Dynamics of Land Use and Land Cover in the Kafta-Sheraro National Park, NW Ethiopia: Patterns, Causes and Management Implications

Kafta-Sheraro National Park (KSNP) is one of the most important protected areas in Ethiopia and provides a number of important ecological and hydrological benefits to the local people. However, the park is under immense pressure as a result of a rapidly increasing human population that resulted from a voluntary resettlement program launched by the government in 2003. Using satellite imageries taken in the years 2003, 2009 and 2015, this study examined patterns of changes in land use/cover throughout the park over a 12 year period (2003 to 2015), during which human population pressure is known to have increased over time and changes in government policies were taken place. The results showed that, over the period of 12 years, wood land experienced the most changeover the study period, with a loss of cover of 862.3 km(2) (i.e. from 77.8% coverage of the total park area in 2003 to 3 8.0% in 2015) at annual rate of 79.3 km(2) ). Conversely, the other land cover types showed increasing pattern, particularly, bush land and agricultural land were increasing at a rate of 44.96 and 18.90 km(2) per year, respectively. Overall, the rate of land cover change was higher during the first period (2003 to 2009) compared with the second period (2009 to 2015) for all land use and land cover types, except grass land, suggesting that human impacts were higher following the resettlement program in 2003 and then slowed down following establishment of the park in 2007. The major causes of land cover change in the area were settlement and population expansion, cultivation, fire, mining and grazing. We suggest that better effective park protection systems should be in place to mitigate and restore habitats.