Level of Communities’ Participation in the Watershed Development and Management Practices in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia

Abstract

Watershed resource degradation significantly threatens agricultural development and rural livelihood, making degradation problems more prominent in the Ethiopian highlands. In response to the negative impacts of land degradation, the government of Ethiopia, non-government organizations and the community have implemented watershed development and management practices (WDMPs). Community participation is essential to make the watershed development and management program successful. Thus, the study assesses households’ participation level and its determinant factors in different phases of WDMPs in the central highlands of Ethiopia. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to examine the data. The results of the overall peoples’ participation index on WDMPs were computed as 65 percent, meaning a moderate level of household participation was exhibited in the study area. An ordered logistic regression model’s findings showed that households with older members, higher educational attainment, a more significant proportion of workers, higher incomes, ownership of more extensive tracts of agricultural land, and membership in various social organizations showed higher levels of involvement. Overall, key findings suggest that to curb the negative factors, the government and other concerned stakeholders need to consider, give the role and promote the local community to participate in all phases of watershed development and management programs duties.

Keywords

• land degradation
• community participation
• watershed management
• rural livelihood