DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES UNIVERSITY OF GONDAR

Abstract

The dramatic mountains landscape of the SMNP in the north Ethiopia is home to some of the rarest animals on the earth, including the simien fox and the walia ibex. Land encroachment is mainly driven by human actions and also drives environmental changes and it can undermine environmental wealth and tourism development of SMNP. Therefore this study was aimed at understanding trends for land use and land cover change for 30 years, review of documents was carried out to understand the key wild life species and also address the adversely effects of tourism development of the study area. Time-series satellite images of land sat ETM, which covered the time frame from 1985 to 2015, were used. Socio-economic survey and review of document was carried out to understand historical trends, collect ground truth and other secondary information required. Analysis of data and other data was accomplished through integrated use of ERDAS imagine version 9.1, and ArcGIS version 9.2, SPSS version 20 software packages along with Microsoft office analytical tools. Binary logistic model was used to analyze the relationship between presence or absence of land encroachment and the independent variables. Chi-square test was used to analyze number of age level, family size, occupation, and educational status by the respondents. The result showed that most respondents the existence of land encroachment manifested the demanding of farmland, grazing land and firewood. Remote sensing analysis showed landscape level change of cultivated land and settlement to have a big increase and also a big challenge of the study area, while the forest coverage was a net decline from 1985 to 2015. The results showed an increase in the areas of agricultural or cultivation and a decrease in the area of forest. The study concluded that demand is a factor driving human and livestock encroachment and is made more complex by issues like poverty and large population.