Author(s): Zewdu Siraw; Woldeamlak Bewket; Mekonnen Adnew Degefu

Linked Author(s):

Keywords: Land degradation; Watershed development; Rural livelihoods; Ethiopi

Abstract: In Ethiopia, large investments have been made into watershed development activities over the past decades. There is, however, limited quantified information on ecological and socioeconomic benefits of these investments. This study assessed the livelihood benefits of community-based watershed development (CBWD) in the northwestern highlands of Ethiopia. We compared livelihood capital of rural households from three conserved micro-watersheds (Guansa, Tija Baji and Adef Wuha) and one control micro-watershed (Tata). Participatory workshops were conducted with stakeholders to identify indicators that would be affected by watershed development intervention. A cross-sectional survey research design was employed to collect information from 157 systematically selected households from the four micro-watersheds. Linear standardization method was used to produce indicators with range between 0 and 1. After standardization, we calculated the value of each type of livelihood capital and finally the overall livelihood capital indices. One-way ANOVA was used to assess mean differences in livelihood asset between conserved and non-conserved sites. The findings revealed that the overall livelihood capital indices of Adef Wuha (0.45), Guansa (0.52) and Tija Baji (0.46) were better than the control micro-watershed (0.43). The livelihood improvement was significant ( P

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/15715124.2018.1505733

Year: 2020