Tolossa, Degefa (phD)Gebremichael, Berhanu2018-07-262023-11-182018-07-262023-11-182008-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/12345678/10120Agriculture is the economic bedrock of most-low income countries like Ethiopia. Its growth is critical as over 60% of the people (more than 96% ill the study area) who depend on agriculture for their livelihoods and live on less thall one dollar a day in rural areas. As evidenced in the highlands of Ethiopia, the trellds of economic activities are threatening biodiversity and posing significallt risks to livelihoods. This notion of risk as linked to livelihood diversification ill the highlands of Mt. Choke is the celltre of the study. The study utilized both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection and analysis. To gather data, 100 households were randomly selected from three kebeles of Sillan District in East Gojam. It was assumed that not only environmental risks such as land degradation, erosion and diseases affect the killd as well as the degree of livelihood activities but also the types of activities the HHs carry out result in risks instead of building their asset portfolio. [11 the process, data reduction for independent variables was done by factor analysis (principal component extraction method). The analysis shows that the socioeconomic conditions of the HHs determine the individual as well as community level exposure to risks and the degree of HHs' engagement in a number of livelihood optiolls. The results demonstrate that asset endowments, locational settings and the chosen livelihood strategies influence one another and determine the exposure and occurrence of risks. In testing, chi-square shows that there is not significant association between farm/non-jarm activities and various socio-economic characteristics among HHs who face similar hazards ill the highlands. The analysis also forwards that environmental risks are the most felt and observed risks that impact the livelihood activities alld the wellbeing of the HHs as compared to others. When more of social and economic risks are persistenl, diversification becomes inexistent and seeking external help will be in place. [II this way, the effect of one 011 the other (risk 011 livelihood diversificmion and livelihood diversification on risk) is the fUllction of the complex interwoven highland livelihood system that depends 011 the depleted natural resources which are the only means in the constrained 1I0n-jarm activities due to poor natural endowments alld poor basic service provision. The degree differs based on the type of risks (covariate or idiosyncratic) and activities that persist among different groups of society. What is more, it was found out that the chronic the risks and the poorer the HHs, the less is the livelihood diversification. The impetus of the findings is that a sound understanding of the high/and peasants' risk perceptions of the highland community in relation to livelihood diversification in response to various types of risks is critical for developing sustainable livelihood practices and programmes. They also forward the importance of tackling, in all integrated and sustainable way, the multifaceted problems that the peasants face in a fragile ecosystem on which the poor smallholders rely based 011 the local level reality. Keywords: Risk, risk perception, livelihood diversification, sustainable li velihood smallholder peasantsenRiskrisk perceptionlivelihood diversificationsustainable li velihoodsmallholder peasants