Land use/land cover dynamics and perception of the local communities in Bita district, south western Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

Human settlements and swift expansion of agriculture have simplified the natural ecosystems and causing the loss of copious biological diversity. The current study was conducted in Bita district, southwestern Ethiopia to examine the pattern of land use/land cover (LULC) dynamics using multispectral satellite data for the years 1973, 1986, 2000 and 2018. The remote-sensed data were processed using ERDAS imagine 2014, ArcGIS map 10.5, and ENVI software. A supervised maximum likelihood classification algorithm was employed along with the visual interpretation of satellite images to classify each Landsat image into LULC categories. Semi-structured interviews and Focus Group Discussions were employed to identify major driving forces, impacts, and periodic LULC changes. The result revealed an alarming decrease in forestland but with an increase in the cropland. During the study periods, cropland, bareland and settlement areas have augmented by over 450% each. Conversely, grasslands and forestlands have reduced by over 45% each. The local communities perceived the population growth, and the expansion of coffee plantations and other croplands as the dominant drivers of LULC changes. The respondents also observed that the decline in forest cover triggered the loss of biodiversity, soil fertility and water availability. Decision-making on issues related to natural resource conservation, utilization and participatory resource management has to involve the engagement of the local community and other stakeholders. The deterioration in ecosystem services such as lack of benefits from medicinal plants from the forest, increase land degradation, and the decrease in water availability found to be the impacts of LULC change. This calls for a proper natural resource management plan and improvement in the livelihood of the community in the study area.

KEYWORDS:

• Causes
• dynamics
• land use/land cover
• patterns
• Ethiopia

Acknowledgements

We deeply acknowledge Kotebe Metropolitan University for financial support for the accomplishment of the study. We wish to express our deepest gratitude to peasant association members and interviewees for their wonderful support in data collection. We would also extend our deepest thanks to the Ethiopian Biodiversity institute for the identification of species.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

Conceptualization: Melesse Maryo, Data curation: Fikire Belete, Formal analysis: Fikire Belete, Investigation: Fikire Belete, Methodology: Fikire Belete, Software: Fikire Belete, Supervision: Melesse Maryo and Alemtsehay Teka, Validation: Melesse Maryo and Alemtsehay Teka, Writing – original draft: Fikire Belete, Writing – review & editing: Fikire Belete, Melesse Maryo and Alemtsehay Teka.