Local people\u2019s knowledge on the adverse impacts and their attitudes towards growing Eucalyptus woodlot in Gudo Beret Kebele, Basona Worena district, Ethiopia

Abstract

IntroductionGrowing Eucalyptus at a farm level in the form of woodlot has become popular among rural households in Ethiopia. For example, rural households mainly establish Eucalyptus woodlot as a component of livelihood improvement and diversification to meet household wood demand and generating cash income. However, there is lack of information on the growth parmeters of Eucalyptus woodlot and the factors influencing the household decision on their establishment at the individual farmland level. The objective of this study was to examine local people’s knowledge on the adverse impacts and their attitudes towards growing Eucalyptus woodlot in Gudo Beret Kebele. We hypothesized that local people’s knowledge on the adverse impacts and their attitudes towards growing Eucalyptus woodlot in Gudo Beret Kebele is affected by socioeconomic and cognitive variables.MethodsA structured questionnaire comprising closed- and open-ended questions was developed and administered to a total of n = 94 households to collect information on local people’s knowledge on the adverse impacts and their attitudes towards growing Eucalyptus woodlot. The households were randomly selected through a lottery system based on their house identification numbers. Descriptive statistics, binary logit, and multiple linear regression were used to analyze and interpret the data.ResultsThe results revealed that about 92% of the respondents noted that growing Eucalyptus woodlot had positive impacts on the socioeconomic situation of the community considering that it contributes to economic benefits through the sale of wood products, such as poles, construction materials, and fuelwood. However, only 8% of the respondents noted that the negative impacts of Eucalyptus woodlot were attributed to the decline in crop and forage production due to its allelopatic effect, and the reduction in ground water availability. Majority of the respondents (about 68%) preferred to grow Eucalyptus woodlot in Gudo Beret Kebele. Thus, most of the respondents (about 69%) had strongly agreed to have a positive attitude towards growing Eucalyptus woodlot. On the other hand, the binary logit regression model explained about 70.6% of the variance of local people’s knowledge on the adverse impacts of Eucalyptus woodlot. Overall, the multiple linear regression model revealed that socioeconomic and cognitive variables had significant effect on local people’s attitudes towards growing Eucalyptus woodlot (39.5% variance explained).ConclusionsWe recommended that foresters, natural resource experts and managers, environmentalists, land use planners, and policy-makers should take the right and careful decision by assessing the overall socioeconomic and ecological aspects of Eucalyptus woodlot based on the interests of various stakeholders including local communities.