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Addis Ababa University Libraries Electronic Thesis and Dissertations: AAU-ETD! >
Faculty of Journalism and Communications >
Thesis - Journalism and Communication >
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/3556
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| Title: | Communication Strategies of the Organization for Rehabilitation and Development in Amhara (ORDA) in Environmental Protection with Reference to Sustainable Community Forest Development in its Operational Areas: The Case of Woldia Akababi Woreda |
| Authors: | Biruk, Belete |
| Advisors: | Abiyi R. Ford (Prof.) |
| Keywords: | journalism and communication |
| Copyright: | Sep-2010 |
| Date Added: | 7-Aug-2012 |
| Publisher: | AAU |
| Abstract: | The seriousness of environmental issues has been in the fore mainly because of its significance to
human sustainability. This paper also acknowledges the critical importance of communication strategies
in environmental protection particularly in the process of forest resource development and its
sustainable management and thus human sustainability. Hence, the paper dominantly dwells on
exploring the communication strategies of ORDA: a local non-government organization operating in
Amhara region in promoting tree plantation and sustainable community forest development as an
integral part of its rural development programme. Development, participatory and social mobilization
communication theories comprise the basis for the theoretical part of the paper. Mass, interpersonal
and traditional modes of communication also provide the possible theoretical communication
approaches of the project. The study mainly centers on addressing the information, education and
communication practices ORDA use to create awareness, as well as mobilize the rural community on
sustainable community forest development. The challenges in sustainable community forest
development (institutional, technical, socio-cultural and others), the communication strategies ORDA
adopted to promote sustainable community forest development and the harmony of message contents
with the local cultures and contexts are the central issues discussed in the paper. Appropriateness of
the approaches and the lessons learned from the programme are also included. Qualitative data
collection designs: FGDs, in-depth individual interview and participant observation with a semi-
structured guide questions were used to garner data. Visual data were also included in the overall data
collected. The research was based on Woldia Akababi Woreda, part of Semien Wollo zone in Amhara
Region. According to the theories and research questions used in the study, the data gathered from
Tikurwuha and Gebriel rural villages woldia Akababai woreda were presented, discussed and analyzed
qualitatively. As a result, it was indicated that traditional communication was most effectively used by
ORDA in mobilizing local communities in tree plantation campaigns and equally favored by the
communities was interpersonal communication. Sembeties, zikirs, religious venues, social gatherings
were some of the centers for the information exchange in the communities. In addition, occasional
illegal free grazing, illegal tree cutting from the community forests were some of the socio-cultural
challenges in sustainable community forest development that the study discovered. Based on its
findings, the paper suggests some options and strategies for optimizing ORDA’s present
communication approaches and minimizing their limitations. In other words, it calls for some
reappraisals in the methods of communicating environmental messages for effective forest
development and conservation programmers among traditional, predominantly non-literate and
common resource dependent poor Woldia Akababi Woreda communities and by extension, Amhara as
well as Ethiopian tree planters. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/3556 |
| Appears in: | Thesis - Journalism and Communication
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