Abstract

Governments from the commencement of nation-states have usurped

forest management and use rights from local forest dependent
societies as they perceive these societies as being opportunistic
non-conservationists, thus dismissing their capability to manage
their forests on a sustainable basis. As a result of this, the
Conventional forest management system and practice have failed to
improve the forest condition as well as to sustainably address the
livelihood of the local community. In recognition of continued
deforestation, degradation and loss of biodiversity associated with
the mainstream “fences and fines’’ forest management system a new
regime has practiced in a few national forest priority areas since
1990s, emphasizing the need to incorporate the aspiration of local
people in forest conservation strategies in Ethiopia. This study was
conducted in Chilimo-Gaji forest which is one of the oldest PFM
intervention sites in Ethiopia. The main purpose of this study was to
analyze the reality of gender inclusiveness of the newly introduced
forest management system. Both qualitative and quantitative methods
of data collection particularly, semi-structured questionnaire
survey, focus group discussions and key informant interviews were
employed. Analysis of the data reveals that participatory forest
management process in the study area was women’s exclusionary in
reality even from the lowest nominal typology of participation to the
highest in hierarchy of participation, interactive and empowerment in
entire participatory forest management process. The study also
identified the exclusionary factors which are constraining gender
participation such as exclusionary membership rules, gender division
of labour, poor educational back grounds, and poor enactment of
already established rules and so on. So, the study suggests serious
empowerment and awareness creation interventions should be taken and
membership rules and women’s inclusion in key decision-making
positions should receive due attention. Keywords: Gender,
Participation, Chilimo-Gaji-Forest, Forest Cooperatives