The practice of forest Management COMNICAITON in Oromia: The Case of OEPA.
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Date
2024-01
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The last three decades have seen an increase in Ethiopian recognition of the value of forest resources to the lives of those who live in and near forests. The people living in Ethiopia's Oromia National Regional State have a close relationship with the forest. The local community and the forest are connected by a number of challenges. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how well OEPA's community engagement initiatives function in connection to forest management. And also to determine the practical aspects of communication use, as well as the role of specialists and the difficulties that face OEPA's communication activities. The two-way balanced public relations model served as the theoretical foundation for the investigation. A hybrid method was adopted in the investigation. The primary research approach employed to examine and elucidate the procedures and difficulties associated with the Bureau's communication practice was a qualitative study design. To describe the findings, a quantitative investigation was conducted in addition to the qualitative method. While a questionnaire was employed as a data collection tool in the quantitative research design, interviews and observations were used in the qualitative study design. Purposive sampling strategies were used to identify questionnaire respondents. Interviews were also done with one team leader and four other employees. The study's conclusions demonstrate that while OEPA's communication practices vary in certain areas, they are mostly inconsistent; experts are completely focused on their technician roles without addressing their strategic roles; they have not gotten stuck on communication strategy and objectives; they lack a feedback mechanism for improving communication; messages are not pretested before being distributed to the community; and there is a lack of consistency in overall communication practices. Bad internal communication practices, inadequate attention to the communication section, expert capacity and skill gaps, a high employee turnover rate, improper communication structure, irregular workloads, and a lack of an information management system are all present. Finally, the researcher suggests that the company use a grouping and communication strategy in order to successfully accomplish the suggested aim. Additionally, it is advised that a cunning corporate communication plan include requirements for future research and involvement.
Key words: Environmental Protection, community engagement, public relations, forest management
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Keywords
Environmental Protection, community engagement, public relations, forest management