African Civet Habitat Mapping in Illu-Abbabora Zone, Southwest Ethiopia: Geospatial Approach

Abstract

The African Civet (Civettictis Civetta Shreber, 1778) is one of the important natural animal resources of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is the major producer of the Civet perineal gland secretion (known as “civet”) used extensively as a base in perfume industry. However, there is no improvement in civet farming processes in rural Ethiopia, and the farmers still live in a poor state. Majority of rural population in Ethiopia is depending on agriculture, and hence land-use changes during the past couple of decades are mostly linked to agricultural development. Present study was undertaken to predict the spatial distribution of land-use and land-cover and habitats of the African Civet here in after referred as civet(s) in Illu-Abbabora Zone, Southwest Ethiopia. Landsat images of three years: 1985, 2000 and 2018 were classified to generate land-use/land-cover maps, locate forests and other land classes. Results of the study revealed that forest and wetland habitats decreased by an estimated 11.12 km2/yr-1 and 2.39 km2/yr-1, respectively during the period of 1985-2018. In contrast, the extent of agricultural land, urban area and Gumro tea plantation increased by an estimated 13.36 km2/yr-1, 0.59 km2/yr-1 and 0.43 km2/yr-1, respectively. Habitat suitability approach was found to have great potential in predicting potential habitats of the civets through complex non-linear models.