Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the impact of variant local involvement in ecotourism and associated strengths and weaknesses of the Adaba-Dodola community based ecotourism project, in South Ethiopia. Households from CBECT program and non-program communities, focus groups of CBECT participants and nonparticipants, and key-informants from culture and tourism office and from Oromia forest and wildlife enterprise were the target respondents. The primary data were collected through questionnaires, interviews and focused group discussions. Document reviews were also made to support the study. The quantitative data were analyzed through descriptive statistics while the qualitative data were analyzed in the form of narrations. The result of the study indicated that participants were highly benefited compared to nonparticipants due to the different level of participation and ways of involvement in ecotourism activities. Participants were benefited economically while nonparticipants enjoyed benefits associated with natural services. This led to positive perception to exist in participants than nonparticipants. As a result, the perception of communities towards ecotourism had been impacted by the difference of ecotourism support in the livelihood of participant and nonparticipant communities. In relation to this, working with community and promoting experience sharing for communities were the main strengths of ecotourism program according to participants while majority of nonparticipants stated as there were no major strengths to the ecotourism project. Subsequently, both groups identified insufficient implementation of the CBECT program as the main weakness of ecotourism in the area.

Keywords: Community-based ecotourism; Conceptual framework; Impact; Local involvement