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Proceedings of the International Academy of Ecology and Environmental Sciences, 2022, 12(3): 132-143
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Local community attitude towards conservation of afro-alpine ecosystem in Simien Mountains National Park, Ethiopia

Getahun Tassew Melese, Mekuriaw Zewdie Ayalew
Department of General Forestry, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, University of Gondar, P.O. Box 196, Gondar, Ethiopia

Received 7 April 2022;Accepted 15 May 2022;Published online 31 May 2022;Published 1 September 2022
IAEES

Abstract
This study was conducted in Simien Mountains National Park, Northern Ethiopia with the objective of evaluating the local community's attitude towards the afro-alpine ecosystem conservation of the park. Multistage sampling techniques were used to select respondents. Due to their vicinity to the park, four farmers' associations with two villages each were selected purposively. Sixty-three respondents were selected randomly for interview with a maximum of 2 km distance from the park boundary to the respondents' homes. Semistructured interviews with some in-depth, focus group and key informant discussions were used to elicit information from the local comunity. Observations on afro-alpine ecosystem conservation efforts were made to cross-check with respondents' opinions. Pearson correlation and descriptive statistics mainly percentage and frequency were used to analyze data using SPSS version 20. The results showed that the majority of the local community's attitude is positive (90.5%). The rest, 4.75% of the respondents have negative attitudes whereas 4.75% of respondents have both negative and positive attitudes towards the conservation of the afro-alpine ecosystem of the park. Incentives were key players for the conservation of the park. The local community needs more alternative livelihood options to conserve alpine ecosystems in addition to tourism involvement.

Keywords awareness;community perception;conservation practice;environmental protection;sub-afroalpine.

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