**3. Methodology**

This study is part of an integrated research project titled "Social-Ecological System Resilience in Central Eastern Rift Valley: The Role of Danungdafu Forestation Area." It is based mainly on the research work of the governance subproject; the project as a whole covers numerous aspects of natural and social sciences. The goals of the integrated project are to study the resilience dynamics of a specific social-ecological system and to promote resilience-oriented governance based on the research findings. More specifically, the research team (hereafter referred to as the NDHU Team) followed the Resilience Assessment Framework suggested by the Resilience Alliance. It includes five main iterative and reflexive stages [30], as follows:


The Resilience Assessment Framework is applied to the DFA case; this research integrates iterative feedback processes, from building a knowledge base to taking appropriate actions, and is therefore a form of action-oriented research. Governance issues should also be studied, including formal institutions and informal norms, multiple interests and value judgments, human organizations, social networks and interpersonal interactions, collective actions, and social movements. All these issues have social, economic, political, and ecological contexts. To study the complex interaction of the various contexts and factors mentioned, qualitative research methods including in-depth interviewing, participatory observation, and focus group meetings were employed. The research was conducted from August 2013 to April 2020.
