The Role Of Ethiopian Orthodox Churches And Monasteries In Forest Management Practices In Chilga And Mettema Woredas (Districts), North Gondar Zone

Ethiopian Orthodox Church practices environmental management since time immemorial. The view of the church is highly associated with religious justifications.

This study is about the role of Ethiopian Orthodox Church and monasteries in forest management practices in Chilga and Mettema Woredas ,North Gondar Zone. In this Woredas, the church practices environmental management due to religion.

The study dealt with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church role in forest management practices. The forest management practice of the church is highly attached with values and beliefs of its doctrine. This is particularly true with the church thought of its mass followers on the issue of environment management. Believers also in many case abided by the church rule and regulations.  Accordingly, this considered as units of analysis for the study.

The main objective of the study is to examine and disclose the forest management practices of the E.O.C on some selected churches and monasteries of Chilga and Mettema Woredas, North Gondar Zone ,and  maintaining useful forest management knowledge for sustainable development.

Both primary and secondary methods of data collection tools employed to gather information in the study area.  Data collection tools such as focus group discussions, interviews, observations, documents both published and unpublished employed and reviewed respectively.

The major findings of the research indicated that Ethiopian Orthodox Church practices have important roles in forest management. The churches and monasteries have deeper values, practices and perceptions under different psalms of bible quotations. Bible citations of the church has highly internalized by the believers. This was further strengthened by the community responsibility managing the forest through the justification of everything inside the church is considered as sacred. Infact some of the community and the government practices have adverse affect on the forest management practices of the church . This is highly attached with the call of vilgazation program of the government and the community response of settlement under different regimes. This called for a new strategy of transforming and called for massive based movement of the community using this knowledge as important insights for the development program imposed from top to bottom. Thus, this called for also a new strategy where by indigenous knowledge can be transformed for best use.