World Journal of
Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences

IMPACTS OF RESETTLEMENT ON WOODLAND DEGRADATION IN ABOBO WEREDA, GAMBELLA, ETHIOPIA

Zemenu Awoke*, Bogale Teferi and Teferi Mekonen

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to assess the impacts of resettlement programme on woodland degradation in Abobo wereda. Land sat images from 1987, 2002 and 2009 were used to produce three maps of the respective years using GIS with field verification. Data from satellite images, coupled with field observation and socio-economic survey revealed an effective approach for analyzing the extent, rate and spatial pattern of Land use land cover change. The result shows that seven land cover categories, namely forest land, wetland, woodland, farmland, bare land, water body and grassland have been identified. The general trends observed from 1987-2002 was a decrease in forest land at the rate of -0.51ha/year, grassland at the rate of -1.467ha/year and woodland reduced with annual rate of -2.837ha/ year. A corresponding increase was observed in farmland and settlement area with the rate of 37.3ha/year and bare land increase with the rate of 9.50ha/year. Similarly, between 2002 and 2009, bare land and farmland continued to increase with the mean annual rate of 859.43ha.year and 9.88ha/year respectively. Whereas the reduction of forestland and grassland more or less in similar pattern with the rate of -1.27ha/year and -10 ha/year respectively.

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