Land Use and Cover Dynamics Since 1964 in the Afro‐Alpine Vegetation Belt: Lib Amba Mountain in North Ethiopia

Jacob, Miró; Romeyns, Liên; Frankl, Amaury; Asfaha, Tesfaalem-Ghebreyohannes; Beeckman, Hans; Nyssen, Jan

doi:10.1002/ldr.2396

Cited by 28 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Although the general results of our classification and vegetation change analysis reflect those of other studies in the Ethiopian highlands, for example, the timing of vegetation declines and emergence of plantation forests (de Mûelenaere et al 2014, Jacob et al 2016, we also observe some differences with other studies conducted in the region. Our precipitation change results indicate that the vegetation changes observed are likely not due to differences in precipitation across time periods, though the significantly higher belg precipitation during the Derg period may have influenced the increasing NBR values from the Derg to Transition periods to some degree.…”

Section: Uncertainty and Contradiction Encourage New Learningcontrasting

confidence: 54%

Knowledge coproduction improves understanding of environmental change in the Ethiopian highlands

Steger¹,

Nigussie²,

Alonzo³

et al. 2020

E&S

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Knowledge coproduction that draws on local and scientific knowledge presents opportunities for more holistic understanding of environmental change. We describe our use of a multiple-evidence based approach to investigate the causes and consequences of environmental change in a community-protected grassland and its surrounding landscape in the Ethiopian highlands. We explore the interaction of biophysical change (precipitation and vegetation) and social change (political and management institutions), and discuss potential impacts for ecosystem service provisioning. We quantified current distributions of locally defined land use/cover classes using a supervised classification, with an overall accuracy of 87.1%. Local community members then described and ranked the ecosystem services associated with each land class according to their perceived importance for society. Vegetation and precipitation changes were assessed using satellite time series beginning in the early 1980s, while local narratives describe changes back to the 1970s. The knowledge coproduction process brought together ethnographic and remote sensing approaches, revealing both complementary and contradictory findings across knowledge systems. Results with high agreement across knowledge systems clarify and reinforce understanding of certain threats and changes to the area, such as the rapidly declining native forests, the disappearing belg rainy season (p = 0.01), and the impact of insecure land tenure on natural resource extraction. Compelling areas of disagreement point to topics in need of further investigation, including increased attention to the spatial and temporal variability of change across a seemingly homogeneous cultural landscape, and the process of shrub encroachment into the protected grassland.

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Section: Uncertainty and Contradiction Encourage New Learningcontrasting

confidence: 54%

Knowledge coproduction improves understanding of environmental change in the Ethiopian highlands

Steger¹,

Nigussie²,

Alonzo³

et al. 2020

E&S

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“…The recovering vegetation interacts with the soil, leading to recovery and development of soil properties. This can be found in any climate and region of the world (Brevik, 2013;Feng et al, 2015;Hu et al, 2015;Jacob et al, 2016;Ola et al, 2015;Roa-Fuentes et al, 2015;Yu and Jia, 2015).…”

Section: Abandonment and Vegetation Recoverymentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecosystem responses to land abandonment in Western Mediterranean Mountains

Díaz

Ruíz-Sinoga

Robledano-Aymerich

et al. 2017

CATENA

116

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Section: Introduction/backgroundmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Such debates extend to the country's northern highlands as well, where the common perception is that, several generations ago, forest cover was more substantial than today (e.g., Allen-Rowlandson, 1989;Rodgers, 1992). What is known is that LUC change in the northern highlands is nonlinear and geographically heterogeneous (Lanckriet et al, 2015;Jacob et al, 2016). For instance, Darbyshire et al (2003) used pollen analysis to describe a complex story of human disturbance to the natural vegetation of the highlands (a Podocarupus-Juniperus forest), including periods of both vegetation clearance and regrowth over the past 3,000 years.…”

Section: Introduction/backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Resilience of Ethiopian Church Forests: Interpreting Aerial Photographs, 1938–2015

et al. 2016

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Church forests collectively represent the only surviving remnants of the original montane forest, serving as critical sanctuaries for many of Ethiopia's endangered and endemic plant and invertebrate taxa. Modern inventories of church forests suggest that they are vulnerable to degradation because of their small size and isolation. The aim of this study is to use historical air photos from the period of the Italian occupation of Ethiopia (1935–1941) to measure changes to church forests over a ~80‐year time span. We find little evidence that church forests in the study region around Debra Tabor in the northern Ethiopia highlands are declining in size. Rather, church forests have proven to be remarkably resilient on the landscape despite decades of dramatic change to the world around them. Our findings, therefore, highlight the effectiveness of religion‐based forest stewardship. Results also indicate, however, that while many church forests used to be buffered from intensive agricultural activity (e.g., cultivation and pasture) today, they find themselves significantly more isolated and vulnerable to edge effects as a result of a general decrease of trees and bushlands surrounding the forests. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Land Use and Cover Dynamics Since 1964 in the Afro‐Alpine Vegetation Belt: Lib Amba Mountain in North Ethiopia

Cited by 28 publications

References 56 publications

Knowledge coproduction improves understanding of environmental change in the Ethiopian highlands

Knowledge coproduction improves understanding of environmental change in the Ethiopian highlands

Ecosystem responses to land abandonment in Western Mediterranean Mountains

The Resilience of Ethiopian Church Forests: Interpreting Aerial Photographs, 1938–2015

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