森林研究: オープンアクセス
オープンアクセス

概要

Assessing Land Owner Farmers Willingness to Participate in Reforestation Project in Ethiopia

Akalu Assfaw*

Converting farmlands to forest program could significantly contribute to the conservation of forest in areas where forests are facing increasing deforestation and degradation. While such reforestation project provides wide range of ecological benefits, they also reduce the amount of arable land available to the farmer. To balance ecological benefit and farmers opportunity cost, it’s is reasonable to compensate farmers in the form of monetary payment (Dollar amount) per hectare of reforested land. This study examined landowner’s willingness to participate in reforestation project in Ethiopia. The amount deemed acceptable by farmers and socio-economic factors that influence farmers WTA were investigated. To this end 100 farm households were surveyed from Gimbo district, Kafa zone, Ethiopia. The result shows that 64% of respondents are willing to participate in the reforestation project. With 2020 average exchange of (36ETB/USD), the respondent’s lower and upper limits WTA were found to be $55.55 and $277.7. The average amount of compensation requested per ha of land was found to be around $92. The Tobit regression model indicates that land size, coffee production, number of livestock, use of forest products, family size and education were the main factors influencing respondents WTA. The study recommends direct regulatory PES scheme as one possible alternative for forest conservation and restoration in kafa biosphere region.