Abstract:
Globally, forests cover about four billion hectares. Ethiopia forest cover is about 3% of the
total land area which is far much below the internationally recommended 10% per country.
More than 1.6 billion people globally depend on forests for their livelihood. Ethiopia is one
of the worlds fastest population growth accelerated environmental degradation and
structural food insecurity. In Ethiopia the factors accelerated forest resource degradation
has the major threat to rural livelihoods and sustainable natural resource management in the
country. The objective of study of this study is to determine socio-economic factors affecting
sustainable management of Gorte forest, assess to current forest conservation activity. A
descriptive research design was used. Purposive sampling was used in the study and the
sample size was 182 respondents, Data was collected using questionnaire, satellite image,
interview and observation. Data was analyzed using descriptive analysis by the help of
statistical package for social sciences. The stakeholders are not adequately involved in forest
management. The major causes of deforestation in study area were agricultural land
expansion, cutting down of tree for fuel wood and charcoal production, settlement expansion
and timber harvest for construction purpose. Efforts should thus be focused on those factors
that affect sustainable management of the forest.
