The Role of Local Institution in Forest Resource Management the Case of Debre Libanos Monaste

Abstract

Since the forest resource of Ethiopia is under great treat. Government and non governmental organizations are tlying to improve the condition. But on the ground their ef ort is not successful. This study concerned about the role of institution in forest management. Because currently institutions are serving as a solution for natural resource management problem in general and forest in particular .For that matter the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is playing greatest role in managing the ruminant forest resource of Ethiopia. However, this doesn't mean that the rules and regulations concerning forest management in the EOTC totally respected by the sounding communities. Rather, there is a challenge in managing the monastely forest also. In order to investigate the role of Debre Libanos Monastery in forest management dif erent tools of data collection like: structured questioner, focus group discussion and key informant interview were held. Then the data was analyzed using SPSS program. The result indicated that Debre Libanos Monastery played the greatest role in managing its jorest resources. However, the result of the study reveled that there are good and bad practices that enhance and hinder forest management by the monastery. On the other hand one of the allributes of the community such as user group size and hetroginty doesn't af ect forest management by Debre Libanos Monastery. It was also found that 'Gizit' is a very important religious value that plays the main role in management of the monastely forest. There fore, these church forests didn't come to exist just by mere chance. Results indicated that it is by the commitment of the church based on strong theological thoughts and a biblical basis. It wasfound that, most of the time, the local community respects churchforests, and considers the church as a central institution. In general, ji-om the results, it was concluded that jorests conserved by EOTC and its tradition provide an opportunity to establish conservation sites for forest resources and distribution of seedlings of indigenous tree