Ethiopia: Changes from “People out Approach” Protected Area Management to Participatory Protected Area Management? Insight from Ethiopian Protected Areas

Abstract

The study examines protected area management changes in Ethiopia under different regimes. Being known by its oldest record of formalized conservation effort in Africa, protected area management, development and utilization policy and practice in Ethiopia has been subject to a series of paradigm changes since the establishment of Ethiopian Wild Life Organization in 1965. Drawing on a documentary analysis of legislation, published policy statements, commentaries and scholarly critiques, this paper argues that Ethiopian protected area management has undergone three significant paradigm shifts. Firstly, there was a shift from land lord and state owned protected area management with imperial political ideology to socialist protected areas management system. Then, there has been a new paradigm shift from socialist regime to the moderately decentralized protected area management policy with an attempt to allow community participation in the development, utilization and conservation of biodiversity.