This paper examines impacts of Prosopis juliflora (hereinafter may be referred as 'Prosopis') invasion on livelihoods of agro (pastoral) households using detailed household data in rural Dire Dawa Administration of Ethiopia. Cross-sectional data were collected from a total of 450 sample households whereby 250 were from Prosopis-invaded households and the remaining 200 from non-Prosopis-invaded households. The major research question of the study was, 'what would be the livelihoods of Prosopis-invaded households had they not been invaded by Prosopis?' To answer this question, descriptive and econometric tools were employed. The study results revealed that family size, dependency ratio and access to irrigation had negative and significant relationships with Prosopis invasion. On the other hand, age of the household head, Tropical Livestock Unit (TLU) and engagement in food for work programmes were positively related to Prosopis invasion. The results of this study show that the positive effects of Prosopis invasion were pronounced in terms of education expenditure, average annual income from crop production, off-farm income, food and non-food expenditure and physical food consumption, whereas there has been negative effects of Prosopis invasion due to reduced income generation from milk products. In this study, possible recommendations were drawn for stakeholders in order to reverse Prosopis adverse effects and optimize the positive impacts of this species in the study area.

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Ethiopia including the study area are faced with deforestation, land degradation, soil erosion problems primarily caused by anthropogenic activities such as clearing vegetation for the purpose of agricultural use, fuel wood, Charcoal, construction and the reaction of conservation measures to restore deforested vegetation is too weak. The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of soil and water conservation (SWC) measures on plant species diversity by comparing between treated plot areas and non-treated plot areas. The data collection method was mainly drawn through plant measurements, inventory, GPS, household servey, key informant interview, focus group discussion, Office reports. To analyze the collected data, Shannon – wiener diversity index (H1) and Sorensen similarity coefficient indices (Is) calculation methods was employed. Based on the interview, direct observation, shannon’s diversity analysis and GPS results, the findings revealed that noticeable vegetation cover and plant species diversity have been observed in treated plot areas than non-treated plot areas in the last 10 years period.. This implies that well managed and protected homegardens and area exclosures have better plant species diversity than open grazing fields and communal lands. With these findings, it is rational to conclude that SWC measures have a positive effect on vegetation cover, Plant species diversity, richness and restoration. Thus, it is worth to recommend that conservation priority should be given to the more affected open grazing and communal lands.

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