Study on usage of Land and changes in Ecology in Babile Elephant Sanctuary, Eastern Ethiopia

Abstract

The focus of this paper is to investigate how the land covers in Eastern Ethiopia's Babile Elephant Sanctuary (BES). The spatiotemporal patterns of land-cover changes involved using remote sensing, geographic information systems, and questionnaires. Researchers used the Landsat images acquired in 1972, 2000, and 2021 were used. The result revealed that bushland and agricultural land areas expanded highest over the study period (1972–2021) at the expense of natural forests. With an average annual loss rate of 8343.12 ha, riverine forests and woods lost a substantial amount of land cover. The woodland and riverine forest cover decreased steadily from 59.85 and 20.56% in 1972 to 30.37 and 3.13% in 2021.From 1972, the coverage of bushland, agricultural land, bare land, and settlement increased to 17.57, 1.75, 0.23, and 0.04%, respectively, to the year 2021, when it occupied 34.68, 22.30, 4.95, and 4.57%, respectively, of the total land area. Several bushland areas in the sanctuary while data collected for this study, with likely impacts were observed (such as tree-cutting) on the forest and riverine habitat. As a result, there was currently a greater area covered by wilderness patches (i.e., 34.68 % in 2021). The result showed that the increasing agricultural land and settlements become a threat to the ecological integrity of elephant habitats, leading to habitat fragmentation and human encroachment on elephant habitats, and high pressure and competition over resources. Based on the study, the interpretation drawn is that, BES is necessary to build gaps in knowledge for conservationists to design plans for the restoration of habitats and the species by lowering the impact on land cover change, immediate action, and restoring mechanisms to conserve biodiversity and associated ecosystem services in the area.