Socio-economic importance of forest resources and their conservation measures in Ethiopia: the case of area closure in South Gonder of Ethiopia Fikirte Demissie & Kumelachew Yeshitela & Mark Rouleau & David Flaspohler & Mengistie Kindu Received: 4 February 2019 /Accepted: 27 May 2019 # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 Abstract Area closures that set aside to degraded lands for rehabilitation purposes are a popular forest conser- vation measure in various parts of the world. However, their use can be controversial because, if poorly de- signed, they can accelerate the degradation of neighbor- ing unprotected lands and deny local residents’ access to important ecosystem services. This paper reports the results of a study on the area closure approach used in south Gonder within the Lake Tana watershed of Ethi- opia to stem the rapid decline of vegetation cover that has occurred there over the last four decades. We used a mixed-methods approach that combined data from a household survey, focus group discussions, key infor- mant interviews, and official documents. We found that support for the area closures was high. We also found that area closures have had a mixed effect on access to key ecosystem services while a number of important concerns about the negative impacts to surrounding unprotected forests were also expressed. We conclude that area closures have garnered broad public support within our study region but this support appears to be mostly contingent on management successes within protected forests and does not necessarily capture the unintended negative consequences to surrounding un- protected forests. Keywords Conservation . Community . Perception . Area closure . Lake Tana Environ Monit Assess (2019) 191:437 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-019-7569-y F. Demissie : K. Yeshitela Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development (EiABC), Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 518, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia K. Yeshitela e-mail: kumalachew.yeshitela@eiabc.edu.et F. Demissie (*) Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Bahir Dar University, P.O.Box 79, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia e-mail: fikirkiya@gmail.com e-mail: fikirte.demissie@eiabc.edu.et M. Rouleau : D. Flaspohler Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931, USA M. Rouleau e-mail: mdroulea@mtu.edu D. Flaspohler e-mail: djflaspo@mtu.edu M. Kindu Institute of Forest Management, Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management, TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technische Universität München, Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2, 85354 Freising, Germany e-mail: mengistie@tum.de M. Kindu e-mail: mengistiek@yahoo.com