THE ROLE OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE FOR BAMBOO RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, THE CASE OF BITTA WORDA SOUTH-WEST ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Bamboo is component of indigenous agro-forestry practices in bitta district southern Ethiopia .It is one of most versatile plant in the world with over thousand uses and fastest growing plant. These research paper describes the highland bamboo forest and farm wood lot of bitta and its actual value for the society, the available indigenous knowledge used to bamboo,the evaluation of bamboo on farmland and the economic contribution of bamboo in selected villages in bitta districts .The objective overcomes the major problem of reduction of bamboo resource to meet the growing demand of forest product increasing population . The methodologies employed to obtain the information repaired here in one (2) literature review on bamboo species (1) a field survey on the available indigenous knowledge used to manage bamboo ,the evaluation of bamboo on farm land and economic contribution of bamboo household survey. The primarily information is gathered from key informant and focus group based on this information to design question for household. Bamboo made appearance in bitta for long period of time, this resource Is now being decreased due to poor management for the stand immature harvesting agriculture, cut it out of the proper time shortage of the land expansion and over exploitation due to population growth. The trait of bamboo as the fastest growth multi purpose plant with an excellent capacity to reduce the pressure on our dwined long forest as substitute for timber is highlighted. As strategy to increase the production of bamboo in sustainable base is suggested. Proper management and exposition are considered the principal component of strategy to develop the bamboo resource bitta management approaches are suggested to improve the productivity and quality of bamboo forest of bitta