The Role of Clean Development Mechanism on Social- Ecological Resilience, Humbo, Southern Ethiopia

The study was conducted at Humbo district to assess the role of community assisted natural regeneration CDM project on for the social-ecological resilience. Total of 139 households were randomly selected from three representative kebeles. For this study, integrated qualitative and quantitative approach method was used that include key informant interviews, focus group discussion, and household survey. The quantitative data was subjected to SPSS v.20 for statistical analysis. Accordingly, major income sources for the surveyed households could be categorized into livestock production (29.1%), crop (42.9%), off-farm (17%) and non-farm (42.6%) such as petty trade, labour, and aid from safety-net program as income strategies. The results showed that majority of households (52.3%) depend on forest before the initiation of the A/R CDM project for firewood consumption, fodder for livestock as free grazing, timber for construction, and for charcoal making. Now days, majority of households (50%) shifted to manage private land as source of fodder and 15% of households forced to purchase from local suppliers that detrimentally affects the financial capital of those households. In contrast, A/R CDM project promoted tree plantations on own farms since 45.9% of households shifted to own woodlots for demand of firewood and supply of timber for the construction purposes. In turn, increased vegetation cover improved local microclimate against climate extremes.

Keywords: CDM; climate variability; Humbo; livelihood strategies