Understanding Local Community, Tourism and Conflict Nexus in National Parks Governance in Ethiopia: Case Study of the Awash National Park
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Date
2020-08
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A.A.U
Abstract
This study aimed at examining whether or to what degree the Ethiopian government
national park governance policy facilitates or debilitates local communities’ involvement
to conserve the biodiversity of their surroundings and benefits the tourism industry. The
study adopted a qualitative approach with particular methods such as semi-structured
interviews with critical informants and Focus Group Discussion with different actors
including local communities. Moreover, data was collected from secondary sources
written about Awash National Park (ANP) that include reports, the General Management
Plan of ANP among others. The data collected were then transcribed, translated, and
analyzed using content analysis method. The result subsequently shows that the national
park governance policy that has been used in ANP, Fortress/conservationist, or
Community-Based Conservation (CBC) approach, could not give due attention to the
local community. Local communities’ have not been empowered to manage the NP even
though officials wrongly claim that community based conservation approach is practiced
in ANP. Thus, the ANP governance policy, which has been introduced since the reign of
Emperor Hayle Selassie, has never met the twin target of natural resource conservation
and benefiting the local community from tourism to date. It has, instead, become a source
of conflict. Even though the CBC approach supports the local community participation to
running the ANP theoretically, it failed to actualize this in to practice. This research has
come up with a proposal for national park development where communities are an
integral part of the national park protection and, at the same time, beneficiaries form the
national park through park-based benefits and various tourism development activities.
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Keywords
Understanding Local Community,