Vol. 2 No. 1 (2019): Mass flowering and death of Arundinaria alpina (highland bamboo) impact on livelihood of rural community: the case of Gedeo Zone, Southern Ethiopia.

Abstract
Ethiopia owns the largest coverage of bamboos in Africa that sums up to more than 1 million
hectares. This constitutes about 67% of the total area of bamboo in Africa. Bamboo plays a
crucial role in the livelihood of the local people of Gedeo zone, south Ethiopia. However, the mass
flowering and mass death currently hit the bamboo forest of the zone and affected both the people
livelihood and the ecosystem of the area. Thus, this paper tries to highlight the consequences of
mass flowering of bamboo forest on the livelihood of rural community of the zone.