Wetlands are the ecosystems that are found on the interface between land and water. It is also areas of marsh, ponds and swamps, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water, that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salty, including areas of marine water, the depth of which at low tide, does not exceed six meters. Although, wetlands by nature are dynamic ecosystems, anthropogenic activities continuously changing the land uses in and around wetlands speed up the ecological changes in wetlands. Ethiopia exhibits a wide range of geologic formations and climatic conditions which create numerous wetland ecosystems including 12 rivers, eight major lakes and many swamps and floodplains. It is found on every agro-ecological zones from alpine (high mountains) to desert ecosystem in the low-lying regions and across all traditional climatic zones. Riverine wetlands are other common types of wetlands throughout the country. Based on scattered information, the total wetlands coverage of Ethiopia is approximately 2% (22,600 km 2 ). This, wetlands provide natural resources and services for humanity. They are a source of food, tourism, cultural resources, flood control and improved water quality. They are also important for biodiversity and wildlife conservation. However, there are numerous threats to wetlands in developing countries including Ethiopia. Ethiopian wetlands are increasingly being lost or altered by unregulated over utilization, including water diversion for agricultural intensification, urbanization, dam construction, population pressures, food shortages, increased drainage and cultivation, collection of sedges and reeds for roofing and housing. The consequences of wetland loss and degradation in Ethiopia are enormous and directly affecting the livelihood base of rural communities. The change of wetlands has created numerous problems including decrease and extinction of wild flora and fauna, loss of natural soil nutrients, water reservoirs and of their subsequent benefits. They have affected various traditional occupations, socioeconomic conditions and cultural activities. Therefore, it needs intensive research and development works by different stakeholders and needs policy attention from the government to provide enabling environment for sustainable wetland management.

This study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of cultivation, fallow and woody land with and without soil bund on soil physical and chemical properties in Gojeb river basin of Dedo district. Landscape of the basin was divided in to three slope positions as upper (25 to 35%), middle (15 to 25%) and lower (5 to 15%). From each slope position, purposely three land use types (cultivated, fallow and woody) lands conserved with and without soil bund were selected. Accordingly, a total of 54 composited soil samples, from 3 slope positions x 3 land use types x 3 replications x 2 conservation system (with and without soil bund) were considered to collect soil sample for soil physical and chemical properties analysis. For both composited and core sampled soil sample collection systematic random sampling techniques were conducted through considering similarity of slope gradient, soil types and land use cover. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and mean separation was carried out by Turkey test using Rversion 3.2.2 (2015). Additionally, Pearson's correlation analysis was done by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 20).The result showed that soil bulk density and sand fraction decreased from upper to lower slope position. In contrast, total soil porosity, gravimetric soil moisture content, fraction of clay and silt were increased from upper to lower slope position. With respect to land use soil porosity, gravimetric soil moisture content, clay and silt proportion of woody land >fallow land> cultivated land. However soil bulk density and sand fraction highest in the cultivated land than fallow and woody land. Similarly, for all land uses conserved with soil bund has highest gravimetric soil moisture content, soil porosity, clay and silt fraction than similar land uses not conserved with soil bund. Soil chemical parameters [pH, EC, Av.P, OM, OC, TN, CEC,[exchangeable cations (K, Ca and Mg), exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) and percent base saturation (PBS)] were significantly increased from upper to lower slope position while exchangeable sodium was not significantly increased. All soil chemical parameters, mean value of woody and fallow land were highest than cultivated land. Similarly, land uses conserved with soil bund has highest mean value than land uses without soil bund. The result of Pearson's correlation matrix also confirmed that several soil phyisical and chemical parameters have a positive relationship, particularly soil organic matter/organic carbon was strongly correlated with cation exchangeable capacity and clay content. In conclusion, the result affirmed that soil physicochemical property of the study area was strongly influenced by land use and conservation difference in addition to topographic position variation. Therefore, to conserve soil resources it needs highest attention of policy makers as well as land use planners to concentrate their efforts on land management/conservation strategies based on land use system and slope variation.

The severity of erosion is one of the major factors which calls for various efforts to reduce unsustainable agricultural productivity. But the efforts were fails because of some factors like need of incentives, technology that needs too much labor, reduction of farm size and lack of awareness. The main purpose of this research was to determine the factors affecting farmer's perception to make decision on soil and water conservation practices on their farm land. A total of 36 (20 male and 16 female) household samples from three zones of Obi Koji, West Ethiopia were selected proportionally to the population size, respectively. Data was being collected in the form of interview, questioner and field observations and secondary data from documented files. Direct household survey and formal interview method were used to take sampling. The study was focused on the determinant factors which affect the decision of farmers to adopt soil and water conservation practices in their local conditions. Majority of the farmers have awareness about the introduced soil and water conservation (SWC) and few of them implements it. The rest uses cultural practices such as diversion ditch and water ways. Nonetheless, the sustainability of the implemented structures was unlikely. The study concluded that many of those problems were related lack of real participation of farmers in planning of conservation effort. Lastly, the carefully pursue of a farmer participatory approach especially on planning and fair distribution of training among the zone of Kebeles is a core issue.