Abstract:
Land degradation, which includes degradation of vegetation cover, soil degradation and
nutrient depletion, is a major ecological/ environmental problem generally in Ethiopia. Area
exclosure is emerging as one of the strategies to rehabilitate and restore degraded environments by
natural means in order to prevent or mitigate land degradation which has been practiced in the study
area. Despite these efforts, there were no studies in the study area, which can provide information on
contribution of area exclosure to consider as one strategy to improve livelihood of the community. The
main purpose of this study was to investigate the socioeconomic and environmental contribution of
community based area exclosure in Tilket Dermo catchment, Meket Woreda, North Wollo Zone. The
data used for this study were obtained from both primary and secondary data sources and collected
through structured questionnaire and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively with descriptive
statistics and T-test analysis. The result showed that 65.94%of the respondent shad negative attitude
before the establishments of area exclosure due to lack of awareness about the benefit of area
exclosure after the establishment of the area exclosure100 % of the respondents had supported the idea
of expanding the experience further in their respective localities. Most of the respondents (82%) also
confirmed that they had obtained socio-economic and environmental benefits from the establishment of
the area exclosure through control of soil erosion, better availability of grass for animal feed, increase
in honey production and biological diversity of the area, increase in productivity of adjacent
farmlands, increase the esthetic value of the land as well as create conducive environmental condition
for the local communities benefit from exclosure products directly or indirectly. species diversity and
richness compared to the adjacent non closed areas, closed areas hosted larger species
richness. Relatively higher Shannon diversity indices in the exclosures indicate the better
species diversity in the exclosures than in the non-closed site. The result of the study suggests
that area exclosure practices can rehabilitate and restore woody species of degraded lands if
adequately protected from interferences. On the other hand, some problems were identified as
negative consequences of area exclosure. Shortages of fuel wood (10.87%) are major
problems associated with the establishment of the area exclosure in the study area.
Management wise, unequal distribution of products that was produced from exclosure among
all members of the communities and biophysical, institutional and empowers senses of
ownership was identified as the major problem in the management of the exclosure.
