Abstract
Ethiopia is one of the African countries facing problems of environmental degradation. In particular, the problem is severe in the Tigray region of Northern Ethiopia highlands where, environmental degradation is threatening many parts of the region. Efforts to contain this problem and facilitate natural rehabilitation have been made at several levels. The establishment of area enclosures, and soil and water conservation works are two of the main strategies promoted to contain land degradation and restore the natural vegetation. This study investigates the effect of area enclosures on regenerating the degraded vegetation. A comparative analysis was performed by investigating two sites: enclosed and unprotected sites. A temporal vegetation change analysis and a vegetation index differencing technique were applied to investigate the change in vegetation that has occurred in the two study sites. Multitemporal SPOT NDVI images for the period 2001 to 2009 were used for this purpose. The findings of the remote sensing analysis indicated that a consistent positive improvement in vegetation regeneration was observed in the enclosure area. This is indicative of the role of area closure, exclusion of livestock grazing and human interference from selected areas, as an important policy instrument to allow the recovery degraded vegetation provided that they are properly protected and managed.
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