Farmers Perceptions towards SWC around Simen Mountain National Park

Natural resource degradation in the highlands of Ethiopia is caused by many factors among which soil erosion is the major one threatening the overall development of the country. Previous Strategies and technologies to conserve the natural resource often failed and neglected the participation and needs of the land users. Therefore, the major objective of this study was assessing different soil and water conservation practices, farmers¿ perception of erosion hazards, and their constraints to participate the continued use of soil and water conservation with the aim of proposing measures that address problems related to natural resource degradation. The study was conducted in Debark woreda of the Simen Mountain National park boundaries. A total of 100 household heads were selected from five kebeles by using simple random sampling method. Focus group discussion, key-informant interview and field observation were conducted to generate data. Descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean, standard deviation, percentage, frequency distribution and correlation were used for analysis.