DYNAMICS OF SOIL ORGANIC CARBON AS SUB-INDICTOR FOR LAND RESTORATION IN ETHIOPIA: IMPLICATION FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF GOAL-15

Abstract

Land degradation is one of severe environmental problems, which affect the organic carbon accumulation by reducing land productivity of most productive soils of Ethiopia. The effort of forest landscape restoration is widely practiced through community and public resource mobilization for the last three decades. Soil organic carbon accumulation is one of strategic sub-indicator for the implementation of sustainable development goal-15 which signifies making land suitable for life and achievable by 2030. The dynamics of soil organic carbon was studied from 2000-2015 using secondary data from Trend Earth Global Observation in Praise-3 portal of United Nations Convention for Combating Desertification (UNCCD). The soil organic carbon dynamics of six land use and land cover classes were analyzed within in the total land mass of the country. Result showed that the total land mass of Ethiopia is 1,119,715.5 km2. The organic carbon contained in 4,059.5 km2 area has improved accounting 0.36% and the organic carbon in 278.9 km2 area was degraded which accounted 0.29%, while 1,112,128.4 km2 remained stable accounting 99.32% over 15 years land use/cover changes. Findings of the present study revealed that the overall rate of soil organic carbon improvement is less than one percent as the decomposition of organic matter took longer period of time from the target year to the baseline year. The highest positive rate of change from target year to baseline year was analyzed for artificial/ built up area accounting 111.78 % while, the least was analyzed for wetland 0.46%, On other hand, the highest negative rate of change was analyzed for grassland accounting -1.48%, while the least was analyzed for other land -0.18%., The correlations depicting trends of amount of organic carbon dynamics among the land use and land cover classes showed linear positive relationships, while negative linear correlation was observed between cropland and grassland. Hence, the effort of forest landscape restoration practices through community and government initiatives need to integrate area ex-closure, climate smart agriculture and diverse physical conservation technologies to improve below ground soil organic carbon accumulation. This study concluded that rate of soil organic carbon decomposition is very slow process for improvement of soil organic carbon accumulation as sub indicator of sustainable development goal-15 to ensure reversing land degradation and combating desertification and drought.