The Impact of Resettlement Program on Livelihoods of Indigenous Community, the Case of Esira District in Dawuro Zone, SNNPRS

Resettlement program is a measure taken to reduce the problems of food insecurity and household income diversification. However, improper implementations of the program have negative impact on socio-economic and environmental related issues particularly natural resource degradation which causes LU/LC change in the study area. In the context Ethiopian, resettlement has been carried out both voluntary and involuntary nature. Voluntary resettlement program occurred with the individual interest without any external influences, whereas involuntary is related with massively implemented through government policy. This study was carried out to analyze impact of resettlement program on livelihood of indigenous community in Esira district, Dawuro zone. The livelihood strategies of indigenous community before and after resettlement program where assessed using questionnaire, key informant interviews and filed observations. The finding of this study shows that, after resettlement program the indigenous community faces the problems of access to communal resource utilizations such as common grazing area and Forest, limitation of cattle number, limited annual source of income and shifting of economic activates. On other, the resettlement program brought positive impacts for indigenous community by introducing some of fruits like avocado, mango, banana and ginger which is not familiar before the resettlement program in the study area. Based on finding, it is recommended that well planned resettlement program by considering the existed indigenous community and the newly settler through mutual benefit natural resource.