Author(s): Israel Petros Menbere
Conversion of natural habitat to other forms of land use is the main threat to protected areas and biodiversity globally. The continued trend of land use land cover change in protected areas resulted in loss of a large portion of biodiversity, overexploitation by humans, transformation of natural land to human settlement, etc. In Ethiopia, the causes for land use land cover change in many protected areas are farmland expansion, deforestation, unsustainable grazing and settlement expansion, and are leading to loss of biodiversity and negative impacts of ecosystem services. In addition, Ethiopia’s protected areas entertain escalating threats and land cover changes due to human population growth, competing claims from the surrounding communities, incompatible investment, lack of environmental law enforcement, absence of complete plan and timely update for protected areas, etc. These have affected protected areas in the country namely the Bale Mountains National Park, Chocke Mountains, Babile Elephant sanctuary, Abijata Shalla Lakes National Park, Awash National Park and others. The continued land use land cover changes are aggravating ecosystem, soil and water resources degradation in mountainous protected areas while they are leading to biodiversity destruction and loss of forest cover in lowland protected areas. In order to halt and reduce the impact of land cover change on biodiversity conservation, undertaking complete land use planning and continuous monitoring of protected areas was found to be important. Similarly, integrating protected areas into the surrounding landscapes and a broader framework of national plans, promoting income generation means for communities surrounding protected areas, promoting biodiversity conservation directly linked to poverty alleviation, involving local communities and stakeholders in land use planning and sustainable management of protected areas, enhancing sound management in vulnerable mountain protected areas and restoring abandoned lands located in and around protected areas are crucial in the proper land use planning and management of protected areas. In addition, enhancing awareness creation and promoting natural resource information of protected areas and enhancing scientific study on land use land cover change pattern of protected areas are vital to undertake effective land use planning and management of protected areas in Ethiopia.
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