Drivers Of Deforestation Andtheirimpact On Farmers Livelihood In Selectedvillages Ofachefer Liben Woreda West Gojam Zone

Ethiopia has been subjected to extensive deforestation. This phenomenon is seriously affecting the livelihood of people in various ways. According to the reports of North AcheferLibenWoreda Agriculture and Rural development office 2015 the causes and consequences of deforestation is not well known among the local communities of AcheferLibenworeda. The purpose of this study was to assess the drivers of deforestation and their impact on farmers residing around Won Beria Mountain. To determine sample from population Yamane 1967 formula was used. Sample size among four villages was determined using proportionality principle. Then 246 sample households were selected using simple random sampling technique. Primary data were gathered from household survey through Questionnaires interview and FGD. Secondary data were also gathered from Land sat image legal documents reports articles journals magazines library books and different web sites that are related to under the study. Thedatafromhousehold headswere organized and then analyzed usingdescriptiveand inferential statisticaltechniques by the help of SPSS 20 software. Moreover data were also analyzed through image processing post classification of Land sat image with the implementation of Arc GIS. Based on this the following findings were investigated the status of forest is decreasing from time to time. The basic reasons for such extensive deforestation were agricultural expansion wood extraction and producing forest for income generation..As a domestic fuel totally seven sources of fuel has been used for cooking and non-cooking activities. The predominant energy source that were consumed by almost all household respondents was fuel wood. Due to the prevalence of deforestation households were additionally spending an average of 2hours and fourteen minute for one round fuel wood collection than they were spending before ten years ago. Due to the prevalence of deforestation productivity of the land was found to be decreasing from time to time. As the consequence of these respondents were forced to use commercial fertilizers for improving their production and hence posing a challenge to cover the costs of chemical fertilizers each year. Furthermore change in chemical properties of soil was also found to be another negative effect of applying chemical fertilizers. Moreover both indigenous trees species and animals were becoming extinct in the study area. The overall results show that providing job opportunity alternative cook stove technology creating awareness about the long term impacts of deforestation to rural people require the attention of government institutions and NGOs.