Developing Country Studies www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-607X (Paper) ISSN 2225-0565 (Online) Vol.7, No.8, 2017 1 The Effect of Forest Governance on Forest Management: A Case of Choke Mountain Watersheds, Amhara National State, Ethiopia Bosena Yirga Addis Ababa University, Institute of Ethiopian Architectures, Building and City Development. P.O.Box. 518 Abstract In Ethiopian highlands, Choke Mountain watersheds is endowed with a number of natural resources such as fresh water, fertile soils, wildlife and a large number of natural vegetation species and it is located at the center of Blue Nile Highlands. It has considerable ecological and socioeconomic significance at the local, regional, and national levels. However, land degradation has impaired the capacity of the land to contribute to food security. This study therefore, assesses the Performance of forest governance on forest management. The necessary data were generated both from primary and secondary sources. This study revealed that growth in population without increases opportunities to acquire off-farm income tends to place increased pressure on forest and communal grazing land, weak forest governance, greater increment of agricultural and bare land at the expense of decreasing forest and afro-alpine vegetations, limited institutional capacity and limited law enforcement to protect encroachment of forest and communal grazing land clearly indicates the prevailing danger of land degradation in the area. Keywords: choke mountains, forest governance, forest management, forest degradation. 1. Introduction Ethiopia owns diverse vegetation resources that include high forest, woodland, bush land, plantations, and trees outside forest. Each of these vegetation resources variously contributes to the production, protection and conservation functions, and play significant role in the national and local economy. At local level forests and trees provide food, medicine, energy, fodder, farm implement and construction materials. Conservation forest land have been offering fertile croplands to sustain crop production (Gobeze et al. 2009).However, Deforestation and land degradation should be seen as the most important issues threatening the survival of Ethiopia. Floods, drought, desertification, drying of streams, and soil erosion are connected one way or another with the process of forest exploitation and destruction. Although various potential strategies for tree planting and natural resource conservation on the Ethiopian highlands are proposed, their successful implementation is limited (Badege, 2001). As World Bank report (2005 cited in Beyene, Randall and Alemu, 2013, p. 6) indicate, Ethiopia is suffering from different sources of forest degradation. For instance, Ethiopia has a 0.8% annual deforestation rate and 83% of the 80 million people live in rural areas since the year 2000. In his study, Forest resource management systems in Ethiopia, Amogne (2013) stated that there has been a rapid decreasing percentage of the forest cover of the country from 40% in 1900 to 16% in 1954, 8% in 1961, 4% in 1975, 3.2% in 1980 and now it is estimated to be less than 3%(Ibid,p.6). Bane et al. (2008) also stated in Ethiopia, the presence of high rates of deforestation and forest degradation is due to the presence of problems in the way forests are managed and used. Virtually all the major forests are owned and managed by the (federal and regional) governments and this is one reason for the poor performance of the forestry sector as there was limited capacity to enforce rules and a de facto open access situation is created. This is in turn associated with frequent change in institutional arrangements. Furthermore, Yemishaw (2002 in Gobeze et al.2009) stated the sector is characterized by weak governance and regulatory frameworks expressed in terms of lack of policy, weak law enforcement, institutional instability, poor human and logistic capacity, meager budgetary allocation, and lack of legal clarity on the nature of communal rights and ways to record or enforce them threaten to undermine equity and management of common property resources, with negative social and environmental impacts. In addition, Badge (2001) described in Ethiopia, as compared with other parts, little of the natural vegetation of the highlands remains today and the influence of man and his domestic animals has profoundly altered both the vegetation and the landscape. Ecological degradation, including deforestation and erosion is wide spread, particularly in the northern and central highlands. Among different regions of Ethiopia, Birhanu and Feyera (2005) stated that, Amhara region is one of the worst affected regions, with 71% of the land vulnerable to soil erosion. It has been estimated that the region loses about 1.1 billion tons of soil every year. Choke mountains watersheds are located at the center of Blue Nile/Abbay Highlands, Amhara region. It has considerable ecological and socioeconomic significance at the local, regional, and national levels. However, land degradation has impaired the capacity of the land to contribute to food security. It has also undermined local access to water supply and woody biomass, negatively affecting social stability. Erratic rain fall, increase in temperature, drought, flood, annual runoff and water availability are also exacerbate deterioration of basic brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by International Institute for Science, Technology and Education (IISTE): E-Journals