Patterns of wildlife use by local people and its impacts on the future conservation of Jorgo-Wato Protected Forest, western Ethiopia

This study explored the patterns of wildlife products used by the local communities around ‎Jorgo-Wato Protected Forest and its future impacts on the conservation of the forest. Data were ‎collected from households located within a 3 km radius around the forest. Incidences of ‎resource use encountered along the transects revealed that livestock grazing (6.59±3.80/km), ‎debarking trees for beehive preparation (5.8±0.77/km), logging large trees over coffee ‎plantation (5.41±0.35/km), girdling trees (4.66±0.33/km), poaching (4.02±3.32/km), and timber ‎production (3.41±1.10/km) were identified as destructive resource use patterns in the area. ‎However, the use of alternative sources of energy has a positive impact on the future ‎conservation of the Jorgo-Wato Protected Forest. A significant negative relationship (r (9) = -‎‎0.971, p < 0.05) was recorded between fuelwood consumption and distances of households from ‎the forest. The alternative sources of energy use could have a positive impact on the sustainable ‎use of forest and non-forest products.  However, a significant positive (r (9) = 0.900, p > 0.05) ‎relationship was recorded between the mean number of livestock and mean annual income per ‎household (r (9) = 0.930, p > 0.05) which could be attributed to their contribution as sources of ‎income to reduce human pressure from resource extraction. Since the wildlife resource extraction ‎system has not yet been reported from the study area, the finding of this study could provide baseline ‎information for Oromia Forest and Wildlife Enterprise to implement wildlife laws and policies ‎in the area. ‎