Impact of Differences in Land Management on Natural Vegetation in Semi-Dry Areas: The Case Study of the Adi Zaboy Watershed in the Kilite Awlaelo District, Eastern Tigray Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

The search for a sustainable land management has become a universal issue. It is especially necessary to discuss sustainable land management and to secure a site with enough feed supply to improve the lives of the farmers in the Ethiopian Highlands. This research studied the Adi Zaboy watershed in Tigray in order to reveal the changes in land management, assess how the different forms of land management affected the vegetation through unsupervised classification and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) analysis with geographic information system (GIS) 10.5 using a WorldView-2 satellite image taken in September 2016 and field investigation, and consider how to allow both environmental preservation and sustainable use of feed resources. The land management types at the research site were classified as "seasonally-closed grazing land", "prohibited grazing and protected forest land", and "free grazing land". On comparing the NDVI of each type of land management, it was found that the seasonally-closed grazing land makes it highly possible to secure and supply feed resources by limiting the grazing period. The expansion of the prohibited grazing and protected forest land is likely to tighten the restriction on the use of resources. Therefore, sustainable land management to secure feed resources may be possible by securing and actively using seasonally-closed grazing land, securing feed by a cut-and-carry, and using satellite images and GIS.

Communal land conservation in northern Ethiopia: The relationship between urban area access and individual and social norms

“…In this study, social norms for conservation are examined by a proportion of enclosed communal lands and the number of days of free labour that have contributed to soil and water conservation interest in each village ( kebele ). The enclosure of communal lands designates areas where village bylaws do not allow animals to enter, referred to as 'exclosure' in Ethiopia (Gebremedhin et al, 2004; Mekuria et al, 2011; Ogawa et al, 2019; Yami et al, 2013). Many Ethiopian farmers have livestock and collect firewood; thus, some oppose the introduction of enclosures (Mekuria & Aynekulu, 2013; Mekuria et al, 2021).…”

Applicability of Structure-from-Motion Photogrammetry on Forest Measurement in the Northern Ethiopian Highlands

“…A significant portion of the Adi Zaboy watershed is exposed to cultivation and grazing (Figure 2), although these actions are currently partially prohibited by exclosures [44]. Agricultural expansion has reduced the forest area and overgrazing by large numbers of livestock has destroyed tree seedlings.…”