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. Two districts
were purposively selected and 120 sample households were chosen randomly for data collection.
Both primary and secondary data were deployed to answer the stipulated objectives. Extensive
field observation, questionnaires, and group discussions were held to gather the primary data.
Additionally, documents and other available materials were also used as a secondary data source.
Descriptive statistics was conducted to analyze quantitative socio-economic data. Qualitative data
were summarized by condensing the collected information. The result of the study indicated that,
the local people have experiences of bamboo production using their indigenous knowledge. Lack
of awareness about the time of mass flowering and death exacerbated the incident. There was
no management plan prepared and used in the bamboo forest area. The flowering interval was
estimated and the coming time of flowering and death is expected to be after 75-80 years. Massive
socio-economic and ecological problems were also observed after mass flowering and subsequent
seed setting. Hence, now it is time to search for different strategies to stop or to reduce the influences
of mass flowering and death of bamboo in the area.