LAND USE/LAND COVER CHANGE, DRIVING FORCES AND IMPLICATION FOR MANAGEMENT ON BALE MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK; OROMIA REGIONAL STATE, SOUTH EASTERN ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Land-use and land-cover changes are associated with large negative impacts on ecosystems observed at local, regional and global scales. The aim of this study is to assess land use/land cover change (from 1990 to 2018), driving forces of these change and its implication for management on Bale Mountains National Park, south eastern Ethiopia. Concurrent triangulation was employed as a research design. Data sources were of both quantitative and qualitative data collection. The satellite images/data were collected from Landsat Thematic Mapper for 1990, Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus for 2004 and Landsat Operational land Imager for 2018 images at a resolution of 30m and have been obtained and processed using ERDAS IMAGINE 2013. Both unsupervised and supervised classifications were used for land use land cover classification. GIS and RS were used for assessing national park resources and environmental change analysis and to improve on the classification accuracy. The images of the study area were categorized in to five different land uses and land cover change classes namely, forest land, woodland, alpine vegetation grassland and agriculture. In all periods, grassland and agricultural area were increased in the study area, where as forest land was declined. On the other hand woodland and alpine vegetation also were showed increasing and decreasing trend in the entire study periods. The driving forces behind these LU/LC changes were population growth, agricultural expansion, overgrazing, demand for fuel wood and construction materials and forest fire are some of them. Those land use and land cover changes have an implication on climate, forest cover, and wildlife and water resources of Bale Mountains National Park. Traditional Conservation approach was employed significantly to conserve and manages the park resources