Walia Special Edition on the Bale Mountains (2011) - Zoologische ...

People in National Parks – Joint Natural Resource Management in Bale Mountains
National Park – Why it Makes Sense to Work with Local People
Dereje Tadesse 1* , Stuart Williams 2 , and Ben Irwin 3
1 Frankfurt Zoological Society, Bale Mountains Conservation Project
2 Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme
3 FARM-Africa – SOS Sahel, Bale EcoRegion Sustainable Management Programme
*Email: derejetadesse@fzs.org
Abstract
In Ethiopia, many protected areas have people living within their boundaries and just outside their
limits, who use the resources of the protected area. Today, there is a growing consensus that in
order to successfully meet conservation objectives, in the majority of cases, those objectives need
to be addressed alongside, and in consideration of, objectives of sustainable human development.
Top down, externally imposed conservation schemes often entail huge social costs in areas where
people are directly dependent on the natural resources of the proposed conservation area for their
livelihoods.
People living inside protected areas in Ethiopia have always existed in a context of uncertainty
with regard to no legally recognized resource use-rights by the National Park authorities. It is this
context of uncertainty, the non recognition of people’s resource use rights, and the lack of Park law
enforcement to limit resource use, that has led to de facto open access resource use, and consequent
decreasing levels of any natural resource management responsibility from the local community
side. Joint Natural Resource Management (JNRM) is a means of re-addressing these issues and
unravelling these problems through recognition of rightful resource users, adopting sustainable
natural resource management practices. And in so doing, conferring upon the legitimate local users
appropriate rights, roles and responsibilities in natural resource management.
This paper discusses the need for a change in views concerning people living in National
Parks in Ethiopia, using the Bale Mountains National Park as an example. Reviewing the past
and existing situation in BMNP, the paper concludes that building a working partnership with
local communities is of critical importance to the success of the conservation programme in Bale
Mountains National Park.
Introduction
The issue of people living inside protected areas has been a much debated subject within the
conservation sector. Recent history shows that there were two fundamentally different schools of
thought. There were those professionals who see the People in Parks issue as unacceptable and an
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