Farm Households’ Willingness to Contribute Labor for Conservation of Bamboo Forest Ecosystem: The case of Mao Komo Special Woreda Benishangul Gumuz Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

Purpose: This study was designed for the assessment of farm households’ willingness to contribute labor for conservation of bamboo forest ecosystem with the specific objectives of describing farmer’s attitude toward bamboo forest protection, exploring the amount of labor, the household’s would be willing to contribute for bamboo forest conservation and identifying factors affecting farmers' willingness to contribute labor for bamboo forest conservation.

Method: Data for the study were collected from both primary and secondary sources. The multistage random-sampling technique was used in selecting 135 respondents followed by a probability proportional to size. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and bivariate probit model.

Results: The result of the bivariate probit model shows that the mean willingness to contribute labor for the conservation of bamboo forest was 14.15 man-days per year per household. The result from seemingly unrelated bivariate probit model indicates that household's literacy status, income from bamboo forest, contact with extension agents, total cultivated land and access to credit have positive significant effects on willingness to contribute labor, while age of the respondent, distance from home to forest, initial bid, follow up bids and dependency ratio have a negative and significant effect on willingness to contribute labor. The study shows that the farmers in the study area are knowledgeable about intensive mass flowering of bamboo and massive depletion of bamboo forest and they are willing to participate in the conservation of bamboo forest to regenerate and return to the original position.

Implications: An effort would be needed to strengthen literacy, increase farmers’ awareness about the importance of conservation practices, ensure credit facilities and increase the frequency of extension contact is important to conserve the bamboo forest in the study area.