This study was conducted in Ankesha Guagusa Woreda of the Amhara region. The study objective was to critically assess the agricultural investment expansion and its impact on the environment and how the local community perceives agricultural investments in the context of environmental protection and improvement of livelihoods. Based on qualitative research design, probabilistic and non probabilistic sampling methods used to select sample respondents and study sites (Keble’s) respectively. To realize the objective primary and secondary data was collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings of the study shows that much of the land given to agricultural investors was a communal wood land with high grazing potential and traditionally used by the local community. The local community was not consulted when the community land was transferred to investors. Regarding vegetation cover, FGD participants disclosed that there were a variety of tree and shrub species, but most of them are bulldozed. Wildlife such as, Ape/Hominoid, Hyena/Hyaenidea, Tiger/panther Tigris, and other wild animals have migrated or disappeared due to habitat loss. The study also revealed that there are a number of conflicts arising between investors and the neighboring farmers mainly due to grazing shortage. Efforts made by investors to leave a strip of vegetation and trees scattered on farm land is poor. In some investment farms there are signs of soil erosion. From the study it can be concluded that almost all agricultural investments are not environment sensitive and local communities have hardly benefitted from the investments. It is therefore recommended that the respective authorities should take the issue into serious consideration and evaluate the performance of investors.