ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF GONCA SISO ENASE WA.RADA  •  ..  IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

GEBEYAW, ABEBE

dc.contributor.author	GEBEYAW, ABEBE
dc.date.accessioned	2017-07-20T10:36:27Z
dc.date.available	2017-07-20T10:36:27Z
dc.date.issued	2017-07-20
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/7424
dc.description.abstract	Abstract Environmental changes occurring throughout the globe are challenging the lives of many people. Nature is so now degraded at alarming rate that peoples of the world are getting severe food shortage and many o!'-er problems. Different disciplines have therefore been attracted to understand the causes and the '/Jossible consequences of environmental changes. Among many, Environmental History, which was emerged during the 1960s in United States of America, has tried to study the interaction of human beings with the physical environment and with other living organisms in the ecosystem. As part of local and global issue, the study therefore was about the environmental history of Gonca Siso Enase in the twentieth century. More specifically, human interactions to the environment and their attitude towards • nature are the pillars in narrating the patterns of environmental changes occurred in the Warada for the last hundred years. The Data were collected from informants who experienced the changes and the situation via semi structured interview and focused group discussion. The land uses and land cover changes of the 1972, the 1985, and the 1991 were incorporated into the study. Another source of data was archives which clearjy showed the governments' reactions to the changes transpired in the district. Ground truth checking system was then held on the study area. All data collected from these sources were discussed under different themes. The study exclusively employed a phenomenological qualitative research design in investigating the changes in the study area. It portrays the human 'interaction with the environment and thus how the people of Gonca altered the environment and the influence of the envin'11ent on the lives of them. The results show that major environmental changes occurred during the the area. \ imperial regimes. The communal land ownership which deprived the masses from being invested on their lands, and poor perception of the people towards nature which were emanated from illiterateness were the casuals of such changes. Hence, the government failed to educate the society how to protect nature rather it wrote different letters which could not enforce the people to take actions and to love the nature • they lived on. That is why the Warada 's forests were dramatically transformed into croplands, settlement, grazing fields within hundred years. But now all the land cover changes were converted into settlement and crop lands at the expense of very little forest and grazing land coverage. This environmental change brought different human and animal diseases during imperial regimes. Rinderpest and anthrax were the dominant diseases that swept the cattle population during the 1950s and 1960s. Malaria, typhoid and typhus were also serious diseases that took the lives of many people and obstructed agricultural practices. Such diseases continued suffering the people until the end of the last century. Another environmental born consequences observed in the area was locust infestation. A swarm of locust during the imperial and Darg regimes demolished many acres of crops. However, from any other government, Darg was trying to control the locust invasion with mechanized technology. Heavy soil erosion and degradation have been a phenomenon in the area and it could be the causes of peasants' migration to other parts of the country. The land, especially areas lie on the Abay Basin, has been so degraded that farmers have hardly got · -.. problems of cultivating crops. As a result, different governmental and non-governmental organizations have intervened and worked for rehabilitating the region. For such environmental degradation both Darg and the current government resettled the peasants to other areas. These all changes were therefore resulted from the unsustainable agricultural practices which have been practiced since human settled in \	en_US
dc.subject	HISTORY	en_US
dc.title	ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF GONCA SISO ENASE WA.RADA • .. IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY	en_US
dc.type	Thesis	en_US