Human Encroachment And Livestock Impacts On Habitats Of Mountain Nyala (Tragelaphus Buxtoni) In The Bale Mountains National Park, Oromia Regional State, South East Ethiopia

Abstract

A research conducted on human encroachment and livestock impacts on habitats of Mountain Nyala (Tragelaphus buxtoni) from February 2017 to June 2017 in the Bale Mountains National Park, Oromia Regional State; South East Ethiopia. The main objective of this study was to assess the impacts of livestock and human settlement into the habitats of Mountain Nyala. Semistructured questionnaires was used to collect primary data and literature was reviewed to acquire secondary data in order to assess the socio-economic situation of households, and problems of natural resource management. Two districts were selected because of its accessibility from out of 9 districts in Dinsho woreda found next to the habitats of Mountain Nyala. 172 respondents were selected from two districts by purposively randomly sampling methods for questionnaires data survey. In addition to questionnaires, three focus group discussions were made at two selected districts and one at woreda with a member of 5 to 15 were used to acquire data. Participants of focus group discussion have been selected by purposively sampling methods to gather relevant data for the success of this study. Various data analysis techniques namely descriptive statistics, SPSS version 20 used. Results showed that 76% of households living in and around the Park earned direct benefit from the Park resource, in terms of livestock grazing 43%, farmland 31%, construction materials 18% and firewood collection 8% and affect the habitats of Mountain Nyala. Level of browsing was higher at the edges than inside the Park area. The livelihood benefits of the local community linked to the Bale Mountains National Park were statistically significant (x2 = 1.416. df= 1, P< 0.05) in farmland holding inside the National Park among the Villages. Plant species that are mostly affected by settlers includes Hagenia abyssinica, Hypericum revolutum, Juniperus procera were observation around the study area. The results of the study shows that the local people of Gojera and Hora-Sobba districts in the Dinsho woreda encroached to the territories of the Park with their herds of cattle and affected different plant species which is the home to the Mountain Nyala. For these reasons, the number of Mountain Nyala which usually seen in an open field in the past few years, now their number extremely get decreasing from time to time. Creating awareness among the society concerning the economic benefit of endemic Mountain Nyala species so as to restrict their livestock’s and prevents from degradation of wildlife.