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Knowledge, attitude and participation intention to use and management of wetlands: evidence from the central rift valley of Ethiopia

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Abstract

Sustainability of wetlands entails resource users’ knowledge, positive Attitude and strong Intention (KAI) to wetlands and their management. This study examines households’ KAI to use and management of wetlands in the Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia drawing on data collected from 405 households, participatory rural appraisals and experts’ interview. Descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test and ANOVA were used for data analysis. The result revealed that the overall KAI of households is good; however, the proportions of households with low level of knowledge, unfavorable attitude and low intention are fairly large to hamper sustainable use and management of wetlands. Findings of the study further revealed variation in households’ levels of KAI. The difference in knowledge is explained by age, distance from wetlands, training received and contact with extension agents. Knowledge, training received, extension contact and benefit gain account for the variation in attitude and participation intention to management of wetlands. One key finding is that majority (68.2%) of the households preferred to use the wetlands either for farming or grazing purposes. Hence, there is a need to design a mix of approaches to build up and maximize communities’ KAI about wetlands and their sustainable use and management.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are not publicly available or cannot be shared at this time since they contain information that could compromise the privacy of research participants. The data can be available on request from the corresponding author.

Notes

  1. Tangible goods and intangible services provided by wetland ecosystems.

  2. An “environmentally responsible behavior” refers to any action of individual or group, towards the remediation of environmental issues/problem (Sivek and Hungerford, 1990).

  3. In Ethiopia Woreda is an administrative unit, equivalent to a district and is higher to kebele which is the smallest administrative unit.

  4. These figures of female-headed households might be attributable to the prevalence of polygamy in the study areas.

  5. Young adults (age 20–35), middle adults (age 36–55) and old adults (age above 55); after Adem (2017).

  6. Cheffe is local name for wetlands.

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Acknowledgements

We extend our profound gratitude to Addis Ababa University (AAU) and Bahir Dar University (BDU) for their financial support for accomplishment of this study. Special thanks also go to the people of the study community and sample households, agricultural development agents, and local administrators of the study area for their assistance during the field work. Furthermore, we are grateful to anonymous referees for review and their constructive comments which have immensely helped to improve the quality of the paper; remaining errors are ours.

Funding

This study was funded by Addis Ababa University [2016–2018] and Bahir Dar University [2015/16].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Bahir Dar University, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

    Fitsum Dechasa

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Sciences, Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Gaborone, Botswana

    Feyera Senbeta

  3. Department of Forest Resource Management, Faculty of Forestry, The University of British Colombia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Dawit Diriba

  4. 79, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

    Fitsum Dechasa

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  1. Fitsum Dechasa
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Correspondence to Fitsum Dechasa.

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Dechasa, F., Senbeta, F. & Diriba, D. Knowledge, attitude and participation intention to use and management of wetlands: evidence from the central rift valley of Ethiopia. Environ Dev Sustain (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-023-03946-y

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