic rational behind PFM is that communities will conserve forest resource if
the benefit of the management actions outweigh the cost of conservation. Therefore, the
issue is what benefit the community is gaining out of involving themselves in the process
of forest management or tree planting. In some cases, this benefit should not necessary be
only financial terms, but benefits in terms of more qualitative cultural value, recognition,
and respect are also significant (Ibid).
In Bonga forest the Farm Africa study show that the Manja community now is practice
farming and become aware of conserving the forest as a result of Participatory forest
management project program rendered by different conservation agents. Alemu the
member of the Manja community said
“Since I joined to the forest management program I have leant more about forest
conservation. I felt that I was guilty what happened in the past” (Farm Africa, 2002).
2.1.7 Definition of Terms

Menja or some times referred to as “Manjo” is the name referring to ethnic group
in Kefa zone.
Forest dependent communities are communities that live within or immediately
adjacent to forested areas, and who depend on them for their sustenance.
Knowledge is defined as the people's understanding of forest conservation in
terms of protecting and sustainable use (Temesgen, 2007).
Conservation practice is defined as the practice that people in the study area
have acquired from their ancestors that is to mean any traditional method of
conserving forest resources and / or a knowledge that they have acquired through
modern environmental education that could be from any form of media,
agricultural experts etc, (Temesgen,2007).
21
Attitude is defined as people’s feeling towards over exploitation of the resource
for fuel wood, lodging, construction, settlement, agricultural expansion and any
other purpose (Temesgen, 2007).
Bio-diversity or biological diversity denotes the totality of life forms including
genes, species and ecosystems and variety of different organisms in a certain area
or as the sum of all the different species of animals, plants, fungi, and microbial
organisms living on Earth and the variety of habitats in which they live (Niles
Eldredge, 2004). But for this study biodiversity is the totality of all types of tree
species in the study area.
On-farm occupation implies those engaged in agricultural activity, specifically
crop production.
Off-farm occupation mostly participating out of crop production activities,
particularly charcoal and fuel wood collection.
2.2 Conceptual Framework
Conceptual framework shows that the knowledge, attitude and practice of forest
dependent community towards forest conservation. The three major dependent variables
that constitute the conceptual framework for this study are knowledge, attitude and
practice of the community towards conservation. These dependent variables are affected
by different demographic and socio-economic factors.
The demographic factors include sex, age, marital status and family size of the
respondents. There are also certain socio economic variables which have strong relation
with knowledge, attitude and practice towards forest conservation. Such variables are
literacy status, occupation, land ownership and contact with conservation agents.
In the conceptual frame work the arrow reveals the impact of the dependent variables on
the independent variables. Each dependent variable was expected affecting the
independent variable positively or negatively. The figure below show the relationship
found between dependent variables and independent variables.
22
Figure1: Conceptual Framework of the Study
Independent Variables Dependent variable

Demographic Factors
Sex
Age
Household Size
Marital Status
Socio- economic Factors Knowledge

Literacy status Attitude
Occupation Practice
Owning farm land
Contact with
conservation
agents
Source: Developed by the Author on the basis of different literature, 2008
23
CHAPTER THREE
METHODS AND MATERIALS OF ANALYSIS
This chapter presents data sources, sampling method, and sample size determination,
method of data analysis and description of variables of the study.
3.1 Data Sources
Both primary and secondary sources of data were used for this study. Primary data was
collected through household survey, focus group discussion and key informant.
Secondary sources include published and unpublished materials i.e. books, journals,
project, reports maps etc. The eligible people for the study were the members of the
community age 15 and above. A total of 422 respondents were interviewed and three
groups of FGD from 6 kebeles were formed. The number of each FGD participants was
ranges from four to seven. And the general direction pursed in the discussion was left for
the researcher to trigger issues for discussion and promote active group participation.
The key informant interview was conducted. The selected key informants were local
government officials and wereda’s agricultural and rural development office experts.
3.2 Sampling Method
The study primarily focused on the Kaffa zone in which the Manja community
inhabiting in a long time. In order to undertake the study Gimbo wereda was selected
because it is very adjacent to the Bonga forest and the majority of Manja community
inhabit. There are 11 rural kebeles in Gimbo wereda. Among these kebeles 6 kebeles
were selected by using systematic sampling technique. In all selected kebeles, household
listing were undertaken. Further to identify the sample households random systematic
sampling procedure was employed. In all selected households, population listing with
filtering variable age was conducted by the data collectors. It was later served as a sample
frame for the study. After listing systematic random sampling was used to select the
sample respondents. The sample distribution among the kebeles was done using
probability proportion to population size (pps) method.
24
Figure 2: Stages of Sample Selection
Wereda-Gimbo
Kebeles - keja Araba,

Kayakelo, Tulla,
sheka,Yayebito and Michiti
Households
Study
population
Source: Developed by the author on the basis of different literatures, 2008
3.3 Sample Size Determination

o determine the sample size, the following formula was employed (Cochkan, 1999).
n= (P*(100-P)* Z2
e2
Where: n = Sample size
P= Estimated proportion of respondents who have knowledge. As the
proportion was not known, 0.5 was used as P value to obtain maximum
number of the respondents.
Z= The number of standard error corresponding to 95 percent confidence
interval which is 1.96.
e = The margin of error that the researcher tolerates which is 0.05
Therefore:
• The total number of sample to be included in the study
= 50*(100-50)* 1.962
52
= 384
• With 10 percent contingency the total number of the respondents were= 384+38=
422
25
3.4 Method of Data Analysis
Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used for the purpose of analysis.
Consistency check was done to assess data quality before the actual analysis. The
consistency check was conducted by using uni-variate and bi-variate analysis techniques.
Cross tabulation and chi-square methods were used in order to find out the degree of
association of each independent variable to the dependent variables. In addition, logistic
regression model was employed since this technique is the most appropriate tool of
analyzing the degree of strength of the relationship between dependent variables and
independent variables when dependent is variable dichotomous taking value between 1
and 0.
The logistic regression function for predicted variables can generally be given as
Pi = 1 = e-zi
(1+ e-zi) (1+ e-zi)
Where Pi: is the probability that ith respondents having knowledge, positive attitude and
practicing.
eZi: stands for the irrational number e to the power of Zi
Zi : is a function of N-predictor variables which is also expressed as:
Zi = B0 + B1 X1+ B2X2i…+ Bn Hni +u i
Where X1, X2… Xn = Predictor variables
βo - is the intercept
β1, β2, ---,βn are the logit parameters (slopes) of the equation in the
model.
The coefficients show how the log-odds in favor of knowledge, attitude and practice
change as the value of predictor variables change. The value of Pi (the probability of
having knowledge, positive, attitude and practice) ranges between 0 and 1 and it is also
non-linearly related to the predictor variables.
26
The probability that the likelihood of a household is not having knowledge, attitude and
practice (1 – Pi) is given as
1-P = __1____
1+ez
Therefore, the odds ratio can be written as:
P = 1+e = ez
1-pi 1+e-z
Now Pi is the odds ratio, which is the ratio of the probability that the livelihood of
1-pi
respondent i is having knowledge, posetive attitude and practice to the probability that the
likelihood of the respondent have not. When the odds ratio is expressed in terms of log of
the odds, it is expressed as
log pro(have) = B0 + B1 + B2X2i…+ Bn Hni +u i
log pro (have no)
Based on log odds, logistic regression can be interpreted as the change in log odds due to
one unit change in the predictor variables. When log odds is expressed in odds (eZ ), it i
shows the factor by which the odds change when the predictor variable changes by one
unit. Thus, the values of the odds show that the odds have increased, decreased, and
unchanged.
In order to examine whether the model fits the data, different methods such as the
classification table, Hosmer and Lemeshow test, histogram of estimated probabilities, and
goodness of fit of the model can be used. In this study, classification table and Hosmer
and Lemeshow test were used to assess whether the model fits the data. Multicollinearity
among predictor variables was examined using coefficient of contingency.
27
3.5 Description of the variables
Table1: Description of Dependent and Independent Variables
Variables Category
Dependent variables
Knowledge Have / Have Not
Attitude Have Positive / Negative attitude
Practice Yes / No
Independent variables
Demographic Factors
Sex Male / Female
Age 15-30, 31-50, 50+
Marital Status Ever married/ Never Married
Household Size ≤ 5 and >5
Socio-economic Factors
Literate / Illiterate 1
Literacy Status
On-farm /Off-farm
Major Occupation
Have/ Have No
Owning Farm Land
Yes/No
Contact with Conservation Agent
Source: Developed by the author on the basis of different literatures, 2008

_____________
1. In this study literate refers to those who can read and write by any language while illiterate who
can not read and write
28
CHAPTER FOUR
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY AREA AND THE STUDY
POPULATION
4.1 Background of the Study Area
The study area is geographically located in Southern Nations Nationalities People’s

regional state(SNNPRS)in Kaffa Zone .The zone covers a total area of about 11,116.35
Km2 (9.65%) of the region and lies in 60 15` to 80 08` North latitude and 350 30` to 360
46` East longitude. The population of the zone was estimated to be 1,044,033(CSA,
2006). Of this total, about 92.5 percent were estimated to live in the rural area, while 7.5
were expected to dwell in the town. The average population density was 64.9 people per
square kilometer. The same source points out that Kaffa zone had population growth of
3.31 percent. If this trend of population growth continues, Kaffa is expected to be
inhabited by 1,692,084 people by the year 2018 (ZoFED,2004) .This would perhaps take
the crude density to 152.2 person/ Km2, which implies more than double pressure on the
existing natural resource.
The study was conducted on parts of Bonga Forest. The original forest area covers about
161,424 ha; now including forest land settlement area, grazing land and agricultural land,
and lies within 070 00` -70 25`N latitude and 350 55` -360 37`E longitude ,stretching
across the boundaries of five contiguous woredas ; namely Gimbo,Menjiwo, Tello, Decha
and Chena. Of which Gimbo wereda is where majority of the manja community inhabits.
According to ZoFED(2006),143 thousand people were estimated to live in Gimbo wereda
in 2006.Of the total population about 28.4 percent were estimated to live in town, while
the remaining 71.6 percent were expected to be lived in rural area.
Information on the actual size of the present forest areas was not available but it is by far
below the original size. The altitude of the area rages from 1000 to 3350 m.a.s.l;
consisting of highly dissected plateau, with flat to moderately undulating terrain on areas
above 1500 m.a.s.l (Matheos, 2001 cited by Henok 2007).
29
The forest experiences one rainy season, lasting from March /April to October. The mean
annual rainfall ranges from 1710mm at Bonga station to 1892mm at Wushwush station.
Over 85% of the total annual rainfall, with the mean monthly value in the range of
125-250mm occurs in the 8 months long rainy season. The mean temperature is 19.40 C at
Bonga station while it is 18.10 C at Wushwush station, which is located 200m higher than
Bonga (Matheos, 2001 cited by Henok 2007).
There are three major river bodies that drained the catchments of Bonga forest, such as
Gojeb, Dinchia, and Woshi rivers. The Gojeb River along with its numerous tributaries
drains the north eastern parts of the areas on the eastern block accounting for about 22%
of the total catchments. The Dinchia River together with its tributaries drains the central
parts of the forest. The Woshi river drains areas suited along the western most parts of the
forest accounting for about 28.8% of the total forest area (Matheos, 2001 cited by Henok
2007).
According to the recent inventory carried out by the institute of Biodiversity conservation
and research through the GTZ supported Forest Genetic Resource Conservation project,
Bonga forest is characterized three distinct vegetation types. These are Upland rain forest
vegetation, Upland Humid Forest Vegetation, and Sinarinduraria/Bamboo Thicket. About
106 woody plant species belonging to 74 genera and 38 families were recorded during the
inventory of Bonga forest (Matheos, 2001 cited by Henok 2007).
30
Figure: 3 Map of the Study Area
SNNPRS
Study Wereda
Source: CSA, 2008
31
4.2 Background Characteristic of the Study Population
Knowledge, attitude and practice towards forest conservation are closely related to the
background characteristics of forest dependent community. Different studies like
Temesgen(2007) indicated that knowledge, attitude and practice towards forest
conservation are more likely affected by differences in demographic and socio-economic
characteristics of the forest users. Hence, before examining the relationship between
respondents’ demographic and socio- economic characteristics and the influence of these
characteristics on knowledge, attitude and practice, this section discussed the background
characteristics of the study population.
4.2.1 Demographic Characteristics

Out of the total respondents covered in the survey, 50.6 percent male and 52.4 percent
female were found in the age group 15-30. So that about half of the sample respondents
were found in the young age category. Thus all the three predicted variables i.e.
knowledge, attitude and practice towards conservation were seen across both sexes and
age groups.
Table 2: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents by Age and Sex
Sex Composition
Age Group Male Female Total
Frequency Percent Frequency Percent Frequency Percent
15-30 119 50.6 98 52.4 217 51.4
31-50 96 40.9 89 47.6 185 43.8
+50 20 8.5 0 0 20 4.7
Total 235 100 187 100 422 100
Source: Own Field Survey, 2008
As far as marital status of the respondents is concerned, data was collected on the basis of
five marital statuses such as married, divorced, widowed, single and separated. For the
convenience of the analysis, these demographic variables were regrouped and recoded as
“ever married “and “never married”. Those who were married, divorced, separated and
32
widowed were categorized under “ever married” category while the rest categorized as
“never married”.
Table 3: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents by Marital Status
Marital Status Frequency Percent

Never married 99 23.5
Ever Married 323 76.5
Total 422 100.0
Source Own Field Survey, 2008
Based on the above classification, it was found out that 76.5 percent of the respondents
were ever married and 23.5 percent were never married at the time of the survey.
Like marital status, household sizes of respondents were recoded into two categories as
less than or equal to five and greater than five. Table 4 below shows the frequency
distribution of the household size of the respondents.
Table 4: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents by Household Size
Household Size Frequency Percent

≤5 299 70.9
>5 123 29.1
Total 422 100.0
Accordingly, large proportion of the respondents (70.9 percent) had less than or equal to
five household sizes while the remaining (29.1 percent) had more than five.
4.2.2 Socio-economic Characteristics

In this research socio-economic characteristics encompass people’s literacy status,
occupation, land ownership and contact with conservation agents. Thus, the study
attempted to investigate respondents’ KAP towards forest conservation across these
socio-economic characteristics.
33
Data collected on literacy status indicated that only 14 percent of the respondents have
had access to education that enabled them to read and write while about 86 percent of the
respondents were illiterate (table 5).
Table 5: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents by Literacy Status
Literacy Status Frequency Percent

Literate 59 14.0
Illiterate 363 86.0
Total 422 100.0
In formation on respondent’s occupation was also collected as ‘on-farm’ and ‘off-farm’

occupation.
Table 6: Percentage Distributions of the Respondents by types of Occupation
Occupational Group Frequency Percent

On-farm 251 59.5
Off -farm 171 40.5
Total 422 100.0
The percentage distribution of the above table reveals that more than half (59.5 percent)
of the respondents were engaged in on farm activities while off-farm accounted for 40.5
percent.
Concerning land ownership, 78.4 percent of the total respondents had their own farm
land, while the remaining (21.6 percent) had no farm land (table 7).
34
Table 7: Percentage distribution of the respondents by land ownership
Land Ownership Frequency Percent

Have land 331 78.4
Have no land 91 21.6
Total 422 100.0
In this study, respondents were also asked whether they have contact with conservation
agents like Agricultural Development Agents, NGOs, environmental expertise etc.or not
so as to investigate the influence of this socio-economic factor on their KAP towards
forest conservation. As indicated in table 7, about 66.6 percent of the respondents had
contact with conservation agents; the rest 33.4 percent had no contact with them.
Table 8: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents by Contact with Conservation

Agents
Contact with
Conservation Agents Frequency Percent
Yes 281 66.6
No 141 33.4
Total 422 100.0
35
CHAPTER FIVE
PRESENTATION AND DATA ANALYSIS
5.1 Knowledge of Environment and Environmental Change
Data on knowledge of forest bio-diversity was collected along with other knowledge of
the resources. The respondent’s knowledge of any environmental change i.e climatic,
forest coverage, soil erosion, land productivity and availability of the water resource was
collected in order to understand the environmental knowledge of the Manja community.
5.1.1 Knowledge of Environmental Change

People’s level of awareness of what is happening in their environment in terms of change
in climate, land productivity, water resource and forest coverage could be taken as one
measure of their knowledge of the environment. It was only 29.6 percent of the
respondents replied that there were environmental problem in the study area that all of
them have observed only the change in forest cover (deforestation).This was supported
by the information obtained from the second FGD group participants. The participants
pointed out that:
Before ten years one can arrive at forest area after walking a distance
of few minutes. But now due to fuel wood and charcoal collection the forest is
far apart from us.
Out of these 29.6 percent respondents who said forest resource depletion is the major
environmental change, 24 percent associated the cause with lack of environmental
education. Around 44.8 percent of the respondents mentioned population growth and
expansion of farm land as the cause of deforestation.
36
Figure 3: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents by Mentioned Causes of
Deforestation
30 Over population
24.0 Expansion of settlement

25 22.4 22.4
20 Expansion of farm land

16.0
Percent
15 Increase Business of
Logging
10 Lack of environmental
6.4 6.4
education
5 2.4 Lack of government
control
0
Other
Causes of Deforestation
Source: Own Field survey, 2008
Regarding the solutions for deforestation, about 34 percent of the respondents suggested
strong law as a solution to control forest depletion. Providing environmental education as
a solution was also indicated by 22 percent of the respondent. Those who said limiting
family size was only 18 percent. Looking for another source of income and planting trees
pointed out as a solution equally (figure 4).
Figure 4: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents by suggested solution for
Deforestation
22% 18%
limiting Familiy Size

13%
Searchinig for another source of income
Drafting Strict law that protect forest
Plannting trees
13% Educating the community
34%
37
5.1.2 Knowledge of Bio-diversity and the Nexus between Poverty
and Forest Depletion
It was attempted to understand the nexus between forest depletion, poverty and its cross
generational impact. The majority of the respondents (58.8 percent) did not perceive that
the reduction of forest may lead to poverty. The rest 41.2 percent of the respondents
knew whether there is link between forest destruction and poverty or not. As far as
knowledge of bio-diversity is concerned, 54.8 percent responded Bonga forest is rich in
bio- diversity. Among those who said the forest is rich in bio- diversity, 69 percent still
believe that there are number of species available in a large quantity. About 43.2 percent
said that the forest is not rich in bio-diversity. The remaining 2 percent did not knew
about the bio diversity of the forest. Based on this result, it possible to say that there is
awareness about bio-diversity in the community and the community is well aware of the
consequence of forest depletion.
Table 9: Percentage Distribution of Respondents by Knowledge of Bio-diversity and

the Nexus between Forest Depletion and Poverty
Species Still
Bonga Forest’s Available in Large Forest Depletion
Response Richness Bio-diversity Quantity Leads to Poverty
Frequen
Frequency percent percent Frequency percent
cy
Yes
161 54.8 291 69.0 173 41.0
No
127 43.2 7 1.7 1 0.2
I do not
6 2.0 124 29.4 248 58.8
know
Total 294 100.0 422 100.0 422 100.0
5.1.3 Knowledge on the Impact of Forest Destruction

This section helps to understand respondents’ perception about long term impact of forest
destruction. All the 422 respondents were asked whether the impact of the current
destruction of forest resource is manifested or not. Accordingly, the majority of the
38
respondents (62 percent) did not perceive the long term and short term impact of forest
destruction. It is only 23 percent of the respondents perceived the negative impact of the
existing forest destruction on the coming generation. The rest 15 percent perceived the
current impact of forest destruction (figure 5).
Figure 5: Percentage Distribution of Respondents by Knowledge of the Impact of
Deforestation
15%
Currently
On the coming generation
23%
62% I do not know
Source Own Field survey, 2008
5.2 Correlates of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of forest

Conservation
Data on knowledge of conservation were collected based on the two questions. These
questions were: ‘do human beings can protect the forest from depletion?’ and ‘do they
destroy the forest?’. Thus by computing these two questions, respondents were
categorized under having and not having knowledge of conservation.
The attitude towards conservation measure was captured by asking four measures of
conservation question. Basically, depletion of forest for fuel wood and charcoal,
agricultural and settlement expansion, and exploitation of forest resource for timber and
construction material questions were taken as a measurement of attitude. But out of these
measurements, depletion of forest for fire wood and charcoal was taken for the purpose
of analysis for this study due to the concept raised by the FGD participants. In all groups
the entire FGD participant attributed in the study area the most serious threat for the
depletion of Bonga forest is cutting trees by the community for the purpose of fire wood
and charcoal making. Based on this fact, the respondents were asked their agreement or
39
disagreement on the measure taken to stop cutting forest for fire wood and charcoal. To
simplify the analysis the answer were recoded as ‘positive’ and ‘negative’.
To understand conservation practice of the respondents the researcher was employed

question that reflect forest conservation practice for the analysis purpose. Based on this,
respondents who were practicing forest conservation activities at the time of the survey
categorized under ’Yes’ and not practicing categorized under ‘No’ category.
The aim of this section is to understand the relationship between the demographic and
socio economic characteristics of the respondents and their knowledge, attitude and
practice towards forest conservation. For this purpose, descriptive statistics such as
frequency distributions and cross tabulation were employed. Thus, the impact of
demographic and socio-economic factors on KAP and variation of knowledge, attitude
and practice towards conservation by various types of demographic and socio economic
backgrounds of the eligible respondents were assessed
5.2.1 Demographic Factors and KAP towards Forest Conservation

Knowledge on the conservation of forest has variation across various age groups.
Accordingly, Knowledge of conservation was higher in the older age group (above 50)
which accounted for 70 percent of the total respondents. Of the total 217 respondents
who were in the younger age group (15-30), about 53.9 percent had knowledge of forest
conservation. About 67.6 percent of those who had no knowledge of conservation were
found in the middle age group (31-50). And other study show that the knowledge of
forest conservation increases as one goes from the young to old age (Temesgen, 2007).
The attitude of an individual towards any conservation measure also varied across the age
group. The majority of the respondents (80 percent) in the age group (above 50)
responded positively for forest conservation measures that have to be taken conserving
the forest. On the other hand, 75.1 percent of the respondents who responded negatively
for forest conservation measures were found in the age group 31-50.
40
The finding shows that at the younger and older age there relatively exist higher
percentages of positive attitude towards conservation measure than the middle age group.
Similarly different studies showed that people in the middle age group as compare to
other age group have negative attitude towards environment. This was justified from
consumption behavior perspective. As per capita consumption increases through time,
distinct expenditures will follow distinct age pattern and therefore there will be higher
consumption behavior at middle age and lower consumption at younger and older ages.
As people become more consumers, therefore, they are more likely to negatively affect
the environment ( Pebly, 1998).
When we look at the conservation practice of the respondents across the three age groups,
only small percentage of the respondents were practicing conservation activities. The
percentage of conservation practice relatively higher at the middle (13.0 percent) and
young (12.9 percent) age than old age (10 percent).
Out of 235 male and 187 female respondents 60 percent of male were found to have
knowledge of forest conservation but the percentage is much lower for female (26.7
percent). Different studies Temesgen( 2007) and Flintan,(2003), also showed that women
possessed less knowledge than men concerning conservation and less aware of
conservation long term benefits.
Concerning attitude, about 44.7 percent of the male respondents had positive attitude to
conservation measures while the percentage for females much was lower (17.1 percent).
In the study area, females were involved in fire wood and charcoal making than males.
On the other hand, the Safety corner Hypothesis argues that women are more likely to
express concern about the environment only when environmental issues directly threat
the health of their families. For them such disparity in environmental attitude has strong
correlation with selected phenomena when in one or the other way the phenomenon is an
environmental issue that could threat their life (Temesgen, 2007).
41
This study also show that male have better conservation practice than female since
female spent more time in house work than male. About 17 percent of male and 7.5
percent of female respondents are practicing conservation activity. For instance in Mali
women on average spend 10-14 hours a day in preparing, meal for husband. This has left
them little time to participate in conservation activity than men (Flintan, 2003)
Out of 323 ever married respondents 58.2 percent had no knowledge of forest
conservation. With respect to never married categories, 43.4 percent of respondents had
no knowledge of forest conservation. Therefore, this study indicates never married people
had better knowledge of forest conservation than ever married ones. However, other
studies (Temesgen, 2007 and Flinta, 2003) showed that unmarried person compared to
the married ones have limited knowledge of environmental conservation because when
people get married they involve in community activities than the single people. Thus,
ever married persons develop strong commitment regarding the environment.
The study also showed that very significant difference between ever married and never
married people towards forest conservation measure .Among the never married, 40.4
percent of the respondent had positive attitude towards forest conservation measure while
the percentage of positive attitude for the ever married group was 30 percent. Similarly,
according to consumption behavior perspective as household formation occur , the
consumption behavior of the household will automatically be changed ,therefore with
increasing number of household , there is always growth in the volume of consumption
and this in turn more likely negatively affect the environment(Pebly,1998).
The conservation practice of the respondents among never married and ever married did
not show significant variation. About 14.1 percent of never marred and 12.4 percent of
ever married respondents were practicing conservation activity. Study conducted in
Wendogent area also showed that both married and unmarried people have no better
forest conservation practice. (Temesgen, 2007).
42
Out of 123 respondents who were living with the household that possessed more than five
members, 48.8 percent were found to have knowledge of forest conservation but the
percentage is relatively lower for those who had less than or equal to five household
members(43.8 percent). Regarding attitude, about 56.2 percent of the respondents with
more than five household size had positive attitude to conservation measures while the
percentage for those who were living with less than or equal to five household member
was 51.2 percent. This study also showed that respondents who were living with
household size more than five had better conservation practice than who had less than or
equal to five. According to Tegbar (2007), the households with large household size
have high perception of deforestation. This result could support the finding that
household which have large family size are relatively more victim by the depletion of
forest resource .Thus, they have positive attitude and practice to wards forest
conservation
43
Table 10: Percentage Distribution of Respondents by Demographic Characteristics and
KAP towards Conservation
Knowledge Attitude Practice
Demographic Number Have
characters tics of cases Have No Positive Negative Yes No
Sex of the
Respondent 422
Male
235 60.0% 40.0% 44.7% 55.3% 17.0% 83.0%
Female
187 26.7% 73.3% 17.1% 82.9% 7.5% 92.5%
Age of the
Respondent 422
15-30 217 53.9% 46.1% 34.6% 65.4% 12.9% 87.1%
31-50
185 32.4% 67.6% 24.9% 75.1% 13.0% 87.0%
>50 20 70.0% 30.0% 80.0% 20.0% 10.0% 90.0%
Marital status
422
Never married 99 56.6% 43.4% 40.4% 59.6% 14.1% 85.9%
Ever Married 323 41.8% 58.2% 30.0% 70.0% 12.4% 87.6%
Household Size 422
1-5 299 43.8% 56.2% 30.8% 69.2% 11.0% 89.0%
>5 123 48.8% 51.2% 36.6% 63.4% 17.1% 82.9%
5.2.2 Socio-economic factors and KAP towards conservation

Among the 363 illiterate respondents 38.8 percent had the knowledge of forest
conservation while out of the 59 literate respondents the large proportion (84.7 percent)
had knowledge of forest conservation. In this regard, illiterate people were observed to
have low knowledge in establishing the link between conservation and development and
have also little understanding about the linkage between right to resource and
conservation responsibility (Flintan, 2000)
Concerning attitude towards conservation measures, variation also is observed among

literate and illiterate respondents. About 35.6 percent of literate respondent had shown
44
negative attitude towards conservation measure while large proportion of the illiterate
respondents (72.7 percent) had negative attitude to conservation measure. Van Liere and
Dunlop (1980) study showed that education is consistently associated with environmental
concern. According to them, it’s possible to conclude that literate person tends to be more
concerned about environmental quality than illiterate ones.
When we see the conservation practice of the respondents, 89.5 percent of illiterate
respondents were not practicing any conservation activities. The percentage of literate
respondents who were practicing any conservation activities accounted for 72.9 percent.
Thus, the conservation practice was much less in both literacy statuses. On the other
hand, studies also indicated that women in the developing countries, as compared to men
have less access to education and resource .Educating women, raise women level of
awareness on environmental issues and increase their role in conservation activities
(Flintan, 2000).
There is occupation identified and assigned to men and women. Such division of labour
is very common phenomena in Africa. As a result, an important difference in knowledge,
attitude and practice towards the environment exist among people (Moor, 1996). This fact
also raised by FGD participants from all group. They under scored in the study area men
are mostly engaged in on-farm activities while women engaged in off-farm activities.
This occupational variation reflects change on knowledge, attitude and practice of the
community between the two sexes.
From those respondents who engaged on farm activity, 61 percent were not found to have
knowledge of conservation. Similarly out of the off farm respondents, 45.6 percent have
no knowledge of conservation. When we look at attitudinal variation among the two
occupation group there was no significant variation between the two occupation groups.
About 69.7 and 64.5 percent of those who were engaged in on-farm and off-farm
activities had negative attitude towards conservation measure respectively. Similar to
attitude, both occupational groups did not show significant difference regarding
45
conservation practice. About 86.5 and 88.3 percent of respondents engaged in on-farm
and off- farm activities had no conservation practice respectively.
It is also important to investigate the knowledge, attitude and practice towards

conservation in relation with land ownership. The study indicated that that 57.1 percent
of the respondents who had no farm land had better conservation knowledge than their
counter part. The percentage decreases to 42 percent for those who had farm land.
According to wereda Agricultural and rural development office expert key informant
information, being marginalized and landlessness by itself enforced the Manja to be
dependent on forest for their livelihood. They also added, Manja community has no
alternative source of income still they are cutting forest for the purpose of charcoal and
firewood and selling it for urban dwellers.
Unlike knowledge the respondent’s attitude to the conservation measure showed different
patterns. Table10 reveals that 34.7 percent of positive attitude towards conservation had
been shown to those who had farm land and 24.2 percent shown for who had no farm
land. With regard to practice there was no important difference by land ownership. The
practice for those who had land were about 15.4 percent showed a decrement to 12.1
percent for those had no land. Similarly, study conducted in Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso and
Cameron indicated that women in practices have no the legal right to own land and trees.
Because of no access to land women have little incentive to invest in conservation
practice (PRB, 2000).
It was also important to investigate knowledge, attitude and practice towards forest
conservation in relation to contact with conservation agents. As table 13 shows, the
respondents who had contact with conservation agents had better conservation knowledge
than who had no contact. In this study it is proved that knowledge of conservation
increased from 42.6 percent for those who had no contacted with conservation agent to
46.6 percent who had contact with the conservation agents. FGD discussant from keja
Araba Kebele also confirmed the above finding.
46
Since I taught by Farm Africa about the use of forest and the
impact of deforestation, I felt that I was guilty what happened in the past.
Their attitude to the measures of conservation also showed difference. Accordingly, as

people established contact with conservation agents their attitude increasingly becomes
positive. Positive attitudes, towards conservation measures, increased from18.4 percent to
39.5 percent as people had contacted with conservation agents.
The practice of conservation had also shown increasing trend across contact with
conservation agents. The practices, for the people who had contact, were about 19.2
percent. No respondents involved in forest conservation practice out of those respondents
who had no contact with conservation.
Table 11: Percentage Distribution of Respondents by Socio-economic Characteristics and

KAP towards Conservation
Knowledge Attitude Practice

Socio economic Number Have
characteristics of cases Have No Positive Negative Yes No
Literacy Status 422
Literate 59 84.7% 15.3% 64.4% 35.6% 27.1% 72.9%
Illiterate 363 38.8% 61.2% 27.3% 72.7% 10.5% 89.5%
Main 422
Occupation
On farm 251 39.0% 61.0% 30.3% 69.7% 13.5% 86.5%
Off Farm 171 54.4% 45.6% 35.7% 64.3% 11.7% 88.3%
Land holding 422
Have land 331 42.0% 58.0% 34.7% 65.3% 12.1% 87.9%
No land 91 57.1% 42.9% 24.2% 75.8% 15.4% 84.6%
Contact with 422
Conservation
Agents
Yes 281 46.6% 53.4% 39.5% 60.5% 19.2% 80.8%
No 100.0
141 42.6% 57.4% 18.4% 81.6% 0.0%
%
47
5.3 Predictions of Knowledge and Attitude towards Conservation
In the previous chapters some of the specific research questions were discussed using
descriptive statistics such as cross-tabulation and percentage distribution. Moreover, the
researcher tried to look at the relationship among the respondent's socio-economic and
demographic characteristics, their knowledge status of the forest resource and its
conservation and their attitude towards forest conservation. However, this was not
enough to make deduction and explore the predictive power of the independent variables
in explaining the likelihood of the occurrence of the dependent variables. For this
purpose, the logistic regression analysis is used. Binary logistic regression model is the
multivariate statistical tool that was used for further analysis of the subject matter.
A number of variables indicating conservation knowledge status of respondents and their

attitude towards conservation measures were used to fit the model. For both dependent
variables (knowledge of conservation and attitude towards conservation) the models were
used independently. Before estimating the correlates of having knowledge and positive
attitude using the model, the goodness of fit of the model and multi-collinearity diagnosis
is presented below. For the third dependent variable (Practice of conservation), because
of the very small number of respondents who had been practicing conservation, the
model was not used to explain it.
Age, sex, marital status, household size, literacy status, major occupation, land ownership
and contact with conservation agents are taken as predictors to fit the model. These
predictors (independent variables) are believed to have the power to predict the
probability of occurrence of outcome variables (knowledge and attitude). This is to mean
that, the probability or likelihood to which a respondent has the knowledge of forest
conservation and positive attitude towards forest conservation are explained by these
independent variables. The enter subcommand is used for model selection, in which all
the selected predictor or independent variables are entered into the model at once.
48
Variable used and Parameter coding
All the selected variables are given codes. Indicator variables for coding were used and
hence the coefficients for the new variables represent the effect of each category as
compared to the reference category. The coefficient of the reference category is zero
which makes its exp (β) value or value of odd ratio one. Each independent variable had
categories and the first category was taken as a reference. The reference category is used
to measure the extent to which the respondents had the possibility to possess the outcome
variable as a change in the status occurs from the reference to the next category. For
instance, occupation of the respondent is taken as an important predictor to the
occurrence of the dependent variables (knowledge and attitude) (the likelihood of having
knowledge and having positive attitude). This variable has two categories namely, on-
farm and off-farm. The on-farm category is taken as a reference category and hence
measurement is made from this reference category which means that to what extent the
individual's knowledge of forest conservation and positive attitude towards conservation
measures changes as one move from on-farm to off-farm activities.
49
Table12: Predictors Used in Multivariate Binary Logistic Regression Analysis and
Categorical Variable Coding for Knowledge and Attitude.
Parameter coding
Variable entered Frequency (1) (2)

Age of the Respondent 15-30 217 1.000 0.000
31-50 185 0.000 1.000
>50 20 0.000 0.000
Contact with conservation Yes 281 1.000
agents No 141 0.000
Marital status Never
99 1.000
married
Ever
323 0.000
Married
Household Size 1-5 299 1.000
5+ 123 0.000
Literacy Status Literate 59 1.000
Illiterate 363 0.000
Land Owner ship Have
331 1.000
land
Have no
91 0.000
land
Main Occupation On farm 251 1.000
Off Farm 171 0.000
Sex of the Respondent Male 235 1.000
Female 187 0.000
Source: Computed from Survey Data, 2008
Examining the goodness of fit of the model for Knowledge

There are various ways to assess whether the model fits the data or not. In this study,
classification table and Hosmer and Lemeshow test were used. The classification table
shows the percentage of observed cases that are correctly or incorrectly classified. As can
be seen from table 12 respondents who had knowledge of conservation were correctly
predicted by the model as had no knowledge. Overall, 69.2 % of the households were
correctly classified by the model.
50
Table 13: Classification Table for Knowledge
Predicted
Knowledge of
Conservation Percentage
Observed Have No Have Correct
Have No 189 42 81.8
Knowledge of
Conservation Have 88 103 53.9
Overall Percentage 69.2
When we look Hosmer and Lemeshow test to accept or reject the alternative hypothesis
“the model adequately describes the data”. If the significance level of the test is less than
0.05, it indicates that the alternative hypothesis is rejected and the null hypothesis which
states the inadequacy of the model to describe the data is accepted. In the case of this
study, the significance level of the test was found to be 0.174. Thus, the alternative
hypothesis which states that the model is adequate to describe the data was accepted and
that it is a good model to predict the dependent variable knowledge.
Table 14: Hosmer and Lemeshow Test of goodness of Fit for Knowledge
Chi-square df Sig.
11.515 8 0.174
Source: Computed from survey data, 2008
Multi –collinearity Test for knowledge

The predictor variables used in the model were non-continuous. Thus, coefficient of
contingency was computed to detect the problem of multi-collinearity. The coefficient is
given as (Kothari, 1990)
_____________
C= √ x2
n+ x2
Where C is the coefficient of contingency, χ2 is chi square test, and n is total sample size.
The value of C ranges from 0 to 1. Smaller values of C indicate weak association
between the variables and vice-versa. The multi-collinearity diagnosis for the variables of
the study shows weak relationship between the predictor variables. This was shown in the
annex part.
51
Result of the model for Knowledge
Table 11 presents the parameters of logistic regression model estimated by regressing the
demographic and socio-economic variables and the knowledge of conservation. The
coefficients, probability level, and odds ratio indicate whether a particular variable is
associated with knowledge of conservation statistically significant. The odds ratios given
in the last column of the table show change in the odds of having knowledge of
conservation versus have no knowledge of conservation due to membership in a
particular sub group of a variable. If the value of the odds ratio is 1, it indicates that the
variable has no effect. If the value is greater than 1, the probability of having knowledge
is higher for members of that group in relation to the reference category. An odds ratio of
less than 1 indicates lower probability of not having knowledge of particular
characteristics for members of that particular sub group.
As far as age group of the respondent is concerned, those in the age group 31-50 had
higher likelihood of having knowledge when compared with the reference category (15-
30). However, it is not statistically significant. Similarly, respondents (aged above 50)
had lower likelihood of having knowledge than younger respondents (15-30) even if it is
not statistically significant.
Sex of the respondents was found to be significantly related to knowledge of

conservation. Female respondents had lower probability of having knowledge when
compared with male respondents. The likelihood of having conservation knowledge for
female was 0.241 times lower than male respondents. Thus, the result of the model states
that the likelihood of female respondents having knowledge of conservation is less than
male respondents are statistically accepted. This result was supported by Flintan (2003).
According to him women posses less knowledge than men concerning environmental
conservation.
Regarding marital status, when compared with never married the likelihood of having
knowledge of conservation was 3.11 times higher for ever married respondents And the
finding states that the probability of having conservation knowledge increase as one
52
changed from never married to ever married status is statistically significant. Similarly,
Temesgen( 2007) and Flintan (2003) also support this result and showed that unmarried
person compared to the married ones have limited knowledge of environmental
conservation because when people get married they involve in community activities than
the single people. Thus, ever married persons develop strong commitment regarding the
environment.
Respondents for which the household size was greater than five, the odds ratio
significantly increased compared to respondents with household sizes of five or equal to
five. It is statistically significant at 5% significant level. It indicates that when household
size increases the probability of having knowledge of conservation is also increase on the
study area. As indicated by Tegbar(2007),people who have large household size have
better perception of deforestation and this leads to better knowledge of conservation.
Education was one of the determinate variables that significantly influenced the
knowledge of conservation. For respondents who were illiterate at the time of survey, the
odds ratio of having conservation knowledge was 0.302 times lower than those literate
respondents. In this regard, other things being constant, positive relationship was
observed between literacy status of the respondents and having knowledge of
conservation. Thus, the result of the model states that the probability of having
knowledge of conservation is less for illiterate respondents compared to literate
respondents is statistically accepted. As indicated in the bi-variant section, literate people
have understanding about the link between conservation and development (Flintan,
2000).
As far as occupation of the respondents is concerned, compared to respondents for which

their occupation is off farm activity, the likelihood of having knowledge of conservation
was 2.71 times higher compared to those respondents engaged in on-farm activity. Thus,
the model states that engaged in off-farm activity increase the likelihood of having
knowledge of conservation is statistically accepted. As mentioned earlier, this could be
due to the forest participatory program found in the study area which encompass those
53
participate on off farm activity and may be attributable to increase the awareness of
these off-farm group of forest dependent.
With regard to land owner ship of the sample, the likelihood of having knowledge was
0.971 times lower for respondents who had no farm land compare to those who had. But,
it was not statistically significant. Therefore the result of the model states that having
farm land is not guaranty for knowledge of conservation.
Regarding contact with conservation agents, its relationship with knowledge of

conservation was not statistically significant. The likelihood that those who had no
contact with conservation agent 0.92 times less having knowledge of conservation than
those who had contact with conservation agents. The result may be related to the work
done by conservation agents. They are playing an important role by educating the
community at the grassroots level.
Table 15: Logistic Regression Result of the Effect of Predictor Variables on Knowledge
Variables Categories B S.E. Sig. Exp(B)

Sex of the Male Reference category
respondent Female -1.421 0.248 0.000 0.241
15-30 Reference category
Age of the
31-50 0.460 0.453 0.311 1.584
respondent
>50 -0.596 0.471 0.206 0.551
Never married Reference category
Marital Status
Ever married 1.136 0.333 0.001 3.115
Household ≤5 Reference category
Size 5+ 0.615 0.230 0.008 1.851
Literacy Literate Reference category
Status Illiterate -1.198 0.375 0.001 0.302
Main On farm Reference category
occupation Off farm 0.997 0.310 0.001 2.710
Land Have land Reference category
ownership Have no land -0.029 0.357 0.935 0.971
Contact with Yes Reference category
conservation No
-0.083 0.279 0.767 0.921
agents
Source: Computed from survey dat, 2008
54
Examining the goodness of fit of the model for Attitude
As mentioned in knowledge part here also classification table and Hosmer and
Lemeshow test were used to test the model. The classification table shows the percentage
of observed cases that are correctly or incorrectly classified. As can be seen from table 16
respondents who had positive attitude were correctly predicted by the model as had
negative attitude. Overall, 73.2 % of the households were correctly classified by the
model.
Table 16: Classification Table for Attitude
Predicted
Attitude of the respondents Percentage

Observed Negative Positive Correct
Attitude of Negative 264 21 92.6
the Positive
respondents 92 45 32.8
Overall Percentage 73.2
Source: Computed from survey data, 2008
Hosmer and Lemeshow test (table17) show significance level of 0.518 which is above
0.05 indicated that the alternative hypothesis which states that the model is adequate to
describe the data was accepted and that it is a good model to predict the dependent
variable attitude.
Table 17: Hosmer and Lemeshow Test of Goodness of Fit for Attitude
Chi-square df Sig.
7.175 8 0.518
Source: Computed from survey data
Multi–collinearity Test for attitude

The same as knowledge the predictor variables used in the model were non-continuous.
Thus, coefficient of contingency was computed to detect the problem of multi-
collinearity. Based on the above multi–collinearity test formula, the multi-collinearity
diagnosis for the variables of the study shows weak relationship between the predictor
variables. This is shown in the annex part.
55
Result of the model for attitude
Table 11 presented Predictors used to multivariate binary logistic regression analysis and
categorical variable coding for attitude. Table 18 contains the estimated coefficients and
related statistics from the multivariate binary logistic regression model that predict the
likelihood of an individual attitude towards conservation measures from the constant, and
the independent variables are presented. The coefficients, probability level, and odds
ratio indicate whether a particular variable is associated with attitude of conservation
measure at statistically significant level. The odds ratios given in the last column of the
table show change in the odds of having positive attitude of conservation versus negative
attitude of conservation measure due to membership in a particular sub group of a
variable. If the value of the odds ratio is 1, it indicates that the variable has no effect. If
the value is greater than 1, the probability of having positive attitude is higher for
members of that group in relation to the reference category. An odds ratio of less than 1
indicates the probability of having negative attitude for members of that particular sub
group.
According to the result of the model, respondents found in the age group 31-50 had lower
likelihood of having positive attitude when compared with respondents found in the age
group 15-30. However, this is not statistically significant at 0.05 levels. Similarly,
respondents found in the older age (above 50) had higher likelihood of having positive
attitude than the reference age group. This result confirmed that in the study area the
likelihood of having positive attitude towards conservation measure decrease with
increasing the age is not statistically accepted. This is also justified by consumption
behavior perspective as indicated in the bi-variate section.
With regarding sex of the respondent, the female odds ratio decreased compared to their
male counter parts. The likelihood having positive attitude for female respondents was
decreased by 34.7 percent. Thus, the model states that the likelihood female respondents
against the conservation measure higher than male is statistically accepted.
56
Considering marital status of the respondent ever married respondents showing 3.03
times higher likelihood having positive attitude towards conservation measure than never
married and the relationship between the two is statistically significant. Therefore, the
result of the model states that married respondents had higher likelihood of having
positive attitude towards conservation is statistically accepted. Studies also showed that
married people have better knowledge of the environment and better attitude than the
single ones. This is because as people get married, they establish strong social network
within the community, and they are expected to involve in community activities than the
single people. Their parental effect also makes them wish to have conducive
environment, so that, the future of their children is secured. Therefore, they are more
concerned with environmental problems than the unmarried (Torgler et.al:2005).
Similar to marital status, household size was statistically significant in influencing the
attitude of the respondent. The likelihood of respondent who had more than five
household members was 2.95 times higher than the respondent who had less than or
equal to five household size.
The other important variable incorporated in the model is literacy status of the
respondent. The likelihood of illiterate respondents having positive attitude towards
conservation measure was 0.421 times lower compared with literate respondents. Thus,
the result of the model states that the probability of having positive attitude towards forest
conservation measure is less for illiterate ones.
Another variable used to fit the model for attitude is occupation. By apply the same
approach to the respondents the likelihood of the off farm respondents for having positive
attitude more likely happen than on farm respondents. Off-farm respondents were 5.08
times more positive to the conservation measure. Thus the expected relationship, the
likelihood of the respondents who engaged on off farm activity had five times positive
attitude than on farm activities is statistically accepted.
57
Land ownership was other variable significantly influenced the attitude of the respondent.
Respondents who had no farm land, the likelihood of having positive attitude was 0.289
times less when we compare respondents who had farm land. Thus the expected relation
ship which states that those who have no their own farm land decreases the probability of
having positive attitude towards conservation measure is statistically accepted.
Contact with conservation agent was found to be related to attitude of conservation

measure. The respondents who had no contact with conservation agents decrease the
likelihood of having positive attitude by 0.32 times and also highly statistically
significant. The expected relationship, there were positive relation ship between attitude
and contact with conservation agents is statistically accepted.
Table 18: Logistic Regression Result of the Effect of Predictor Variables on Attitude
Variables Categories B S.E. Sig. Exp(B)

Sex of the respondent Male Reference category
Female -1.058 0.268 0.000 0.347
15-30
Reference category
Age of the respondent
31-50 -0.390 0.477 0.414 0.677
>50 -0.995 0.500 0.047 0.370
Never married Reference category
Marital Status
Ever married 1.110 0.357 0.002 3.033
≤5 Reference category
Household Size
>5 1.082 0.244 0.000 2.951
Literate Reference category
Literacy Status
Illiterate -0.866 0.382 0.023 0.421
On farm Reference category
Main occupation
Off farm 1.759 0.332 0.000 5.809
Have land Reference category
Land ownership
Have no land -1.240 0.385 0.001 0.289
Contact with Yes Reference category
conservation agents No -1.123 0.308 0.000 0.325
58
CHAPTER SIX
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
6.1 Summary
A significant percentage of the world population has a direct relationship with forests and
trees. Specifically in the developing countries, there are communities that live within or
immediately adjacent to forested areas, and who make their subsistence out of this
resources. For instance in Ethiopia according to Farm-Africa's case studies of 2002,
Manja community and the Bonga forest have strong link for a long time
This study was conducted in Kaffa zone particularly Gimbo wereda, SNNPR. It is one of
the areas where the Manja community densely inhabited. The Manja community is one
of the forest dependent communities and who is believed to put pressure on the Bonga
forest.
The basic data used in this study were collected from household survey, focus group
discussions, key informant and secondary data. Different methods were employed to
analyze relationship between respondents’ knowledge, attitude and practice and their
demographic and socio-economic situations. These methods vary from simple descriptive
statistics to logistic regression model.
The majority of the respondents were found in the age group 15-30. Male constitutes
nearly 56.6 percent of the sample respondents. With regarding to marital status, 76.5
percent were married at the time of survey. The large proportion (70 percent) of the
respondents had less than or equal to five household members. Literate respondents
make up only 14 percent of the sample population. And only 40.5 percent of the
respondent participated in off-farm activities. The majority (78.4 percent) had no farm
land and about 66.6 percent of the respondents had contact with conservation agents.
People’s knowledge, attitude and practice towards forest conservation differ across
various Demographic and socio-economic-characteristics. Based on this theory, the
researcher had tried to look at knowledge, attitude and practice of the sample population
59
towards forest conservation. Accordingly, only 29.6 percent of the respondents have
observed change in the environment and all observed the change in forest cover. About,
24 percent mentioned lack of environmental education as the major cause for
deforestation in the study area. In forwarding solution, 34 percent said endorsing strong
law to control the over exploitation of the resource. Of all the respondents, 41.2 percent
perceived the nexus between forest depletion and poverty. About 43.2 percent of the
respondents perceiving that Bonga forest is rich in bio-diversity. However, out of them
29.6 percent did not know the current status of the forest and 62 percent did not perceive
long and short term impact of forest destruction.
There were higher proportions of respondents (70 percent) with knowledge of

conservation in the old age category (age above 50) than the other age categories. In
terms of attitude, high percentage of respondents in the younger and older age groups had
relatively positive attitude towards forest conservation measures than the middle age
group. Only small percentages of the respondents in all age groups were practicing
conservation activity. More males than females were found to have better knowledge of
forest conservation and positive attitude towards conservation measures. With regard to
their conservation experience, again males had better experience of conservation than
females.
The findings of the study indicated that never married respondents (56.6 percent) had
better knowledge of conservation than the ever married ones (41.8 percent). The never
married had relatively positive attitude towards conservation measures than the ever
married. Their conservation practice did not vary significantly. Concerning household
size, respondents living with above five household sizes relatively had better knowledge
and positive attitude than those living with less than or equal five. The trend is also
similar in case of practice, one goes from low household size to high household size, the
conservation practice also increase.
The large percentage (84.7 percent) of literate respondents had knowledge of forest
conservation while the percentage is much less for illiterate ones (38.8 percent).
60
Concerning their attitude towards conservation measures, high variation is also observed
between literate and illiterate. More than 27 percent of the literate respondents had no
conservation experience. This figure stated that having or not having access to education
matters the opportunity of being informed and uninformed about the environmental
issues.
When we look at the knowledge variation among the major occupation groups, the higher
proportion (61.2 percent) of those who were engaged in on-farm activities had more
knowledge and positive attitude towards conservation of the forest resources than those
involved in off-farm activities. The conservation experience of both groups did not show
a significant difference. As observed in the study, the livelihood of the community is
highly dependent on the forest resources. They consider the forest as a base of household
security during hard time. Because the forest is easily accessible, they use forest as an
important source of income.
In relation to ownership of farm land, knowledge of conservation had increased from 42

percent who had farm land to 57.1 percent who had no farm land. Attitude towards the
conservation measures show different pattern that of knowledge. Positive attitudes had
increased from 24.2 percent who had land to 34.7 percent who had no land. The practice
of conservation had also increased from 12.1 percent with those who had land to 15.4
percent for those who had no land. Respondents who had contact with conservation
agents had better knowledge and positive attitude towards conservation. And all
respondent who had no contact with conservation agents were not involved in forest
conservation. In this regard, respondents who had contact with conservation agents
obtained different environmental education related to forest conservation and the use of
forest conservation for their survival from environment expert groups.
The result of logistic regression model shows that among the independent variables like
sex, marital status, family size, literacy status, and occupation were significantly
associated with the dependent variables, knowledge and attitude. While the remaining
61
independent variables like age group, land ownership and contact with conservation
agents were only significantly related with the dependent variable attitude.
6.2 Conclusion
Achieving economic prosperity through eradication of poverty without adversely
affecting the natural resource base of an area is the main development agenda of the time.
The concept of sustainable development entails the simultaneous achievement of
economic development and environmental protection. Human beings in general and rural
people in particular interact with their environment particularly forest to achieve certain
livelihood outcomes, which has implications both to the people and the forest resource.
The Manjas, one of the communities of the Kafa Zone (SNNPR), who inhabit Bonga
natural forest, has been neglected for a long time. This community is one of the pioneer
forest dwellers and dependent on forest resource by cutting down forest trees for
firewood and charcoal selling.
The objective of this study was examining the most important factors that influence the
KAP of the Manja community towards forest conservation. In light of this, the findings of
the study indicated that both demographic and socio-economic factors had significant
impact on Manja’s KAP. The demographic factors, i.e. sex, marital status and household
size were significantly affect the knowledge and attitude of the Manja community, while
age only affected attitude significantly. Among the socio-economic factors, literacy status
and occupation were associated significantly with both knowledge and attitude. The
remaining two factors such as, land ownership and contact with conservation agents had
only impact on the attitude of the Manja community. Concerning forest conservation
practice, the proportion of the respondents who were involved in forest conservation
activity was very small across all demographic and socio-economic factors.
Moreover, the overall finding of the research showed that considerable proportion of the
sample population had no knowledge of the forest resource. Even among those who had
the knowledge of the resource, the majority do not know the current status of the forest
62
resource. Their capacity to observe environmental change was also found to be poor.
Only 29.6 percent of the respondents who mentioned forest destruction as the major
change they had observed in their environment and 24 percent of whom attached this
with lack of environmental education. As stated earlier, expansion of settlement was the
list perceived cause of forest depletion in the area.
Significant size of respondents across all the demographic and socio-economic groups
had been found with no knowledge of conservation, negative attitude and poor
conservation practices.
6.3 Recommendations
Based on the finding of the study, the following points are recommended to promote the
knowledge, attitude and practice of forest dependent Manja community and thereby
mitigate environmental degradation.
It is also important to narrow the knowledge gap between the environmentally concerned
bodies and the community at the grassroots level. Therefore, there could be good ground
to have smooth relationship in between them. For such important activities, an extensive
environmental education through local institutions such as religious, schools, public
gatherings should be provided to the community at large.
As mentioned earlier, the Manja community is extremely marginalized by the other

communities who do not want to have close contact like trade and even to eat and drink
together. Hence, improving the social dimension will support them slowly raise their self-
esteem and bring about attitudinal change among those who consider them inferior and
eventually improve their social integration.
A system that could bring about alternative sources of income should be developed by the
government and other concerning bodies. As observed in the study, the livelihood of the
community is highly dependant on the forest resources. They consider the forests as a
63
base of household security during hard time. Because the forest is easily accessible for
them, they serve as an important source of income.
The work done by the NGOs in the area of participatory forest management should be
continued in a sustainable manner. As pointed out in the FGDs the Manja community is
highly benefits from the participatory forest management program and thereby change
their the source of income from collecting fire wood and charcoal to producing honey
and coffee from the forest. Moreover, now it is very common that the community is
cultivating crops like Maize, Godere ….on their farm land.
Females were more involved in collecting fire wood and charcoal than male. Therefore,
empower female economically by creating alternative sources of livelihood gradually
reducing their dependency on forest.
Finally, this research is limited to KAP of forest dependent community, the social and
economic aspects of the community were not studied. Hence, the study calls for further
research in the area of social exclusion or discrimination and poverty alleviation in the
frontier of forest dependent Manja community.
64
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68
ANNEX-II
A- Checklist for Focus Group Discussion
1. What is the serious environmental problem in your area?
2. What do you think the possible cause of forest depletion in your area?
3. What do you think the major consequences of this forest depletion in your area?
4. Do you think the community is involving in forest conservation activities?
5. Is there NGOs in your area working on forest conservation activities?
6. If yes, what is their contribution to protect the forest from deforestation?
7. What is the status of knowledge and practice of the community about the forest
conservation?
B- Checklist for Key Informants
1. What is your Duty?

2. How is the forest cover change through time?
3. What do you think are the consequence of deforestation?
4. What is the level of people’s awareness about the environment?
a. Is there age variation?
b. Is there sex variation?
c. Is there occupation variation?
5. What is the contribution of your Institution for forest conservation activities?
69
ANNEX III
Questionnaire for Listing and Selecting the Eligible

Respondents
Addis Ababa University

College of Development Studies
Institute of Population Studies
No Name of the family member Age Eligible

respondents
selection
column
70
ANNEX -IV
Coefficient of
Contingency
X1 X2 X3 X4 X5 X6 X7 X8 X9
X1 1.000 Table
X2 -0.282 1.000
X3 -0.162 0.849 1.000
X4 -0.129 -0.042 -0.124 1.000
X5 -0.084 -0.127 -0.158 0.134 1.000
X5 -0.155 -0.151 -0.163 -0.762 -0.236 1.000
X7 -0.189 -0.088 -0.115 0.002 0.212 0.007 1.000
X8 0.177 -0.290 -0.131 -0.010 -0.306 -0.009 -0.608 1.000
X9 -0.087 0.076 0.002 -0.123 -0.261 -0.025 -0.372 -0.063 1.000
Xi’ s refers to variables defined in the analysis
Source: Computed from survey data
71
72
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ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES

FACTORS AFFECTING THE KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND

SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES

FACTORS AFFECTING THE KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND

TEWODROS WULETAW WUBETU

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES OF ADDIS

SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES

FACTORS AFFECTING THE KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND

TEWODROS WULETAW WUBETU

INSTITUTE OF POPULATION STUDIES

APPROVED BY BOARD OF EXAMINERS

CHAIRMAN (DEPARTMENT GRADUATE COMMITTEE) SIGNATURE

EXTERNAL EXAMINER SIGNATURE

I am enormously grateful to my friends. I am most thankful to Temsgen Werkayehu who

Table 1: Description of Dependent and Independent Variables-----------------------------28

Figure1: Conceptual Framework of the Study----------------------------------------------- 23

BoFED Bureau of Finance and Economic Development

Deforestation directly threatens as many as 400 million people – including 50 million

A growing consensus is emerging that deforestation must be viewed as more than an

1.3 Objectives of the Study

1.4 Research Questions

1.5 Significance of the Study

1.6 Limitations of the Study

1.7 Organization of the Study

2.1.1 Theoretical Literature

A wide range of indigenous environmental management technique and principles were

2.1.2 The Concept and Methods of Conservation

2.1.3 Forest Resource and Livelihood

As a source of income commercial forest products activities have important potential to

Ethiopia is owner of an environmental policy that identifies issues like integration of

2.1.6 Factors Affecting Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP)

2.1.6.2. Socio-economic Factors

Educating women, raises women level of awareness on environmental issues and

The environmental policy of Ethiopia has recognized and identified Environmental

According to the Integrated Conservation and development Project (ICDP) in Africa

Involving in Participatory forest management is also another factor to determine the

2.1.7 Definition of Terms

2.2 Conceptual Framework

Independent Variables Dependent variable

Socio- economic Factors Knowledge

Source: Developed by the Author on the basis of different literature, 2008

METHODS AND MATERIALS OF ANALYSIS

method of data analysis and description of variables of the study.

3.1 Data Sources

3.2 Sampling Method

Kebeles - keja Araba,

Source: Developed by the author on the basis of different literatures, 2008

3.3 Sample Size Determination

Attitude Have Positive / Negative attitude

Age 15-30, 31-50, 50+

Marital Status Ever married/ Never Married

Household Size ≤ 5 and >5

Source: Developed by the author on the basis of different literatures, 2008

The study area is geographically located in Southern Nations Nationalities People’s

Source: CSA, 2008

4.2.1 Demographic Characteristics

Table 2: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents by Age and Sex

Table 3: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents by Marital Status

Marital Status Frequency Percent

Table 4: Percentage Distribution of the Respondents by Household Size

Household Size Frequency Percent