THE EFFECT OF WILDLIFE ON HUMAN AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES AROUND ANABIE FOREST OF KALLU WOREDA, SOUTH WOLLO ZONE OF AMHARA REGION, NORTH EAST ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Human-wildlife conflict (HWC) is regarded as an interaction between humans and wildlife that results in negative impacts on humans, animals, or the environment. The HWC has been a recurring problem in Ethiopia due to increased human population and competition for the declining resources. This study was conducted to assess and document the causes, impacts and management options of the effect of wild life on human in and around the study area. The study design was a longitudinal population survey. The data for this study were collected via structured questionnaires, focus group discussions, direct field observations. The collected data were analyzed using various descriptive statistics, such as mean, percentage, and standard deviation. The result shows that 49.82% and 9.16% respondents agreed on the existence of HWC in the area, which was mainly manifested via crop damage and livestock predation, respectively. The respondents’ indicated that habitat disturbance, increased subsistence agriculture and deforestation are the major causes of HWC in the area. Beside the Anubis Baboon and Vervet monkey other animals such as, Wild pig, Warthog, Porcupine were also damage crops. Most raided crops were maize (Zea mays) and sorghum in the production season. Respondents indicated that the local people are uses various techniques such as guarding, making scarecrow, chasing and smoking to defend the crop raiders. Those use guarding were about 70% and use smoking were 4.1% which was the highest and lowest methods respectively. It is recommended to control forest destructions through human activities, educate the local community on the conservation of natural resources, encourage collaborative works between the local community and concerned Government and Non-Government organizations for sustainable use of the resources in the area.