Twenty-three years of forest cover change in protected areas under different governance strategies: A case study from Ethiopia’s southern highlands |
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| Institution: | 1. Division Forest, Nature and Landscape, University of Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E-2411, BE-3001 Leuven, Belgium;2. College of Dryland Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mekelle University, P.O.·Box 231, Mekelle, Ethiopia;3. Division Soil and Water Management, University of Leuven, Celestijnenlaan 200E-2411, BE-3001 Leuven, Belgium;4. Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group, Wageningen University and Research Centre, P.O. Box 47, NL-6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands;5. College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Bahir Dar University, P.O. Box 5501, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia;6. Institute of Forest Ecology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Peter Jordanstraße 82, A-1190, Vienna, Austria;7. Amhara Agricultural Research Institute, P.O. Box 527, Bahir Dar, Ethiopia;8. National Herbarium, Department of Plant Biology and Biodiversity Management, Addis Ababa University, P.O. Box 3434, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.;9. School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography, Bangor University, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 2UW, UK;10. Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society, P.O·Box 13303, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia;11. Department of Crop Science and Production, Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Private Bag 0027, Gaborone, Botswana;12. Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Sølvgade 83, Opgang S, DK-1307 Copenhagen K, Denmark;13. Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation Section, University of Leuven, Kasteelpark Arenberg 31-2435, BE-3001 Leuven, Belgium;14. Faculty of Engineering Technology, University of Leuven, Kleinhoefstraat 4, BE-2440 Geel, Belgium |
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| Abstract: | Tropical deforestation has heightened the need for effective governance of protected areas aimed at conserving natural resources, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. The southern highlands of Ethiopia hold some of the largest expanses of contiguous tropical forest in Ethiopia. This area also is undergoing rapid land conversion. Multiple protected areas with different management strategies and objectives have been established, in part, to conserve forests and the ecosystem services they provide. We examined four types of protected areas; a national park, a state-run forest enterprise, two occupied privately leased hunting concessions, and two unoccupied hunting concessions, to evaluate their effectiveness at protecting forest cover. We used 1509 field plots with medium-resolution Landsat imagery from 1987 to 2015 to develop models of forest cover at approximately five-year time intervals. We found protected areas that were actively managed for timber production or hunting were more effective at conserving forest cover than the national park and the unoccupied hunting concessions. Over the study period, net forest cover change was ?7.8% for the national park, 12.9% for the state-run forest enterprise, ?0.2% and 13.3% for the occupied hunting concessions and ?14.0% and ?13.0% for the unoccupied hunting concessions. We also discuss how the change in forest cover relates to historic political events. In places like Ethiopia where the federal resources needed to conserve forests are limited, promoting a network that includes both federally and non-federally managed protected areas can result in more area and forests under protection. |
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| Keywords: | Change detection Conservation Deforestation Governance Highlands Landsat Ownership Random forests |
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