*Correspondence to Author: Belay Zerga Center for Environmental Science, College of Natural and Computa- tional Sciences, Addis Ababa Uni- versity; Department of Natural Re- sources Management, College of Agriculture and Natural Resource, Wolkite University; How to cite this article: Belay Zerga, Bikila Workineh , De- mel Teketay, Muluneh Woldetsadik. Community Based Forest Manage- ment (CBFM) in Ethiopia: Progress and Prospects .Journal of Theoreti- cal and Applied Sciences, 2019, 2:8 eSciPub LLC, Houston, TX USA. Website: http://escipub.com/ Belay Zerga et al., JTAS, 2019 2:8 Journal of Theoretical and Applied Sciences (ISSN:2637-692X) Review Article JTAS (2019) 2:8 Community Based Forest Management (CBFM) in Ethiopia: Progress and Prospects This paper critically reviewed the status of Participatory or Com- munity Based Forest Management (CBFM) in the case of Ethi- opia. Ethiopia is located in the Horn of Africa between 3o and 15o North latitude and 33o and 48o east longitude. The country covers 1.13 million square kilometers, with a wide altitudinal vari- ation ranging from 110 meters below sea level (b.s.l.) in Kobar Sink (Dallol) to 4,620 meters above sea level (a.s.l.) at Ras Dash- en (Ras Dejen). The Great African Rift Valley runs diagonally across the country from northeast to southwest separating the western and southeastern highlands. This physiographic feature enabled the ecosystems to host a great diversity of flora and fauna resources. The flora of Ethiopia is estimated to comprise about 6,500-7,000 plant species; 12 per cent of these plant spe- cies considered as endemic. Forests provide numerous ecosys- tem services, products for human consumption, and habitat for countless species. Unfortunately, deforestation has occurred at alarming scales and its effects have threatened environmental and livelihood sustainability. In Ethiopia, for the most part, forests have been managed under the support of national agencies, often with the exclusion or outright removal of local people. No sustainable forest management program has been put in place due to lack of adequate funding and stable structural set up for the forestry sector. To combat this problem Participatory or Com- munity Based Forest Management (CBFM) is accepted through- out the world and in Ethiopia currently. This is due to the recog- nition that communities are the direct users of the forests and no one can care adjacent forests without the full involvement of the society. CBFM is one attempt to reverse deforestation, and, by doing so, preserves ecological services and products that pro- vide local communities with ways to s ecure l ivelihoods. Belay Zerga1, 2, Bikila Workineh 1, 3 , Demel Teketay4 , Muluneh Woldetsadik5 1. Center for Environmental Science, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Addis Ababa University; 2. Department of Natural Resources Management, College of Agriculture and Natural Resource, Wolkite University; 3. Department of Plant Biology and Biodiversity Management, College of Natural and Computational Sciences, Addis Ababa University; 4.Department of Crop Science and Production, Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BUAN); 5. Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, College of Social Sciences, Addis Ababa University ABSTRACT JTAS: http://escipub.com/journal-of-theoretical-and-applied-sciences/ 1