Abstract
This paper concerns the ethnographic analysis of asymmetrical power relations created between actors holding competing views about nature conservation and preservation of cultural values in one of the highly conflict-affected protected areas in Ethiopia. The rhetoric of wilderness and the policies it implies were exported to Ethiopia to create protected areas in the 1960s. Since then, though resisted, it has been strengthened through conditional funding and technical supports by conservation NGOs of the global north. Taking the case of a hunting ban introduced through the creation of Nechisar National Park in southern Ethiopia, it is found that the top-down formation of the park and imposed hunting prohibitions have resulted in altering local values, targeted attacks and elimination of protected animals such as the Swayne’s hartebeest which the park was created to protect. A historical ethnographic approach was adopted from 2016 to 2018 to collect data alongside archival analysis, in-depth individual and group interviews, case appraisals, and observations.

Keywords
Imposed values, Nechisar park, power relations, resistance, hunting, dual impact

Cite this paper
Bayisa Feye Bedane, Asymmetric Power Relations on The Frontiers of The State: Resistance to a Hunting Ban in Nechisar National Park of Southern Ethiopia , SCIREA Journal of Environment. Volume 4, Issue 1, February 2020 | PP. 1-25.

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