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Characterized by high population density on a rugged topography, the Gedeo-Abaya landscape dominantly contains a multi-strata traditional agroforests showing the insight of Gedeo farmers on natural resource management practices. Currently, this area has been losing its resilience and is becoming unable to sustain its inhabitants. Based on both RS-derived and GIS-computed land-use/cover changes (LUCC) as well as socioeconomic validations, this article explored the LUCC and agroecological-based driver patterns in Gedeo-Abaya landscape from 1986 to 2015. A combination of geo-spatial technology and cross-sectional survey design were employed to detect the drivers behind these changes. The article discussed that LUCC and the prevalence of drivers are highly diverse and vary throughout agroecological zones. Except for the population, most downstream top drivers are perceived as insignificant in the upstream region and vice versa. In the downstream, land-use/cover (LUC) classes are more dynamic, diverse, and challenged by nearly all anticipated drivers than are upstream ones. Agroforestry LUC has been increasing (by 25% of its initial cover) and is becoming the predominant cover type, although socioeconomic analysis and related findings show its rapid LUC modification. A rapid reduction of woodland/shrubland (63%) occurred in the downstream, while wetland/marshy land increased threefold (158%), from 1986 to 2015 with annual change rates of - 3.7 and + 6%, respectively. Land degradation induced by changes in land use is a serious problem in Africa, especially in the densely populated sub-Saharan regions such as Ethiopia (FAO 2015). Throughout the landscape, LUCC is prominently affecting land-use system of the study landscape due to population pressure in the upstream region and drought/rainfall variability, agribusiness investment, and charcoaling in the downstream that necessitate urgent action.

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The analysis of land use/land cover (LULC) change has always been a topic of interest in land dynamics research. The majority of previous studies used the conventional method of "net change" analysis to show spatiotemporal LULC transitions. However, such analysis failed to indicate whether the transition is clearly systematic or due to an apparently random process. Hence, this study aimed to identify the most prominent signals of landscape transitions over the last three decades, using the landscapes of East African Rift Valley Region. We used Remote Sensing and GIS to quantify and map the changes in LULC for 1986 and 2016, and then the two maps compared to produce transition matrices. Results show that net change and swap change accounted for 43% and 57% of total change on the landscape respectively. Accordingly, 6% of scattered acacia woodland and 5% of bush land have been converted to agricultural land, whereas 7% and 3% of scattered acacia woodland have been degraded towards grazing land and bush land respectively. These changes were found to be clearly systematic and hence indicate the dominant and prominent signals of landscape transformation. Hence, future land use policies need to consider such prominent signals of LULC change in order to plan an integrated approach to safeguard the fragile ecosystems of the region, while searching for alternative livelihood options.

This study aims to investigate spatiotemporal variability, trends, and anomaly in rainfall and temperature in the Sidama region, Ethiopia. The TerraClimate gridded dataset on a monthly time scale for 30 years (1991–2020) with a horizontal resolution of approximately 4 km was used for the study. Trends in annual and seasonal rainfall and temperature were assessed using a nonparametric test (Mann-Kendal test) and Sen’s slope to test the statistical significance and magnitude of trends (increase/decrease), respectively. Our findings revealed that annual rainfall, summer (Hawado), and spring (Badhessa) rainfall have shown an increasing trend in most parts of the region, except for its northwest parts. We found a low annual rainfall variability (CV < 13%) over the southeastern and northwestern parts of the region. Rainfall variability revealed the difference in both time and space across the region. Six drought years (1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2012, and 2019) with different magnitudes were identified across the region. Annual average maximum (up to 0.4 °C decade−1) and minimum (up to 0.25 °C decade−1) temperatures revealed significantly increasing trends across the region. The standardized anomaly in the mean annual temperature indicated that the years in the recent decade (2011–2020) are getting warmer compared to the past two decades (1991–2010) due to natural and anthropogenic activities causing weather extremes in the region. The results of this study for rainfall contradict the other studies in the rift valley part of the region. Therefore, we suggest appropriate climate change adaptation strategies so that there is high rainfall and temperature variability across the region and between seasons.

This study investigates ecocultural discourses and practices among the Gedeo in southern Ethiopia within the contexts of globalizing commodification of nature, successive governmental extractivist and conservationist discourses, and increasingly influential colonial present religious systems. Our analysis illustrates ways in which indigenous Gedeo understandings of reciprocal ecological coexistence are rooted in cultural knowledge, values, and customs. However, competing forms of knowledge introduced in the form of governance, commerce, conservation, and religion have resulted in an in-process shift from traditionally, spiritually maintained mutualist human-environment relations to dualist commodified relations, particularly among youth, and dualist expert-reliant conservationist relations emanating from governmental bodies. By examining a traditional meaning system during an explicit process of erasure, the study points to ways local meanings of, and narratives about, ecocultural interactions are produced and communicated within wider contexts of power, and illustrates tensions among traditional, governmental, capitalist, conservationist, and religious environmental ontologies in everyday and institutional practice.