Conversion of Crop land use to Plantation land use, northwest Ethiopia

Abstract This study was conducted in the northwest highlands of Ethiopia to, (i) map the different land use types and detect land use changes between 2000 and 2017, (ii) assess whether A. Decurrens plantation brings a land use change, and (iii) evaluate the role of A. Decurrens plantation on man-made forest cover change. ArcGIS 10.3 was used for spatial analysis and mapping while ERDAS Imagine 9.2 was used for land use classification and change detection. Landsat images were used to generate the land use maps using unsupervised and supervised classification methods. Cultivated land, wetland, natural forest and bare lands were declining whereas plantation, grazing land and settlement lands were expanding. Plantation cover was the most expanded land use type, which increased by 16%. A. Decurrens plantation was found to be the main reason in changing the land use from crop based land use to plantation land use. Man-made plantation was also increased because of A. Decurrens plantation. Moreover, A. Decurrens planation based land use was found to be a means to rehabilitate the degraded mountainous areas by reducing soil erosion and increasing the fertility of the soil through nitrogen fixation.