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Abstract
BackgroundNorthern Ethiopian Highlands, including Guna-Tana watershed, have experienced profound natural resources degradation which are resulted from coupled natural and anthropogenic factors. To mitigate this problem, Ethiopian government has launched various soil and water conservation programs at different watersheds. Overall objective of this study was to analyze impacts of soil and water conservation programs on vegetation regeneration and ecosystem productivity at in Guna-Tana watershed. As prime data source, the study has utilized Moderate Imaging Spectrometer satellite bi-monthly Enhanced Vegetation Index, 8-day land surface temperature and annual Net Primary Productivity products of the past 17 years starting from 2000. Imagery was processed by using various image preprocessing and analytical techniques. Long-term trend was tested by using Sens slope estimator and Mann–Kendall’s monotonic trend test. Analyzed trend was also segregated into slope and agroecology classes. More importantly, to supplement trend analysis, Vegetation Disturbance Index was developed.ResultsResults have showed that despite of long-term soil and water conservation programs, except small patches, vast expanses of the watershed have showed decrease in vegetation regeneration and primary productivity trend. This observed trend has also spatial variability across slope gradient and agroecological classes of the watershed.ConclusionThough there is tendency of increasing vegetation regeneration and productivity, its observed that significant positive change as a result of watershed conservation programs was very little. This indicates that for better regeneration of vegetation and maintenance of ecosystem health in a watershed, intervention programs should be revised and constraints should be assessed. Taking these into consideration, the study calls further implementation strategies which have accounted agroecology and livelihoods production system.
Highlights
Northern Ethiopian Highlands, including Guna-Tana watershed, have experienced profound natural resources degradation which are resulted from coupled natural and anthropogenic factors
Long‐term changes in vegetation regeneration Undertaken analysis showed that vegetation greenness in Guna-Tana watershed was flourishing in normal rainy seasons where there are sufficient crops covered precipitation and agricultural fields
Though there are various soil and water conservation programs implemented in Guna-Tana watershed, within past 17 years, large areas of the watershed have not experienced uniform changes in vegetation regeneration and watershed level vegetation productivity
Summary
Northern Ethiopian Highlands, including Guna-Tana watershed, have experienced profound natural resources degradation which are resulted from coupled natural and anthropogenic factors To mitigate this problem, Ethiopian government has launched various soil and water conservation programs at different watersheds. Renovated watershed level soil and water conservation programs that have based community and its livelihoods as center piece of intervention like Community Based Natural Resources Management (CNRM), Integrated Watershed Soil and Water Conservation Program (ISWCP), Sustainable Land Management Program (SLM), Millennium Reforestation Program and Integrated Safety Net Programs (ISP) have been implemented nationally in many regions of Ethiopia including Guna-Tana watershed (Nigussie et al 2015; Gebregziabher et al 2016). In addition to these programs, every farm household is participating for 60 days annually in soil and water conservation works as community based campaign in Guna-Tana watershed
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