mpact of Agricultural investment and Trans- boundary human wildlife conflict in Gambella National Park, Southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

1. Introduction Increasing in human population and escalating per capita impacts over the last century have greatly intensified the threats to Earth’s life-support systems (UN, 2016). In the face of human transformation of much of Earth's surface through a combination of direct exploitation, habitat change, loss of wild nature and the introduction of alien species has become deteriorated to overcome this get worse protected areas play a vital role in protecting biodiversity from such pressures (Delany, 2014). In the early1870s protected areas expanded and concerns of environmental conservation was enhanced with the emergence of the concept of managing protected areas (Pimbert and Pretty, 1995). According to Gashaw (2015), protected areas were created to protect the major biodiversity throughout the world. Thus; these areas have a significant role in conserving biodiversity. However, it is a unhappy fact that these ecologically fundamental resources are usually undervalued and are under threat from population growth and the ever-increasing human need (Zerga, 2015). Ethiopia is one of the few countries in the world that possesses several protected areas with a unique and characteristic biota with high level of endemism (Scholes, 2004). Ethiopia gives attention to expand protected areas and a number of protected areas are established and will plan to establish in the future throughout the country. But, originally the protected area system of Ethiopia had not been designed with scientific concepts of biodiversity and its optimal representation protected areas in mind. Like in most countries, it had developed over the years on the basis of educated guesses by wildlife managers, as to where diversity (mainly large mammal diversity) was located and where tracts of land were still available for 2 protection that would not conflict too much with other land uses(Daan Vreugdenhil et al, 2012). However the issues how much the protected areas expanded in country previously contribute to conserve wildlife is unknown and Ethiopia's ecosystems and special concerned species are not adequately represented within the protected areas network. Gambella national park is one of the national park in Ethiopian that needs special concern to save the hidden treasures within it.