Mass flowering and death of Arundinaria alpina (highland bamboo) impact on livelihood of rural community: the case of Gedeo Zone, Southern Ethiopia.

Ethiopia owns the largest coverage of bamboos in Africa that sums up to more than 1 million hectares. This constitutes about 67% of the total area of bamboo in Africa. Bamboo plays a crucial role in the livelihood of the local people of Gedeo zone, south Ethiopia. However, the mass flowering and mass death currently hit the bamboo forest of the zone and affected both the people livelihood and the ecosystem of the area. Thus, this paper tries to highlight the consequences of mass flowering of bamboo forest on the livelihood of rural community of the zone. Two districts were purposively selected and 120 sample households were chosen randomly for data collection. Both primary and secondary data were deployed to answer the stipulated objectives. Extensive field observation, questionnaires, and group discussions were held to gather the primary data. Additionally, documents and other available materials were also used as a secondary data source. Descriptive statistics was conducted to analyze quantitative socio-economic data. Qualitative data were summarized by condensing the collected information. The result of the study indicated that, the local people have experiences of bamboo production using their indigenous knowledge. Lack of awareness about the time of mass flowering and death exacerbated the incident. There was no management plan prepared and used in the bamboo forest area. The flowering interval was estimated and the coming time of flowering and death is expected to be after 75-80 years. Massive socio-economic and ecological problems were also observed after mass flowering and subsequent seed setting. Hence, now it is time to search for different strategies to stop or to reduce the influences of mass flowering and death of bamboo in the area. Key words: Bamboo, Arundinaria alpina, impacts of mass flowering, Ethiopia